I don't really read a lot of short stories but the subject matter of this one peaked my interest because I don't really know a lot about ME but am always interested in people's real lives and this seemed like a book about ordinary people.
The book took me about an hour to read and it really did what it said on the tin really and was about real life suffering with ME. There were elements of humour to it but I think this was because the author wanted to show you can still find humour when bad things happen.
The problem with this book for me was that it really didn't go anywhere. Im not saying it should be an uplifting tale. Real life isn't always uplifting. But really not a lot happened. I know it's a short story but something more should surely happen.
It was nice to read something out of my normal comfort zone for a bit but this didn't capture my interest that much.

I didn't like it. It tries to be funny and some times I found some things amusing, but in general this was a boring read for me. I just felt that the MC, Joe, went on and on nonstop, like a radio always on.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this title.

I have personally lived with M.E. for around 24 years now - and my partner was also diagnosed with CFS 9 years ago, plus he's in a worse condition than I am so to a great extent I'm looking after him. So I recognise everything and everyone in this story and I really enjoyed it. I laughed and my eyes teared up. I certainly empathised strongly with the main characters and the many and varied difficulties of their plight. 'Sick' is a delightful short read. Perhaps not the highest standard of writing but certainly excellently done for an author who is a fellow suffer and no doubt struggles with exhaustion and brain fog. The story is insightful but simply written, warm and fun rather than preachy or hard to understand medical jargon. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who wants/needs to understand this condition, as well as to anyone who lives with it.

Sick is self-published and that’s not normally somewhere I would go. But in this case, the text is short and focuses on ME, a condition that intrigues me, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m glad I did.

This is a novella – took me about an hour and a half to read – focusing on Joe, a man who suffers from ME. He associates with other ME sufferers, offering the opportunity to explore a range of circumstances, experiences, symptoms, etc. At the heart of it all is the mission to demonstrate that ME is a genuine medical condition, not just fatigue or apathy that can be fought through. There are various set pieces – a trip to hospital, a shopping trip, an excursion to the seaside – that provide the platform for various set piece conversations that illustrate the challenges endured by sufferers. We see the isolation and ridicule, the searing muscle pain, the overexertion leading to weeks in bed or even hospitalisation. We see despair and suicide – and also the paradoxical and sudden recovery that some patients experience.

As a self-published work, Sick has not benefited from proper proof-reading. There are typos that have to be glossed over. But the overall sense is good, there is an engaging and warm tone and although the story exists more for illustrative purposes than entertainment, it remains readable. If I were pedantic, I would say that the creation of some of the scenes involves the characters in a level of exertion that I might not expect from the ME community, but it is probably necessary to place the characters in multiple scenarios to illustrate the full effect of the illness.

At the end, I did feel that I knew more about the illness than I had done, and was persuaded of its genuineness. Sick does offer food for thought; thoughts that may stay with me long after I have forgotten Joe, Kat, Lawrence and Brian.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of the text in exchange for an honest review.