No worries if you don't want to answer, but how do you feel about sick kids books? like the fault in our stars and stuff?
okay as a "sick kid" (gotta love sickle cell) i have Thoughts.
there are really two types of "sick-lit": books made by healthy people for healthy people (these generally analyze the Meaning of Life and the Great Beyond), and books made by sick people for sick people (these books usually are just regular books with occasional hospital settings).
book type one (for example: the fault in our stars) generally serves to make healthy people feel a little empathy towards sick kids. they give readers a good cry because one love interest dies while the other equally sick character comes to terms with it in their own way. and i'm not bashing that type of book. they bring awareness to important things (for example i had no idea how much lung cancer sucked until i read tfios), and also they're just fun to read (minus the emotional scarring). but at the end of the day, they're marketed towards healthy people. they tug at the right heartstrings, leading to the bestseller's list and box office hits.
and then there's the second type of book, ones like sick kids in love (one of my personal favorites, a book that was actually written by someone who has what the narrator has). these books are the ones that I feel reflect me: a person who grew up in drip rooms, doctor's offices, and support groups. they have characters who live their lives, and fall in love with people who just see them. these are the ones where lines like "you get used to death when you grow up in a hospital" are just said because it's true and not because the narrator is trying to find the meaning of life. the biggest struggle in sick kids in love wasn't isabel's rheumatoid arthritis or sahsa's gaucher disease, but rather the fact that isa is shit at making decisions on her own, and she has awful friends. that, right there, could be the struggle in any book.
and that is the point of sick kids books that are written by sick people. they truly represent "sick kids". yeah, my blood is shaped weirdly and i have to get transfusions and sometimes i feel like my legs are on fire, but i also worked at a cafe and play soccer and run track and play a bunch of instruments and have an amazing girlfriend. i don't want another book that reminds me that i'm gonna suffer forever. i want one where i'm reminded that i -- and every other person who struggles with disease they can't get rid of -- are able to be a little normal too. and that's why books for sick kids by sick people will always be -- in my opinion anyway -- superior to the popular, empathy-inducing books.
