Sick by Christa Wojciechowski #BookReview

Title: Sick | Series: Sick bk 1 | Author: Christa Wojciechowski (site) | Publisher: Self-published | Pub. Date: 2015-10-1 | Pages: 68 | ASIN: B014RQXI88 | Language: English | Triggers: None | Rating: 5 out of 5 | Date Read: 2016-3-18 | Source: Received a copy free from the author in exchange for an honest review. 

Sick

Everyone has a breaking point. Is this marriage based on unconditional love or an unhealthy obsession?

Susan Branch’s life revolves around the care of her charming and inscrutable husband John, a man born into wealth and prestige who lost his family’s fortune when his mysterious chronic illnesses left him bedridden. Together they live a decrepit existence beholden to the current owners of his family’s former estate.

After years of devoting herself to John’s care, Susan is worn out and frustrated. Yet she is determined to scrape together whatever resources she can to keep John comfortable and happy. This includes stealing Demerol from the doctor’s office where she works to feed John’s ever-increasing need for pain medication.

As John’s condition continues to puzzle doctors, Susan begins to notice strange objects appearing around her house. Ever wary of creepy Old Pete, the groundskeeper, Susan decides to confront the elderly man and put an end to his snooping for good.

John suffers a critical emergency, but he is saved and is soon released from the hospital. As his health begins to improve, Susan dreams of a normal life, but her hope for a miracle transforms into a nightmare one fateful afternoon when she discovers
the true cause of John’s sickness. – Goodreads

 

Sick Review

I did not like this book. I really did not like this book (actually, novella). It disgusted me. Seriously disgusted to me to the point that I found my lip curling up as if I’d smelled something bad while I read it.  Even the descriptions of the husband (just his eyes, lips, etc), set me on edge, making me think “What the… How can this woman find this guy attractive?” Everything I read was repulsive. Repugnant.  So, yes, I did not like this book, but that does not mean this was a bad book.

Sick has the honor of being the story that it’s taken me the longest to write a review about. I would try to write it, walk away, come back, try again, walk away… It took me a while to sort out my feelings on it. I even ended up going to one of my fellow bookworms and seeking her advice. The question that ended up giving me the most trouble was this: If a book is well-written, but you’re disgusted by it, but you get the feeling you’re meant to be… how do you rate it?

The psychological aspects of this book made my skin crawl. Especially the ending. I could not understand it because, I think, I did not want to understand it. I labeled the characters a certain way in my head, and that was that. Christa Wojciechowski makes you feel what the main character is feeling, though. You know why she thinks the way she does, even as you want to shout at her for being stupid and tell her you know something is wrong. Its like watching a wreck happen. You know its not going to end well, and yet you can’t look away. The husband … Lets just say I’ve never wanted to smack a man more in my entire life, and leave it at that.

Sick is a story that you can’t shrug off easily. It rubs your thoughts and feelings raw like you’ve attacked your brain with sandpaper. It’s damn good writing, and I applaud the author for her ability to throw me so far off-balance mentally that it took me 24 hours to figure out what in the world I thought of her story!

This book is available at: Better World Books | Kobo | Amazon | B&N