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Sick #1-3
Sick: Psychological Suspense Series Box Set
John Branch is a brilliant-minded aristocrat, bereft of his family’s wealth, ravaged by a terrible and as yet unidentified disease. Susan is a hard-working nurse at the end of her tether. Years of caring for her charming yet debilitated husband have begun to take their toll. Living in squalor in the very shadow of a mansion that John and his family used to own, she is plagued by ever-increasing bills and the constant threat of John’s physical collapse.
John’s illness has always baffled doctors, and there are times when she wishes that he would just slip away. But John’s mind is very much alive, and she can’t help but cling onto the dream he will recover.
As pressures mount, Susan resorts to one desperate act after another to keep John alive and manage his pain, all the while haunted by a creeping sense that something isn’t right with her world…
SICK is brimming with atmosphere and suspense, rich with style and psychological insight. This seemingly simple tale of two psyches will take you to the heart of the human condition, and show you just how twisted the relationships with those closest to us can be.
John’s illness has always baffled doctors, and there are times when she wishes that he would just slip away. But John’s mind is very much alive, and she can’t help but cling onto the dream he will recover.
As pressures mount, Susan resorts to one desperate act after another to keep John alive and manage his pain, all the while haunted by a creeping sense that something isn’t right with her world…
SICK is brimming with atmosphere and suspense, rich with style and psychological insight. This seemingly simple tale of two psyches will take you to the heart of the human condition, and show you just how twisted the relationships with those closest to us can be.
248 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 10, 2018
2 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Christa Wojciechowski
18 books103 followersChrista Wojciechowski is an American dark fiction writer who lives in Panama. She is the author of the SICK series and the founder of the Writers' Mastermind virtual writing community.
Christa's novella "Popsicle" was a semi-finalist in Coverfly's Cinematic Short Story Competition and will be published by Bloodshot Books in 2021. Her short story, "Observer Dependent Universe" will be featured in the upcoming "Chiral Mad 5" anthology, and “Blood Sisters” will be featured in “Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas.”
Christa Wojciechowski is a member of the Horror Writers Association. She loves to play Chopin (badly) and sip Hendrick’s gin. When she is not reading or writing, she can be found rambling through the Panamanian wilderness with her two dogs or traveling with her dashing husband, Marco.
Christa's novella "Popsicle" was a semi-finalist in Coverfly's Cinematic Short Story Competition and will be published by Bloodshot Books in 2021. Her short story, "Observer Dependent Universe" will be featured in the upcoming "Chiral Mad 5" anthology, and “Blood Sisters” will be featured in “Shadow Atlas: Dark Landscapes of the Americas.”
Christa Wojciechowski is a member of the Horror Writers Association. She loves to play Chopin (badly) and sip Hendrick’s gin. When she is not reading or writing, she can be found rambling through the Panamanian wilderness with her two dogs or traveling with her dashing husband, Marco.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 20, 2025
Susan and John are a normal couple, except for the constant hospital visits and chronic illnesses. Susan does everything she can to care for her poor, sick husband. When she finds out the truth of his life and his illnesses, will she stay? In sickness and in health, they say…
Sick was a wild ride, I found a bit of the story to be a little predictable but I was still shocked and horrified many times throughout. How far can love take us?
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. Thank you Blood Bound Books!!
Sick was a wild ride, I found a bit of the story to be a little predictable but I was still shocked and horrified many times throughout. How far can love take us?
I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. Thank you Blood Bound Books!!
November 26, 2025
Sick is a deeply unsettling psychological horror novel that follows the toxic, codependent relationship between Susan and her chronically ill husband, John. What begins as a tale of dutiful care gradually descends into something far more sinister. The book explores themes of love, martyrdom, manipulation, and the blurry line between devotion and delusion. At the center is a marriage teetering on the edge of madness, where illness, real or imagined, becomes both the glue and the weapon that binds them.
It wasn’t just the disturbing imagery or the suffocating atmosphere, it was how intimate it all felt. I was drawn in by the clean, evocative prose and the slow, relentless build-up of dread. Author Christa Wojciechowski doesn’t rely on cheap scares. Instead, she weaponizes empathy, using Susan’s exhaustion and desperation like a knife twisting in your gut. Anyone who’s ever been trapped in a one-sided relationship or felt obligated to care for someone while losing themselves will feel that sting.
John is infuriating. He is charming, pathetic, childlike, and monstrous all at once. I found myself swaying between pity and revulsion. And Susan is no angel either. Her love feels noble one minute and complicit the next. Wojciechowski manages to make the reader complicit, too. I kept asking myself why I felt sorry for someone who was clearly manipulating the woman who loved him. But then I’d see his suffering again, and it would all blur. That’s the genius of this book. It messes with your moral compass.
There’s a smell to this book. Not literally, of course, but in the way Wojciechowski describes bodies, fluids, wounds, and rooms filled with neglect. And beneath it all, I could feel this aching, awful love. The writing doesn’t scream. It whispers. And that’s so much worse. It made me uncomfortable, not with violence or gore, but with how honest it was about how far people will go to feel needed.
There were times when I wanted to yell at Susan to run. Other times, I wanted to wrap her in a blanket and tell her it was okay to stop giving so much of herself. I think that’s why the story is so effective, it holds a mirror up to all the ways we lose ourselves in caring for others. The manipulation in this book is terrifying, not because it’s extreme, but because it’s familiar.
If you want a slow-burn, character-driven descent into psychological horror that feels both intimate and raw, Sick is a must-read. It’s perfect for readers who enjoy books like Gone Girl or The Shining, but crave something smaller in scale and more emotionally claustrophobic. It’s not just horror. It’s heartbreak in disguise. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the darker sides of love, mental illness, and the twisted things we do in the name of care.
It wasn’t just the disturbing imagery or the suffocating atmosphere, it was how intimate it all felt. I was drawn in by the clean, evocative prose and the slow, relentless build-up of dread. Author Christa Wojciechowski doesn’t rely on cheap scares. Instead, she weaponizes empathy, using Susan’s exhaustion and desperation like a knife twisting in your gut. Anyone who’s ever been trapped in a one-sided relationship or felt obligated to care for someone while losing themselves will feel that sting.
John is infuriating. He is charming, pathetic, childlike, and monstrous all at once. I found myself swaying between pity and revulsion. And Susan is no angel either. Her love feels noble one minute and complicit the next. Wojciechowski manages to make the reader complicit, too. I kept asking myself why I felt sorry for someone who was clearly manipulating the woman who loved him. But then I’d see his suffering again, and it would all blur. That’s the genius of this book. It messes with your moral compass.
There’s a smell to this book. Not literally, of course, but in the way Wojciechowski describes bodies, fluids, wounds, and rooms filled with neglect. And beneath it all, I could feel this aching, awful love. The writing doesn’t scream. It whispers. And that’s so much worse. It made me uncomfortable, not with violence or gore, but with how honest it was about how far people will go to feel needed.
There were times when I wanted to yell at Susan to run. Other times, I wanted to wrap her in a blanket and tell her it was okay to stop giving so much of herself. I think that’s why the story is so effective, it holds a mirror up to all the ways we lose ourselves in caring for others. The manipulation in this book is terrifying, not because it’s extreme, but because it’s familiar.
If you want a slow-burn, character-driven descent into psychological horror that feels both intimate and raw, Sick is a must-read. It’s perfect for readers who enjoy books like Gone Girl or The Shining, but crave something smaller in scale and more emotionally claustrophobic. It’s not just horror. It’s heartbreak in disguise. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in the darker sides of love, mental illness, and the twisted things we do in the name of care.
November 15, 2025
Susan Branch is in a different kind of prison. She is a prisoner of her husband's illnesses. From broken bones, surgeries, rashes, and medications she sometimes steals from her job as a medical clerk of a podiatrist, Susan is forced to take care of her ailing husband. John is diagnosed with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, a complicated blood disorder. Taking care of John has become Susan's lifework, going to actual work her only reprieve before returning to a home where she is locked inside the unsanitary cell of her and John's bedroom.
As the story unfolds, John begins to feel less like a husband and more like a helpless child trapped in a man's body. Susan reads to him until her voice cracks, feeds him baby food, hums lullabies meant to soothe infants, and speaks to him like a mother coaxing a toddler to behave, calling him a 'good boy.' John pouts, sulks, and whines when things don't go his way, and Susan seems to shrink a little more each day, her life orbiting entirely around John's frailty. She is no longer a wife, not even quite a woman anymore, but a nurse, a mother, a prisoner in her own home.
As the story progresses, we learn more about John Branch's history, his upbringing, and his perspective on life. Readers gain insight into how John Branche's response to the trauma of his childhood has influenced his adult decisions. When I read this story years ago, I said he was retarded. However, this progeny of old money is not retarded at all. John is quite the mastermind and narcissist with a sophisticated way of manipulating those around him.
This story is well-written and fleshed out. The more you read, the more is revealed. Just when you think you've figured it out, there are more layers of the onion to peel off. The author keeps you on your toes, and the more I read, the more I found myself imagining watching an episode of American Horror Story.
I felt sorry for Susan at first, but then I started to see she, too, was no saint. Is she a prisoner, or is she also sick? Or, as John would phrase it, are we all just a little sick?
As the story unfolds, John begins to feel less like a husband and more like a helpless child trapped in a man's body. Susan reads to him until her voice cracks, feeds him baby food, hums lullabies meant to soothe infants, and speaks to him like a mother coaxing a toddler to behave, calling him a 'good boy.' John pouts, sulks, and whines when things don't go his way, and Susan seems to shrink a little more each day, her life orbiting entirely around John's frailty. She is no longer a wife, not even quite a woman anymore, but a nurse, a mother, a prisoner in her own home.
As the story progresses, we learn more about John Branch's history, his upbringing, and his perspective on life. Readers gain insight into how John Branche's response to the trauma of his childhood has influenced his adult decisions. When I read this story years ago, I said he was retarded. However, this progeny of old money is not retarded at all. John is quite the mastermind and narcissist with a sophisticated way of manipulating those around him.
This story is well-written and fleshed out. The more you read, the more is revealed. Just when you think you've figured it out, there are more layers of the onion to peel off. The author keeps you on your toes, and the more I read, the more I found myself imagining watching an episode of American Horror Story.
I felt sorry for Susan at first, but then I started to see she, too, was no saint. Is she a prisoner, or is she also sick? Or, as John would phrase it, are we all just a little sick?
November 12, 2025
I felt immediately sucked into the story. It was hard to pull myself away from reading when I needed to. I am impressed with how much the author made me feel invested in so many characters. Their backstories made me feel both sympathetic and empathetic, depending on which one I was reading about. Even when I found myself not really wanting to. I still felt drawn to them and needed to see how they would proceed with John. I found Susan and John's relationship to be engrossing. I had big feelings all through the book on how I felt about them together and individually. No matter the situation, I still liked them as a couple and enjoyed reading about them. Susan had to be my favorite character, and I felt scared for her multiple times. I think her character pulled the biggest emotions out of me. I continuously felt outraged when it came to her, and that emotion felt constant with the treatment she receives throughout. When I started, I wasn't expecting to get emotional in this book, but a couple of times, I teared up when I read about how she was dealing with the aftermath of her marriage. John's character made me feel very uneasy when it would switch to his point of view. His thoughts and actions definitely live up to the title, and i could believe how far he was willing to take things and put others through. I felt myself sickened at myself when I felt sympathetic towards him, but I still couldn't help myself. I felt very sad for his character. I felt myself flinching at multiple parts that included both of these characters.
I really liked the wide variety of topics that were included. I found the whole thing super interesting. The note at the beginning made me excited to jump in and get started. The ending notes about the disorder solidified how scary the story really is and made it all the more impactful.
I really liked the wide variety of topics that were included. I found the whole thing super interesting. The note at the beginning made me excited to jump in and get started. The ending notes about the disorder solidified how scary the story really is and made it all the more impactful.
December 13, 2025
This is the first book I have read by this author, it definitely won't be the last. I went into this book blind not knowing what I was letting myself in for. This book is told in 4 parts.
The story is about a couple called John and Susan Branch's marriage. It takes being sick to an extreme level of sickness really gives a different level of psychology to the bow of "In Sickness and Health" .
Susan is a medical clerk by day which is her form of escapism other than that she cares for him as a nurse. This is how she first met John when he attended the clinic. After she got married, she couldn't believe how sick he was, one different illness after another and another, mysterious bruising that even had the doctors dumbfounded. This was her life now looking after him as he was incapable of doing it himself, it was mentally draining plus physically too. The story is told mainly from Susan's point of view. I literally felt like I was in the room with her. How could she take it anymore.
Their love for each other I didn't doubt it one bit. This is most definitely twisted, dark and unforgettable read for a long while, it will stay with me long after.
It shows when you love someone so much, that you would literally do anything for them to keep them happy so they wouldn't be in pain. How far would you go? I'm quite surprised by the conclusion big the story. Didn't see it coming!!!
It was a hard read for me, but excellently delivered and written. I'll be keeping a close eye on his author in the future. Loved it!
The story is about a couple called John and Susan Branch's marriage. It takes being sick to an extreme level of sickness really gives a different level of psychology to the bow of "In Sickness and Health" .
Susan is a medical clerk by day which is her form of escapism other than that she cares for him as a nurse. This is how she first met John when he attended the clinic. After she got married, she couldn't believe how sick he was, one different illness after another and another, mysterious bruising that even had the doctors dumbfounded. This was her life now looking after him as he was incapable of doing it himself, it was mentally draining plus physically too. The story is told mainly from Susan's point of view. I literally felt like I was in the room with her. How could she take it anymore.
Their love for each other I didn't doubt it one bit. This is most definitely twisted, dark and unforgettable read for a long while, it will stay with me long after.
It shows when you love someone so much, that you would literally do anything for them to keep them happy so they wouldn't be in pain. How far would you go? I'm quite surprised by the conclusion big the story. Didn't see it coming!!!
It was a hard read for me, but excellently delivered and written. I'll be keeping a close eye on his author in the future. Loved it!
October 11, 2025
Susan is a nurse who spends her life caring for others, but her hardest patient is her own husband, John. This story dives deep into their complicated and toxic relationship, showing just how far love and obsession can twist together. It’s dark, emotional, and a bit unsettling. A deep dive into the life of someone who enjoys being sick and how it affects everyone around them.
October 1, 2025
Thank you Blood Bound Books for a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.
In this story we follow the dutiful wife Susan Branch who takes care of her perpetual sick husband John Branch. We get both of their perspectives as the story goes on expressing how tired Susan is as she struggles to go above and beyond for her husband as well as what's going on in John's mind. We learn about John's past and what led to his condition and how Susan must cope with learning the truth. A love like theirs isn't suitable for most people but love makes people do insane things for their partners. It didn't end the way I thought it would and it left me feeling disturbed for the future of the couple. I could definitely see there being a sequel set years down the line.
In this story we follow the dutiful wife Susan Branch who takes care of her perpetual sick husband John Branch. We get both of their perspectives as the story goes on expressing how tired Susan is as she struggles to go above and beyond for her husband as well as what's going on in John's mind. We learn about John's past and what led to his condition and how Susan must cope with learning the truth. A love like theirs isn't suitable for most people but love makes people do insane things for their partners. It didn't end the way I thought it would and it left me feeling disturbed for the future of the couple. I could definitely see there being a sequel set years down the line.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews