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Poor Little Sick Girls: A Love Letter to Unacceptable Women
Wellness is oppressive, self-love is a trap, hustling is a health risk, and it's all the patriarchy's fault. Poor Little Sick Girls is the book for femmes who are online and want more from activism and life.
Ione Gamble never imagined that entering adulthood would mean hospital trips, medication choices, and throwing up in public. Diagnosed with an incurable illness two weeks after her nineteenth birthday, as the world became obsessed with Girlboss feminism, Ione came to grips with spending 20 hours a day in bed.
Watching identity politics become social media fodder, from the confines of her sickbed she began to pick apart our obsession with self-care, personal branding, productivity, and #LivingYourBestLife.
Using her experience with disability to cast a fresh gaze on the particularly peculiar cultural moment in which young women find themselves, Ione explores the pressures faced, as well as the power of existing as, a chronically ill, overweight, and unacceptable woman in our current era of empowerment.
Ione Gamble never imagined that entering adulthood would mean hospital trips, medication choices, and throwing up in public. Diagnosed with an incurable illness two weeks after her nineteenth birthday, as the world became obsessed with Girlboss feminism, Ione came to grips with spending 20 hours a day in bed.
Watching identity politics become social media fodder, from the confines of her sickbed she began to pick apart our obsession with self-care, personal branding, productivity, and #LivingYourBestLife.
Using her experience with disability to cast a fresh gaze on the particularly peculiar cultural moment in which young women find themselves, Ione explores the pressures faced, as well as the power of existing as, a chronically ill, overweight, and unacceptable woman in our current era of empowerment.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 26, 2022
103 people are currently reading
4191 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
April 29, 2022
breaking my GR boycott because I want everyone to pick up this book!!
As a 21 year old who has been (and still is) bed/housebound for 5 years now with a chronic illness, this book was raw and overwhelming to read but in the best way. I’ve never read a book that I identified SO much with and at times felt as though I could’ve actually written myself (except I’d never be able to summarise my thoughts as eloquently as she has!!)
Poor Little Sick Girls explores Ione’s experiences being diagnosed with and living with Crohn’s disease which is threaded throughout the book in between musings, criticism and opinions on topics like capitalism, social media, feminism, identity politics, self care, creative industries, gross women, the patriarchy and the male gaze, depictions of illness in media and throughout history, medical sexism and racism, class and so much more, and the ways in which many of these issues are interlinked.
While dissecting many of todays issues, being a woman on the internet and life inside a sick body, Ione manages to keep this book accessible, humorous, relatable and extremely engaging. Even the chapter titles themselves are super engaging and make you want to continue reading with headings such as ‘The Tragic and Gorgeous History of the Sick Girl’, ‘A Love Letter to Bed’, ‘Inside All of Us Is a Gross Girl’ and ‘It Costs a Lot to Look This Cheap’.
I can’t recommend this book enough, and want to thank Ione for not only sharing her life and thoughts with us, but for creating a piece of work that so many poor little sick girls will relate to and feel seen in for years to come.
There is so much more I feel I should say about this book and I hope to do a longer review on my blog/instagram when my physical copy arrives but for now I want to leave you with a couple of my favourite quotes from the book which I will be tabbing to high heaven…
(not ‘spoilers’ but 3 passages from the book below so stop reading if you want to experience it all for the first time in the book!)
“For most people, a few extra hours spent in bed is one of life's little luxuries. Our beds are our havens. They're often the only place in which we can truly block out the rest of the world's problems. Against my will, I've clocked up more hours under my sheets than most people in their twenties and not in a sexy way. For me, my bed is both my biggest comfort and my worst enemy. My life rotates around it: from work, to sleep, to socialising, to eating, and back to sleep again. While a selfie at home may be a rarity for those who spend their weekends out in the world, I ration the amount I allow myself to be seen on social media from my bed, for fear the mere sight of my covers in the corner of the frame will signal an inability to live normally. My bed is one of the small reminders that as much as I can construct myself as a functoning member of society, often I am not one. While it can be a source of comfort, my place of rest can often feel like a prison. My codependency is not by choice, but because I suffer from chronic fatigue. Living with debilitating tiredness was not what I expected from the prime years of my life- my twenties.”
“From birth, cisgender straight white men have the luxury of watching their own dark emotions parroted on our screens. If they wish to, they can watch themselves murder, kill, manipulate, run organised crime rings, commit fraud and ruin families. Not only that, but we’re also exposed to endless rationalisations as to why men behave in these ways. Women and marginalised people not only do not have the representation they deserve, but the absence of a mirror help up by the world has real implications for our emotions and what we feel we can do with them. We have no framework for where our rage can go, what it can do or the implications of unleashing it.”
“In the case of disability, my body may behave in ways that make me feel hopeless, but through this comes an immense power: the power to confuse a world that only accepts an empowered woman when she acts within the parameters of usefulness to society. Society has no script on how to deal with a fat, chronically ill woman in her twenties who refuses to accept invisibility. Because of that, the potential to write my own narrative is infinite.”
As a 21 year old who has been (and still is) bed/housebound for 5 years now with a chronic illness, this book was raw and overwhelming to read but in the best way. I’ve never read a book that I identified SO much with and at times felt as though I could’ve actually written myself (except I’d never be able to summarise my thoughts as eloquently as she has!!)
Poor Little Sick Girls explores Ione’s experiences being diagnosed with and living with Crohn’s disease which is threaded throughout the book in between musings, criticism and opinions on topics like capitalism, social media, feminism, identity politics, self care, creative industries, gross women, the patriarchy and the male gaze, depictions of illness in media and throughout history, medical sexism and racism, class and so much more, and the ways in which many of these issues are interlinked.
While dissecting many of todays issues, being a woman on the internet and life inside a sick body, Ione manages to keep this book accessible, humorous, relatable and extremely engaging. Even the chapter titles themselves are super engaging and make you want to continue reading with headings such as ‘The Tragic and Gorgeous History of the Sick Girl’, ‘A Love Letter to Bed’, ‘Inside All of Us Is a Gross Girl’ and ‘It Costs a Lot to Look This Cheap’.
I can’t recommend this book enough, and want to thank Ione for not only sharing her life and thoughts with us, but for creating a piece of work that so many poor little sick girls will relate to and feel seen in for years to come.
There is so much more I feel I should say about this book and I hope to do a longer review on my blog/instagram when my physical copy arrives but for now I want to leave you with a couple of my favourite quotes from the book which I will be tabbing to high heaven…
(not ‘spoilers’ but 3 passages from the book below so stop reading if you want to experience it all for the first time in the book!)
“For most people, a few extra hours spent in bed is one of life's little luxuries. Our beds are our havens. They're often the only place in which we can truly block out the rest of the world's problems. Against my will, I've clocked up more hours under my sheets than most people in their twenties and not in a sexy way. For me, my bed is both my biggest comfort and my worst enemy. My life rotates around it: from work, to sleep, to socialising, to eating, and back to sleep again. While a selfie at home may be a rarity for those who spend their weekends out in the world, I ration the amount I allow myself to be seen on social media from my bed, for fear the mere sight of my covers in the corner of the frame will signal an inability to live normally. My bed is one of the small reminders that as much as I can construct myself as a functoning member of society, often I am not one. While it can be a source of comfort, my place of rest can often feel like a prison. My codependency is not by choice, but because I suffer from chronic fatigue. Living with debilitating tiredness was not what I expected from the prime years of my life- my twenties.”
“From birth, cisgender straight white men have the luxury of watching their own dark emotions parroted on our screens. If they wish to, they can watch themselves murder, kill, manipulate, run organised crime rings, commit fraud and ruin families. Not only that, but we’re also exposed to endless rationalisations as to why men behave in these ways. Women and marginalised people not only do not have the representation they deserve, but the absence of a mirror help up by the world has real implications for our emotions and what we feel we can do with them. We have no framework for where our rage can go, what it can do or the implications of unleashing it.”
“In the case of disability, my body may behave in ways that make me feel hopeless, but through this comes an immense power: the power to confuse a world that only accepts an empowered woman when she acts within the parameters of usefulness to society. Society has no script on how to deal with a fat, chronically ill woman in her twenties who refuses to accept invisibility. Because of that, the potential to write my own narrative is infinite.”
March 9, 2022
i loved this book so much - engaging, passionate collection of essays about chronic illness, feminism, social media, class and creative industries. it’s hard to explain how it all fits together but it does, perfectly, and feels like it’s narrated by the writer from her bed. if you’re interested in any of those issues and/or why being a woman or marginalised person on the internet atm feels so dead-end and no longer fun, i would recommend!
October 13, 2022
Yep, yep and yep. Tackles my era of feminism with wit and insight. Not so often do I get to read such a current perspective on feminism and it’s ills that is so relatable to growing up in the 90s and 2000s. Like yes I wanna read about how magazines in the 2000s literally made every woman hate their own body and be vindicated that it wasn’t actually me or my body it was the insatiable appetite for pitting women against each other and telling us we were all fat and we needed to go on a diet. Patriarchy being cute as ever.
Also FACTS teenage girls literally dictate what is current, what is important and ALL THE LATEST TRENDS while simultaneously are ridiculed for being the epitome of all that is irrelevant they are actually THE. MOST. RELEVANT. GROUP. OF. SOCIETY.
TEENAGE GIRLS LIKED THE BEATLES BEFORE THE BEATLES WERE THE BEATLES. BITE ME.
Also FACTS teenage girls literally dictate what is current, what is important and ALL THE LATEST TRENDS while simultaneously are ridiculed for being the epitome of all that is irrelevant they are actually THE. MOST. RELEVANT. GROUP. OF. SOCIETY.
TEENAGE GIRLS LIKED THE BEATLES BEFORE THE BEATLES WERE THE BEATLES. BITE ME.
May 28, 2022
2.5 rounded down
As a fellow sufferer of an auto-immune disease and someone who feels strongly about the need for women to be actually listened to (and believed) when they feel unwell and seek medical assistance (from personal experience but also more generally!) I really wanted to love this but in many of the essays I felt like the point was constantly being circled without much being said. Not for me!
Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
As a fellow sufferer of an auto-immune disease and someone who feels strongly about the need for women to be actually listened to (and believed) when they feel unwell and seek medical assistance (from personal experience but also more generally!) I really wanted to love this but in many of the essays I felt like the point was constantly being circled without much being said. Not for me!
Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
December 22, 2022
I have lots to say but in poor little sick girl fashion I am feeling foggy and migrainey so will try to come back to this review some other time
February 28, 2025
I bought this book because, like the author, I was diagnosed with IBD when I was in my 20s and was intrigued to read about her experience. It's great that she's written this and I hope it promotes understanding of this condition and all it entails - the medications, surgeries, hospitalisations and humiliations. Two stand-out chapters. One provides a great description of the experience of living with chronic fatigue, and another is a spot-on critique of the holistic wellness industry which preys on our vulnerability, encouraging us to part with our cash for snake-oils which will simply 'magic away' an incurable autoimmune condition.
This is perhaps an unfair criticism, as the purpose of this book is to articulate the experience of being young and chronically ill, and it does that well - I learned a lot about the experiences and challenges of being young in today's world. But as someone in my 50s, I could find little to relate to. Manicures, 3am online shopping sprees, drinking fancy cocktails with friends, long facetime chats, leisurely scrolling social media. None of this is part of my world and it made me yearn enviously for the privileges of youth. The scope of my middle-aged life is quite different - full-time work, caring for teenage children with mental health issues, looking after frail, elderly parents and sleeping in between. There is little time or space left to reflect on or publicise this experience. I'm just getting through the day. So my plea to Ione and her peers who have the capacity and platform to advocate - I would be forever grateful if you could consider extending your advocacy to include us. The word 'marginalised' is used frequently in the book, which seemed to be defined as women, people of colour, queer people, disabled people, fat people. Age was not mentioned in this way. To my mind the ultimate image of marginalisation is the 90 year old, alone and bedridden in a care home, no longer able to self-manage the humiliating symptoms of IBD. Where is their representation? Where is their voice?
I ended up feeling conflicted about the message I took from this book – that as a chronically ill woman I am 'marginalised', and other groups have it easier. It is admittedly tempting to frame myself in that way. But this risks blunting acknowledgment of and empathy for the complexity of all human experience. For this I look no further than the gender-based discrimination under martial law in Ukraine, where women can flee but able-bodied men are required to stay and lay down their lives. Could I really look one of these able-bodied men in the eye and tell them (to quote directly from this book) “the world negates my existence”? That seems like self-absorbed hyperbole.
This is perhaps an unfair criticism, as the purpose of this book is to articulate the experience of being young and chronically ill, and it does that well - I learned a lot about the experiences and challenges of being young in today's world. But as someone in my 50s, I could find little to relate to. Manicures, 3am online shopping sprees, drinking fancy cocktails with friends, long facetime chats, leisurely scrolling social media. None of this is part of my world and it made me yearn enviously for the privileges of youth. The scope of my middle-aged life is quite different - full-time work, caring for teenage children with mental health issues, looking after frail, elderly parents and sleeping in between. There is little time or space left to reflect on or publicise this experience. I'm just getting through the day. So my plea to Ione and her peers who have the capacity and platform to advocate - I would be forever grateful if you could consider extending your advocacy to include us. The word 'marginalised' is used frequently in the book, which seemed to be defined as women, people of colour, queer people, disabled people, fat people. Age was not mentioned in this way. To my mind the ultimate image of marginalisation is the 90 year old, alone and bedridden in a care home, no longer able to self-manage the humiliating symptoms of IBD. Where is their representation? Where is their voice?
I ended up feeling conflicted about the message I took from this book – that as a chronically ill woman I am 'marginalised', and other groups have it easier. It is admittedly tempting to frame myself in that way. But this risks blunting acknowledgment of and empathy for the complexity of all human experience. For this I look no further than the gender-based discrimination under martial law in Ukraine, where women can flee but able-bodied men are required to stay and lay down their lives. Could I really look one of these able-bodied men in the eye and tell them (to quote directly from this book) “the world negates my existence”? That seems like self-absorbed hyperbole.
August 16, 2022
Poor Little Sick Girls is all about illness and penned by the coolest cat, Ione Gamble. Ione is the legend behind Polyester zine, a leopard print and red lipstick fashion icon, a incred freelance writer, and someone who managed all this whilst also managing Crohn’s disease.
I adored this one. From looking at what feminism actually is, discussing mental health when you’re ill, and the damaging impact of others trying to suggest “solutions” to conditions which are not disappearing. Codependency is something which isn’t chosen if you’re ill and in love - a state which a lot of feminists shun while singing a glimpse of Destiny’s Child’s Independent Women. Additionally, illness and body image is something rarely talked about despite being hugely stigmatised. Ione specifically talks about her experience of being swamped by diet culture and then taking steroids which typically cause weight gain, meaning for her, fat means health and absolutely her version of self-care. And yes, that brings us on to wellness, or should I say profit.
Ione has covered it all and this book is really fucking well done.
I adored this one. From looking at what feminism actually is, discussing mental health when you’re ill, and the damaging impact of others trying to suggest “solutions” to conditions which are not disappearing. Codependency is something which isn’t chosen if you’re ill and in love - a state which a lot of feminists shun while singing a glimpse of Destiny’s Child’s Independent Women. Additionally, illness and body image is something rarely talked about despite being hugely stigmatised. Ione specifically talks about her experience of being swamped by diet culture and then taking steroids which typically cause weight gain, meaning for her, fat means health and absolutely her version of self-care. And yes, that brings us on to wellness, or should I say profit.
Ione has covered it all and this book is really fucking well done.
October 23, 2023
why are there so many stats, numbers and claims without ANY references? where did those claims come from? the points made in this book were weak and repetitive and it didn't really feel like it was a book about chronic illness, more like the chronic illness was just a random thing holding those stories together. didn't learn much, didn't really enjoy it.
October 10, 2023
incredibly mixed feelings on this. when Gamble brings her lived experience into her writing, the essays are much more engaging and enlightening. the section on 'the hospital' was particularly good, as well as the explorations into fatness which i found v interesting and learned lots from! this book would have served better as perhaps a series of personal essays, that take chronic illness as it's sole lens. instead, i found a few of these essays sprawled and ended up circling without any precise points being made. and it really irked me that there was an almost complete absence of references! unfortunately, Gamble has been victim of some of the same mistakes she criticise in others - a lacked of backed up evidence. whilst I know her comments are informed by research, it's disappointing that the statistics and commentaries are without critical reference. I rlly do love Ione and Polyester a lot! if she can grow from this work it would be amazing to see bc the female chronic illness is such an important topic
Read
August 29, 2022A collection of essays penned as love letters to sick girls around the world, Ione shares her experiences of living in a body riddled with chronic illness in a society that favours productivity, narrow beauty standards, social media and capitalism over health, happiness and the correct dose of medication.
From her initial diagnosis of Crohn’s disease, Ione takes us through the rampage of debilitating symptoms, medications and treatments affecting her literal body and body of work, working her way through 9-5 jobs that were less than accommodating for someone with an illness and moving on to found Polyester Zine.
In an age where our fixation with health optimisation continues, Ione opened my eyes to the two extremes she found herself existing between: being judged and content, or miserable and relatively healthy. I loved Ione’s musings on bed as not only a vehicle to simply sleep from, (especially as someone with a chronic illness who requires vast amounts of sleep), but somewhere that she works, socialises, eats, types and, more importantly, schemes from.
An insightful collection on housing a home that doesn’t afford you the same freedoms as your peers.
From her initial diagnosis of Crohn’s disease, Ione takes us through the rampage of debilitating symptoms, medications and treatments affecting her literal body and body of work, working her way through 9-5 jobs that were less than accommodating for someone with an illness and moving on to found Polyester Zine.
In an age where our fixation with health optimisation continues, Ione opened my eyes to the two extremes she found herself existing between: being judged and content, or miserable and relatively healthy. I loved Ione’s musings on bed as not only a vehicle to simply sleep from, (especially as someone with a chronic illness who requires vast amounts of sleep), but somewhere that she works, socialises, eats, types and, more importantly, schemes from.
An insightful collection on housing a home that doesn’t afford you the same freedoms as your peers.
May 31, 2022
As someone who has several chronic health conditions, I was interested in reading this book just from the synopsis. We see a lot of characters onscreen in films & TV shows & on the page in books about what your teens/early twenties are supposed to look like (dating, partying, starting out on your career), but what happens when your body doesn't allow you the same options as your peer group? Instead of being able to just go out & enjoy yourself or enrol on the course you want to do, you are stuck at home or have to factor in medication regimes &/or managing your fatigue.
The author notes that "Being chronically ill is like having the most depressing and time-consuming side-hustle in the world". YES! It is EXACTLY like that. You have to be an expert in your condition to advocate for yourself, & then there's the 'admin' side of illness, where you spend hours of your life chasing hospitals, GPs, & assorted others for appointments, diagnoses, letters, & medication updates. It is relentless & if you are unfortunate enough to have a condition which doesn't fit neatly into the box they want it to, it can feel like you are basically ignored for being just too complicated for them to deal with. (OK, rant over).
Becoming ill at any time of life is bad enough, but becoming ill in what people think are your "best years" can be soul-destroying as you are left behind by your peer group. I agree with the author when she writes that you have to find a new way of being present in your life in spite of how society views people who are marginalised, with the focus here obviously being on those marginalised by health or body issues. The author is honest about their struggles & about how their condition affects all aspects of their life. It does wander into side alleys about feminism at times & how the emphasis on individual responsibility has moved both feminism & other class-related issues, such as wellbeing, from agitating for societal change to only focusing on the self & the detrimental effects this can have. Overall it was an interesting read, it was written in a very chatty informal way, & it was comforting to know that other people out there are having similar experiences to yourself.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers Little, Brown Book Group UK/Dialogue Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
The author notes that "Being chronically ill is like having the most depressing and time-consuming side-hustle in the world". YES! It is EXACTLY like that. You have to be an expert in your condition to advocate for yourself, & then there's the 'admin' side of illness, where you spend hours of your life chasing hospitals, GPs, & assorted others for appointments, diagnoses, letters, & medication updates. It is relentless & if you are unfortunate enough to have a condition which doesn't fit neatly into the box they want it to, it can feel like you are basically ignored for being just too complicated for them to deal with. (OK, rant over).
Becoming ill at any time of life is bad enough, but becoming ill in what people think are your "best years" can be soul-destroying as you are left behind by your peer group. I agree with the author when she writes that you have to find a new way of being present in your life in spite of how society views people who are marginalised, with the focus here obviously being on those marginalised by health or body issues. The author is honest about their struggles & about how their condition affects all aspects of their life. It does wander into side alleys about feminism at times & how the emphasis on individual responsibility has moved both feminism & other class-related issues, such as wellbeing, from agitating for societal change to only focusing on the self & the detrimental effects this can have. Overall it was an interesting read, it was written in a very chatty informal way, & it was comforting to know that other people out there are having similar experiences to yourself.
My thanks to NetGalley & publishers Little, Brown Book Group UK/Dialogue Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
October 28, 2022
In a month where I've been pretty seriously ill every day since the 3rd, I sort of hoped this book would give me some empowerment over being chronically ill. It took me ages to wade through it... and I'm still undecided.
I loved the parts about having a chronic illness. There is not enough non-digital content to pour over, aside from medical journals. Hearing someone else manage to put into words the exact things you feel is always a magical feeling.
But there were a lot of the same points about the feminism/social media/capitalism triple whammy that made it tough going in places. Not that these things aren't important, of course. It just felt as though there was a lot of repetition and the same points being made in only slightly different contexts.
Maybe I just needed more that I fully identified with. I'll still be recommending it to other I know with chronic conditions because those parts were immense.
I loved the parts about having a chronic illness. There is not enough non-digital content to pour over, aside from medical journals. Hearing someone else manage to put into words the exact things you feel is always a magical feeling.
But there were a lot of the same points about the feminism/social media/capitalism triple whammy that made it tough going in places. Not that these things aren't important, of course. It just felt as though there was a lot of repetition and the same points being made in only slightly different contexts.
Maybe I just needed more that I fully identified with. I'll still be recommending it to other I know with chronic conditions because those parts were immense.
April 23, 2022
ione articulates every thought i’ve ever had in such an engaging, accessible and most importantly FUN WAY!!!! the perfect antidote to girlboss feminism and the capitalist hellscape that is present day social media. absolutely smashed it!
April 1, 2023
some really insightful essays at the beginning, then from around 70 pages in it was just going round in circles to the point I was just skipping pages because I felt these topics had already been covered.
September 28, 2022
Being chronically sick is lonely, no matter how much people care about you, no one really knows how you feel inside unless they have the same illness. So when I found this memoir written by a woman who has (almost) the same “gift” with me, I immediately pick it up.
Ione Gamble was diagnosed with an incurable disease when she was 19. When the world was raving about Girlboss feminism, she had to spend her days with doctor visits and medical treatment which was very “un-Girlboss-ly” (if that’s even a word). The media always talks about strong, independent girls, but rarely about sick girls who are as strong (or maybe even stronger, sick is not for the weak).
When you see sick people represented in the media, they are mostly seen helpless and weak. Take a look at The Fault in Our Stars, Five Feet Apart, or even the sick girl in The Politician who sadly became a token, when sick girls can be strong too.
I have multiple chronic illnesses (yeah) and still managed to live (almost) normally just as Ionne. Sick people is mostly lay in bed? Yes. But sick people also can have a career they're proud of and undergoing medical treatment at the same time. We can be weak when the flare hits, but we also came back stronger, in daily basis.
Rather than writing Poor Little Sick Girls for sympathy, Gamble, reading this book is like a love letter to me. It’s raw, it’s real, it’s a collection of passionate essays about chronic illness, feminism, media, and creative industries. It’s witty and honest, eventhough most people cant relate to.
Gamble’s book is not perfect, but I am grateful to see the representation I needed. Thank you Ionne for making me feel less lonely, and let’s keep fighting this f*in illness ❤️
Ione Gamble was diagnosed with an incurable disease when she was 19. When the world was raving about Girlboss feminism, she had to spend her days with doctor visits and medical treatment which was very “un-Girlboss-ly” (if that’s even a word). The media always talks about strong, independent girls, but rarely about sick girls who are as strong (or maybe even stronger, sick is not for the weak).
When you see sick people represented in the media, they are mostly seen helpless and weak. Take a look at The Fault in Our Stars, Five Feet Apart, or even the sick girl in The Politician who sadly became a token, when sick girls can be strong too.
I have multiple chronic illnesses (yeah) and still managed to live (almost) normally just as Ionne. Sick people is mostly lay in bed? Yes. But sick people also can have a career they're proud of and undergoing medical treatment at the same time. We can be weak when the flare hits, but we also came back stronger, in daily basis.
Rather than writing Poor Little Sick Girls for sympathy, Gamble, reading this book is like a love letter to me. It’s raw, it’s real, it’s a collection of passionate essays about chronic illness, feminism, media, and creative industries. It’s witty and honest, eventhough most people cant relate to.
Gamble’s book is not perfect, but I am grateful to see the representation I needed. Thank you Ionne for making me feel less lonely, and let’s keep fighting this f*in illness ❤️
January 9, 2024
An intimate and relatable foray into a whole host of topics centring on navigating the world as a young woman, with specific reference to navigating said world with a chronic illness and all the societal baggage and misconceptions that come with that. Gamble's style is incredibly readable, deftly jumping from childhood anecdotes to complex institutional corruption in the healthcare and 'wellness' industry.
Had I read any of these chapters in isolation as an article or blog post for example, I would probably come away with a stronger impression, but as a collective, they began to feel slightly repetitive. Everything came back to capitalism. Having a chronic illness is made harder by capitalism because you can't work as much and therefore have less value. Having a social media account is made worse by capitalism and the epidemic of influencers abandoning confessional and empowering content in favour of sponsored advertisements. Being a woman is made worse by capitalism because you're taught to hate yourself so you spend more money. Your opinion and taste is valued less when you're working class because of, you guessed it, capitalism! And while Gamble is obviously correct, I was already on board with her ethos and passion in the beginning, and by the end of the book it began to feel like she was preaching to the already converted. Still recommend this though if any of the topics mentioned above are of interest, reading it does feel like waving your fist cathartically at the sky as you put the world to rights with a friend over coffee.
Had I read any of these chapters in isolation as an article or blog post for example, I would probably come away with a stronger impression, but as a collective, they began to feel slightly repetitive. Everything came back to capitalism. Having a chronic illness is made harder by capitalism because you can't work as much and therefore have less value. Having a social media account is made worse by capitalism and the epidemic of influencers abandoning confessional and empowering content in favour of sponsored advertisements. Being a woman is made worse by capitalism because you're taught to hate yourself so you spend more money. Your opinion and taste is valued less when you're working class because of, you guessed it, capitalism! And while Gamble is obviously correct, I was already on board with her ethos and passion in the beginning, and by the end of the book it began to feel like she was preaching to the already converted. Still recommend this though if any of the topics mentioned above are of interest, reading it does feel like waving your fist cathartically at the sky as you put the world to rights with a friend over coffee.
March 17, 2025
While the thesis spans perhaps a bit more than it can chew it's a great read on how society fucks over everyone who can't conform (and why conforming and 'optimising' should be the goals. Interestingly, while reading this, I thought about how self-actualisation and self-improvement texts had entirely left my mind in favour of social theory (read: socialism) texts, and then Gamble DIRECTLY links 'healthism' to the failures of protest in the face of capitalism... it all makes sense!
January 10, 2024
“We have accepted that the practice of caring for ourselves has become inseparable from capitalism: buy more stuff, relieve yourself of the world’s ills. The easiest way to feel better about yourself is to buy something that distracts you from the terror of existence.”
“At best, modern self care is a very expensive way to distract ourselves from bigger issues that seem impossible to face.”
“Our idea of traditional success is so deeply entwined with suffering that requiring rest is deemed a weakness, or a treat that can only be indulged in once earned.”
“But we do need to accept the wider implications of putting feelings before truths.”
“Authenticity is ultimately a trap, just as the fear of being too much is. They work together to make us feel we will never be good enough, and that we will never know enough.”
“At best, modern self care is a very expensive way to distract ourselves from bigger issues that seem impossible to face.”
“Our idea of traditional success is so deeply entwined with suffering that requiring rest is deemed a weakness, or a treat that can only be indulged in once earned.”
“But we do need to accept the wider implications of putting feelings before truths.”
“Authenticity is ultimately a trap, just as the fear of being too much is. They work together to make us feel we will never be good enough, and that we will never know enough.”
August 28, 2023
You mean I’ve been doing wellness right this whole time?
Loveeeeed Ione’s perspectives on healthism and honestly I just feel like from reading this I’ll finally start giving myself a fucking break! Like no, an açai bowl won’t solve all my problems gimme a burger.
Loveeeeed Ione’s perspectives on healthism and honestly I just feel like from reading this I’ll finally start giving myself a fucking break! Like no, an açai bowl won’t solve all my problems gimme a burger.
October 14, 2023
“We spend our free time cramming as much social interaction into our evenings and weekends as humanely possible. When we’re not with our friends, we spend hours scrolling our social media feeds to feel closer to people we either know intimately or have never met.”
This book is packed full of sweeping statements like this. I mean packed. And they start to get very irritating.
“We spend countless hours telling our friends how paranoid, insecure and hopeless instagram makes us feel.”
Sorry ms Gamble but no “we” don’t.
Many of the points made in this book suggest that the author doesn’t have a very diverse group of friends. If she spoke to anyone over the age of 35 she would know that Tumblr wasn’t actually the first way teenage girls were able to express themselves and their art. Teen girls were doing that literally 10 years before then. Although Ione might have felt like she “did that” at the time.
Anyway why are we talking about tumblr feminism when this is a book about chronic illness? It turns out chronic illness isn’t discussed that much in the book.
I need to stop reading books written by influencers because they all have a similar style - think Florence Given. A style that assumes that I have found this book via algorithm, looking for people with the same thoughts and ideas as me. Or maybe that because many of their followers are similar to them, that their readers will be too. Plus a belief in their own hype.
We aren’t ALL addicted to social media in the way the author assumes, nor are we all affected by media representations of body image. And I’m going to need some references or claims if someone says that we are, which the author never provides. (Okay she has 4 references at the back). Someone like Roxanne Gay can write a book like this, but a 30 ish tumblrina needs something a bit more than an opinion to be taken seriously outside of instagram. More lived experiences and information about chronic illness would have been appreciated.
This book is packed full of sweeping statements like this. I mean packed. And they start to get very irritating.
“We spend countless hours telling our friends how paranoid, insecure and hopeless instagram makes us feel.”
Sorry ms Gamble but no “we” don’t.
Many of the points made in this book suggest that the author doesn’t have a very diverse group of friends. If she spoke to anyone over the age of 35 she would know that Tumblr wasn’t actually the first way teenage girls were able to express themselves and their art. Teen girls were doing that literally 10 years before then. Although Ione might have felt like she “did that” at the time.
Anyway why are we talking about tumblr feminism when this is a book about chronic illness? It turns out chronic illness isn’t discussed that much in the book.
I need to stop reading books written by influencers because they all have a similar style - think Florence Given. A style that assumes that I have found this book via algorithm, looking for people with the same thoughts and ideas as me. Or maybe that because many of their followers are similar to them, that their readers will be too. Plus a belief in their own hype.
We aren’t ALL addicted to social media in the way the author assumes, nor are we all affected by media representations of body image. And I’m going to need some references or claims if someone says that we are, which the author never provides. (Okay she has 4 references at the back). Someone like Roxanne Gay can write a book like this, but a 30 ish tumblrina needs something a bit more than an opinion to be taken seriously outside of instagram. More lived experiences and information about chronic illness would have been appreciated.
April 4, 2023
If you have ever felt exhausted by beauty culture or found those wellness/fitness influencers on Instagram to be more exhausting than motivating, this book is for you. If you have a chronic illness that is invisible to society and you wish you had someone who could understand your pain, this book is definitely for you.
I found this book to be a very well-written, intelligent and sharp read about a woman's life shaped by her chronic illness and the way society treats other similarly ill people. Ione Gamble's writing is descriptive, metaphorical and very engaging. Her writing enabled me to fully immerse into her world and showed me a different side of life that I would not have normally encountered.
Ione writes a series of different essays tackling contemporary topics such as the commercialization of wellness culture, the commodification and fetishization of a certain kind of sick women, the lack of empathy towards chronically ill or disabled people, social media influencers, fatphobia, body positivity, body image, hustle culture, success, wealth and toxic positivity.
All her essays are written in a feminist light but also contain her unique, critical undertone. She brings a new offering to the table: the perspective of a chronically ill woman who is determined not to let her illness get in the way of her opinions.
I too agree that wealth, class and privilege often intersect with one's ability to participate in wellness and health, particularly being able to portray oneself as being healthy and acceptable to society. Ione challenges this stereotypical view of health by showing her side of the story; her identity as a chronically ill woman who cannot fit into the health and beauty standards of our appearance-focused society. Women are supposed to be sick but not too sick. If they are sick, they are supposed to find every way possible to get well and assimilate back into society, fearing that the changes in their body are too grotesque and unacceptable. Ione fights back by asking the daring question, "Well, what if we are unable to get better and what if we accept that fact instead of conforming to society's expectations of a sick woman? What if sick people actually shared their opinions with the world and you listened instead of trying to talk over us?"
She has her own struggles with her body image and at some points, her exhaustion and sadness about being in an unruly, sick body that she cannot control shines through in her essays. She too is not immune to the beauty standards and misogynistic expectations towards women. However, it is her radical self love and self acceptance that enables her to write such a clear and eloquent rebuttal against the damaging cult of "wellness culture" that erases and looks down upon aging, fatness, sickness or disability. Her story is an important one and I felt honored being able to read it. Truly a lot of food for thought. Her critical insight and opinions made me see so many new topics in a new light and I found myself highlighting so many passages.
She does not demand sympathy from us. I think that's what I admire about Ione Gamble. People always call those with critical illness "brave" or "survivors" but she is just a regular person who wants to live her life and take up space. She says that calling them brave or survivors is not the same as respecting them or listening to them because it groups sick people into just another stereotype. Ione is unashamed of her condition and is able to call out the fallacies and double standards around her. I admired that most of all. In the wake of death, suffering and illness, conforming to beauty standards seems very foolish and nonsensical. Why is it that we only give those who are ill an exception to the rule but the rest of us remain chained to these burdens? Ione shows us that there is a lot of money to be made from making human beings feel insecure about their bodies so being fearlessly able to question those beauty standards is not just a practice reserved for those at the fringes of society.
Some of my favorite quotes and passages
I found this book to be a very well-written, intelligent and sharp read about a woman's life shaped by her chronic illness and the way society treats other similarly ill people. Ione Gamble's writing is descriptive, metaphorical and very engaging. Her writing enabled me to fully immerse into her world and showed me a different side of life that I would not have normally encountered.
Ione writes a series of different essays tackling contemporary topics such as the commercialization of wellness culture, the commodification and fetishization of a certain kind of sick women, the lack of empathy towards chronically ill or disabled people, social media influencers, fatphobia, body positivity, body image, hustle culture, success, wealth and toxic positivity.
All her essays are written in a feminist light but also contain her unique, critical undertone. She brings a new offering to the table: the perspective of a chronically ill woman who is determined not to let her illness get in the way of her opinions.
I too agree that wealth, class and privilege often intersect with one's ability to participate in wellness and health, particularly being able to portray oneself as being healthy and acceptable to society. Ione challenges this stereotypical view of health by showing her side of the story; her identity as a chronically ill woman who cannot fit into the health and beauty standards of our appearance-focused society. Women are supposed to be sick but not too sick. If they are sick, they are supposed to find every way possible to get well and assimilate back into society, fearing that the changes in their body are too grotesque and unacceptable. Ione fights back by asking the daring question, "Well, what if we are unable to get better and what if we accept that fact instead of conforming to society's expectations of a sick woman? What if sick people actually shared their opinions with the world and you listened instead of trying to talk over us?"
She has her own struggles with her body image and at some points, her exhaustion and sadness about being in an unruly, sick body that she cannot control shines through in her essays. She too is not immune to the beauty standards and misogynistic expectations towards women. However, it is her radical self love and self acceptance that enables her to write such a clear and eloquent rebuttal against the damaging cult of "wellness culture" that erases and looks down upon aging, fatness, sickness or disability. Her story is an important one and I felt honored being able to read it. Truly a lot of food for thought. Her critical insight and opinions made me see so many new topics in a new light and I found myself highlighting so many passages.
She does not demand sympathy from us. I think that's what I admire about Ione Gamble. People always call those with critical illness "brave" or "survivors" but she is just a regular person who wants to live her life and take up space. She says that calling them brave or survivors is not the same as respecting them or listening to them because it groups sick people into just another stereotype. Ione is unashamed of her condition and is able to call out the fallacies and double standards around her. I admired that most of all. In the wake of death, suffering and illness, conforming to beauty standards seems very foolish and nonsensical. Why is it that we only give those who are ill an exception to the rule but the rest of us remain chained to these burdens? Ione shows us that there is a lot of money to be made from making human beings feel insecure about their bodies so being fearlessly able to question those beauty standards is not just a practice reserved for those at the fringes of society.
Some of my favorite quotes and passages
But to embrace a condition that by default makes you undesirable to the majority of our society holds an inherent power.
Our fear of being unsexy in the context of illness feeds all the way back to the fact that ultimately we consider unwell people to be a burden on society.
...That we prioritize well people's comfort over the need for unwell people to feel seen, understood and acknowledged in a world that would prefer to ignore us.
...all other forms of popular contemporary self-care also lead back to consumption as central to the practice, no matter how much they veil themselves in good intentions and positive affirmations.
In 2021, self-care has mutated into a consumerist catch-all for anything that marginally-and temporarily-increases our ever-dwindling serotonin levels.
Our idea of traditional success is so deeply entwined with suffering that requiring rest is deemed a weakness, or a treat that can only be indulged in once earned.
Honestly, I would rather seek affirmation and comfort than enlightenment or the opportunity to find myself by looking inwards.
When dubious sources of comfort become gospel, our reliance on them creates even more problems than it solves. As long as we are hurting, thinkfluencers continue to rake in cash, creating a cycle of pain and self-pity.
By accepting fat people only on the condition that they are also healthy, an entire intersection of those like myself who will never be able to ring up a perfect bill of health are left by the wayside.
August 29, 2023
In hindsight, it seems inevitable that I would love this book. Reading the experiences and perspectives of a fellow chronically ill woman is always a refreshing and welcome experience to me. Let alone from a woman from my generation who grew up alongside and on similar corners of the internet and with the same interests as me.
Here, Ione Gamble balances sharing her personal experiences with chronic illness along with detailing the important and often overlooked relationship between pop culture trends (largely born online nowadays) to the real ways it impacts every facet of our own personal lives, as well as collectively shaping our approach to sociopolitical issues both online and offline.
I particularly appreciated Ione's insight into healthism and the moralisation of health; how this is impacting everybody but is particularly targeting the chronically ill and marginalised in damaging ways, which are still mostly covert to those without lived experience or lucky enough to not have to think so critically about it.
Reading in depth about the predatory and elite nature of the wellness industry from the perspective of a fellow working-class disabled person felt very affirming too.
I also loved the chapter about being a gross girl and how we should all truly embrace it, as apposed to simply showcasing a more palatable side to the only very slightly gross parts of ourselves; freeing ourselves from the farce of our current trap of faux authenticity and actually providing us a space to talk about real ways of liberating ourselves from patriarchal standards.
The chapter linking class and taste, how we knowingly or unknowingly base how we perceive others intellectual and personal worth based on whether we think they have 'good' or 'bad' taste, often leading to devaluation and gatekeeping in various subcultures, sections of society and in the workplace was brilliantly done.
I could ramble on about the contents of this book forever if I wanted to but I doubt I could do it justice so I'll stop now. In short, I enjoyed this book so much and highly recommend it to everyone.
Here, Ione Gamble balances sharing her personal experiences with chronic illness along with detailing the important and often overlooked relationship between pop culture trends (largely born online nowadays) to the real ways it impacts every facet of our own personal lives, as well as collectively shaping our approach to sociopolitical issues both online and offline.
I particularly appreciated Ione's insight into healthism and the moralisation of health; how this is impacting everybody but is particularly targeting the chronically ill and marginalised in damaging ways, which are still mostly covert to those without lived experience or lucky enough to not have to think so critically about it.
Reading in depth about the predatory and elite nature of the wellness industry from the perspective of a fellow working-class disabled person felt very affirming too.
I also loved the chapter about being a gross girl and how we should all truly embrace it, as apposed to simply showcasing a more palatable side to the only very slightly gross parts of ourselves; freeing ourselves from the farce of our current trap of faux authenticity and actually providing us a space to talk about real ways of liberating ourselves from patriarchal standards.
The chapter linking class and taste, how we knowingly or unknowingly base how we perceive others intellectual and personal worth based on whether we think they have 'good' or 'bad' taste, often leading to devaluation and gatekeeping in various subcultures, sections of society and in the workplace was brilliantly done.
I could ramble on about the contents of this book forever if I wanted to but I doubt I could do it justice so I'll stop now. In short, I enjoyed this book so much and highly recommend it to everyone.
Read
August 26, 2022Poor Little Sick Girls
This book is a call to arms, a letter to people with chronic illnesses to be seen, to be heard, to not be ignored.
Ione Gamble's raw and engaging essays explore what it is like to live with chronic illness. Not only does Ione provide sharp insights in having a life which she didn't imagine and the grief around coming to terms with her illness but she also looks at the way illness is seen by society. Weaving the way the wellness industry, patriarchy's gaze, capitalism and the productivity twist the way illness is seen.
This is an empowering book not only for people with chronic illnesses but for everyone to understand, listen and take action.
Thank you @netgalley for the ebook copy.
This book is a call to arms, a letter to people with chronic illnesses to be seen, to be heard, to not be ignored.
Ione Gamble's raw and engaging essays explore what it is like to live with chronic illness. Not only does Ione provide sharp insights in having a life which she didn't imagine and the grief around coming to terms with her illness but she also looks at the way illness is seen by society. Weaving the way the wellness industry, patriarchy's gaze, capitalism and the productivity twist the way illness is seen.
This is an empowering book not only for people with chronic illnesses but for everyone to understand, listen and take action.
Thank you @netgalley for the ebook copy.
January 12, 2023
I was contacted by the publishers at Dialogue Books to see if I would be interested in a copy to review. As a disabled woman herself, I was incredibly interested in seeing Gamble's side with chronic illness as well as exploring feminism, activism, self-care, branding, and online life.
This was a very passionate collection of essays that really resonated with me - not only as someone with chronic illnesses, but also as a woman, and someone who grew up in the early 2000s with the whole internet boom (the AOL dialup is still a lullaby for me lol), and will definitely speak to those who have been and are marginalised.
My full review will be available on wearefullybooked.co.uk on Monday 16th January.
This was a very passionate collection of essays that really resonated with me - not only as someone with chronic illnesses, but also as a woman, and someone who grew up in the early 2000s with the whole internet boom (the AOL dialup is still a lullaby for me lol), and will definitely speak to those who have been and are marginalised.
My full review will be available on wearefullybooked.co.uk on Monday 16th January.
July 2, 2023
3.5 rounded up! Chronic illness can be super lonely & it was really special to read about another early-20s-woman navigating chronic fatigue & the medical system. I highlighted so many passages in the first 100 pages & was so happy that the book even existed. After that it went kinda downhill for me as it zoomed out of the chronic illness/disability focus & more into feminism/media/politics-land, just because it was more disorganized & nonspecific. The opening chapters were so meaningful for me that I’ll definitely turn back to it when I need it again, hence the 4 stars
August 10, 2023
“Being chronically ill means constantly walking the line between advocating for myself and accepting that there are things I cannot change”
I really wanted to love this book and I really wanted it to be more than it was, there were two particular chapters that were outstanding, and what I had hoped the whole book would be about, and those were:
‘The hospital’
‘This too shall pass’
The rest of it read a bit like an undergrad dissertation, in so much as it used lots of long ramblings and sweeping generalisations with a reference list of only 4 books. At times it made little to no sense, instead leaning in to flowery language in a bid to sound intelligent (although I’m not suggesting the author is not). It swung between topics quite broadly. Was this a commentary on chronic illness, fatphobia, social media or wellness culture? Having finished it, I’m not sure.
I’ll be curious to see what the author does next!
I really wanted to love this book and I really wanted it to be more than it was, there were two particular chapters that were outstanding, and what I had hoped the whole book would be about, and those were:
‘The hospital’
‘This too shall pass’
The rest of it read a bit like an undergrad dissertation, in so much as it used lots of long ramblings and sweeping generalisations with a reference list of only 4 books. At times it made little to no sense, instead leaning in to flowery language in a bid to sound intelligent (although I’m not suggesting the author is not). It swung between topics quite broadly. Was this a commentary on chronic illness, fatphobia, social media or wellness culture? Having finished it, I’m not sure.
I’ll be curious to see what the author does next!
March 6, 2023
This was a slightly repetitive collection of essays which lacked a clear direction. When Gamble contextualised the topic of each section with her own experiences I was really engaged & appreciated hearing her perspective. However, a significant part of the book is simply description of social trends without much analysis or originality. I really liked the intersectional approach but other than getting to read her personality, it was nothing new.
May 25, 2023
V well researched and well put piece of writing. Loved it! Hit close to home as someone living with chronic illness and made me quite sad at points. Such as - “I’m not unwell enough to warrant serious medical intervention but not well enough to live my life normally. This leaves me in a weird flux most days I feel like a fraud in my own body, and I am left second guessing my symptoms” def reccomend!!
January 25, 2024
Gamble offers so many valuable insights into modern day activism and capitalism, and how the two have become inextricably linked. Her writing is admonishing and uplifting at the same time, with commentary that feels both common-sensical and yet radically underrepresented.
This book has helped me reconcile my own feelings about existing as a young person in a culture of commodity, and learning how to stop chasing authenticity and perfection. A challenging read at times but so worth it!
This book has helped me reconcile my own feelings about existing as a young person in a culture of commodity, and learning how to stop chasing authenticity and perfection. A challenging read at times but so worth it!
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