Migraine

by Samuel Fisher

Opening in East London​, Migraine follows two men, one young and the other on the other side of middle age, as they cross the weather-ravaged city pursuing a doomed love.

The snow has melted, but the thaw reveals a world transformed. London is in ruins, its population a fraction of its pre-freeze level. The weather has become wildly unpredictable - huge pressure swings leading to powerful localised storms. And this has led to an epidemic of migraine. When a storm hits, the pain comes, along with a wide range of visual and haptic hallucinations named Migraine 'aura'.

The novel starts with Ellis, one of a very small proportion of the population who don't suffer from weather-induced migraines, being struck by a migraine attack for the first time. After being blinded by hallucinations, he wakes in a ruined bookshop with its former owner, Sam, who pulled him to safety from the storm. No longer excluded from the migraine epidemic, Ellis decides to find his ex-girlfriend, Luna, and win her back. With Sam tagging along, he sets out from the bookshop and heads south.

From here, chapters alternate, giving the backstory of Ellis and Luna's relationship, from their first meeting to their final rupture, while in the present day the two men wend a crooked psychogeography through the centre of the city. ​Migraine is concerned with questions such as: what does a society look like, if it's organised around chronic pain? What kind of culture would this set of conditions produce?

159 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 3, 2025

Reviews

[Meg Dyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

this felt SO real. by about page 4 I was like yeah so annoying when youre in a frozen dystopia and upi get rickrolled by a migraine aurashow

a pandemic novel, a london novel, a love story, all realised beautifully. only critique would be that in the last third the philosophical/political messages became a bit more overt - told not done - for me they worked best as layers of the story, not actual thoughts in the protagonist’s head. but a minor quibble, overall loved this

[W.S. Luk · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Now, reality became interesting again, in all its grub and grain..."

Fisher's novel combines strikingly disparate elements—a period of storms and extreme cold that leave London in ruins, haptic implants, an epidemic of migraines affecting the world—in a story that refracts the physical and psychic aftershocks of the COVID pandemic. At their best, MIGRAINE synthesises these elements into a bracingly fresh story with echoes of J.G. Ballard's dreamlike and apocalyptic landscapes, shedding new light on issues of disability and chronic illness, social alienation, and the ways in which social media reshapes our perception of reality. But the novel's wide-ranging themes and meditative writing style, coupled with its brevity, also means that not every narrative element gets fully developed. I particularly felt that the plot and characters faded into the background in contrast to the admittedly striking philosophical backdrop and worldbuilding of the novel, leaving me with little emotional connection to its events.

[Marc Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Video review https://youtu.be/z3DlAFRfY5c

[Sami · Rating 4 out of 5]

the writing style of this is so flawless. not a single clumsy phrasing, only flowing. and the descriptions of migraines were so evocative i'm beginning to take more notice of the shape mine take and the poetry they make through all the pain. i'm staggered at how much social commentary managed to fit into these 175 pages without feeling squeezed in.

[Melisa Korkut · Rating 1 out of 5]

The star is for the incredibly relatable descriptions of ocular migraines. Turns out I don’t enjoy reading about something horrible that I experience. Was also just far too short to do the attempt at the plot justice (although I would have DNF’d if it was any longer)

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Intriguing concept and I enjoyed the migraine and aurashow descriptions but I felt it lacked character development and momentum.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a migraineur, the title and blurb (which promises an exploration of what a society looks like when organised around chronic pain) caught my interest. I rarely experience migraine aura, which was the book's main focus, but felt the book captured many familiar aspects of the condition - disorientation, despair, fatigue, relief, the too-much-ness of lights and sounds. This novel alsp turned out to be about a lot of other things - a London dramatically altered post-Freeze and racked by localised storms, human behavior in crisis and what it means to show love and build connection with others in such conditions. There are certainly echoes of the Covid crisis in this. I did struggle at times to keep engaging with the main character after learning about some of his most abhorrent crimes - these acts were not redeemed or framed as redeemable, but more like inevitable parts of surviving a world in crisis. The book's greatest strength, I think, was in its vivid descriptions of London (and specifically Hackney), which set this surreal post-Freeze world in unsettling proximity to our own - this particularly resonated with me, being set in the neighbourhood I grew up in, and referencing many streets and locations that figured in my childhood.

[Daren Kearl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The setting is very well drawn: by the end of this short book, you have a good melancholic image of a post-climate event London, but less idea about the characters or plot. Not much happens. I felt the migraines of the title aren’t clearly explained but something to do with the weather? The implant technology idea that enables one person to see another person’s thoughts was not explored much apart from using it to project wall art. Lots of ideas that I wanted more details on.

[Wyndham Chalmers · Rating 1 out of 5]

“I realise now that you were right. I had fundamentally misunderstood what a migraine is and what it does. The headache is the least of it, only the most explicable part. And the hallucinations: they are themselves a cipher for a shift in perception, the visual aspect of a much deeper disturbance. The ripples on a mirror lake as tectonic plates crash against one another inscrutable and unfathomed, miles below.”

Migraine – Samuel Fisher

Where to even begin… for such a short book, I have a LOT of thoughts!

First, a bit of context, I am a migraineur and basically have been my whole life, having my first migraine attack when I was a toddler. This is exactly what drew me to the book in the first place. Everyone loves to see themselves reflected in literature, right? The blurb promised a post-environmental-disaster London where migraine not only increased but reached epidemic levels, where migraine became a common, almost expected, condition. Other elements included the search for an ex-girlfriend and the companions found along the way.

‘Migraine’ is a short book, only 175 pages, and Fisher tries to do A LOT with very little space. While migraine was certainly present in the story, it was not necessarily at the forefront, nor was it really explained to the reader very clearly. In addition to the migraine epidemic, Fischer created a ruined and dystopian London setting, community building, cult like groups, and technology advancement in the form of neural implants. I was honestly very surprised by the tech elements in the book because they didn’t really seem to add anything to the story (other than the main character’s obsession with “aura shows”, but we’ll come back to that). There was already so much going on that it meant not everything could get fully developed in the way I would have hoped for. The scene setting was beautiful and worked quite well, but the plot and character development (arguably the heart of any novel) just faded into the background, and nothing really happened.

Ultimately, as a migraineur myself, I am in two minds about the book. (1) I appreciate the attempt to bring chronic illness, specifically migraine, into mainstream media. Some of the descriptions, like the quote above, did a decent job of verbalising what it is like to experience migraine. However, (2) the book seemed to romanticise migraine in a way that simply made me uncomfortable. Back to the “aura shows”. Yes, I know we live in a capitalist society, and I imagine in a dystopian world you would have to monetise whatever you could, but why a migraine aura? Why the need to turn something that I would give just about anything to not experience into streaming media/art? Migraine auras, whatever the format (I personally experience ocular and sensory), auras are not cool. They are not sexy. They are not an experience I would ever make someone feel guilty or less than for not having. In fact, they are scary and painful and debilitating. So, let’s try not to romanticise someone’s disability, okay?

All in all, I should have DNF’d this book. It wasn’t for me.

1 star: ⭐

[Thais_indimapache · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Migraine” nos ubica en un Londres distópico, que ha sufrido una catástrofe ambiental que ha afectado a la población sometiéndola a terribles migrañas, pero la sociedad que ha quedado en la ciudad ha adaptado estas dolencias haciendo arte del dolor.
Mezclando futurismo, el autor intenta conducirnos por la ciudad de la mano de Ellis, quien en la puerta de salida de la Nevada, ha tenido su primer ataque de migraña y decide volver con su ex.
Aunque la idea del libro es muy buena, durante la lectura tiendes a perderte (y no por las calles de Londres que tan bien describe el autor). Me ha parecido que el autor iba perdiendo fuelle, porque había creado tal escena que no sabía por donde salir, y acabas sin conocer realmente el por qué de las migrañas, o la Nevada o qué le pasa realmente al protagonista.
Quizás necesite otra relectura para comprender bien al protagonista pero por ahora así se queda.
2’5 estrellas.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This falls into the ‘ok’ category. I was intrigued by the dystopian idea of migraine as a widespread condition following catastrophic climate change. However, the plot focused more on the main character’s eels toons and evaluation of his own life and relationships, and really only used migraines as a vehicle for this. Additionally, I felt the prose to be quite dense, almost with the impression of being written with a thesaurus at the author’s side throughout.

[Peter Horne · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. London coming out of a snow-choked apocalypse. The remains of a combination of disease, societal collapse and religious-level migraines - somehow the journey of redemption feels like a bass-line of hope. A story reaching to the place after the horror. So timely and well rendered. Loved it.

[Steph Hall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh my this was so awful I actually want my money back. Just errrr don’t get it, what was the point of it? Really really odd!

[Oldstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

No lo terminé, me esperaba otra cosa la verdad. El punto futurista me descolocó un poco, yo pensaba que iba a ser un libro más bien de época.

[Julia Chilver · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the sense of place but it did make me think I wasn’t quite clever enough for it.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was on the brink of immersing myself into the plot at all times, but ultimately unable to do so just because .... what was the point of all this?