“They don’t die in this one” – thats the tag line for this book. This book is about just what the title says – two chronically ill teenagers who fall in love and neither of them die. They are chronically ill but if you look at them, they look healthy. So unfolds the tale.
Now, its only January, but is it too early to say I think this will be in my Top 10 books of 2020? That’s how good this book was.
Title: Sick Kids In Love
Author: Hannah Moskowitz
Series: Standalone
Genres: Contemporary, Disability
Let me start off by saying I LOVED THIS BOOK SO much and you need to read it. Right now. I read this based on the recommendation of my friend Liz, who also has a chronic illness, and this book was so eye opening to me. I’m a healthy person. I don’t have any hidden illness. And thats not something everyone can say. A lot of people have invisible illnesses and this book truly opened my eyes to that.
Isabel has rheumatoid arthritis, something that causes her daily pain but is invisible to any onlooker. She goes to a normal high scool school and has normal, “healthy” friends who often forget that she is sick and can’t go skiing or roller skating like the rest of them. Either of those activities would cause Isabel immense pain. Isabel even says that she can roller skate, she would just be in a lot of pain the next day.
Enter Sasha, a boy with Gaucher Disease, who has infusions the same day as Isabel one fateful day. They become fast friends. Isabel is one of Sasha’s only friends, and he is her only sick friend. The only one she doesn’t have to explain everything to. The one who GETS her. Oh and did I mention they’re both Jewish? Jewish AND disability rep in one book?! It’s true. It’s here.
Sasha understands that even though Isabel only has to ride the subway a few stops, sometimes taking a cab is just easier than walking up and down the stairs, standing waiting for the train, and then standing on the train. Her healthy friends don’t understand. There are so many little things about chronic illness that I might have heard about or read about before, but I could never truly understand. This book made me understand just a little better.
These characters are all so well developed – not just Isabel and Sasha, but Isabel’s friends, Sasha’s sister, and we even learn a good deal about their families.
Once they start dating (that isn’t a spoiler, its in the title), Isabel does not want to change who she is for some boy – and I admire her for that. She is scared of taking a leap but she does leap into dating Sasha. She is real, she is so real throughout this book. Her concerns are legitimate concerns of any 16 year old girl. Everything about these characters is relatable.
Isabel’s father and friends don’t understand how much pain she can be in. How she feels like maybe she is just making it all up. It’s something we can’t understand, only those who live it can. I’ve never read a book with such amazing and relatable disability rep.
Towards the end, certain things felt rushed and the ending itself felt abrupt, but that was it. That is literally the only thing I disliked about this book. Everything else was perfect.
I listened to the audiobook and the narrator does have a stereotypical Jewish New Yorker accent, which, as a New Yorker myself, I picked up on immediately – but it didn’t bother me too much. I thought the audio was fantastic and would recommend it.
My Rating:
Yes yes yes. Please read this book. If you’re looking for a different story about disability – look no further. I can’t say I’ve seen chronically ill kids who don’t die in YA literature lately. I am going to be recommending this to everyone for the entire year. My heart is so full for these kids.
Frayed Books 