Hi and hello.
I am happy to report that I survived my first week back at uni. Because it’s been 8 months since I was last here I feel like a fresher trying to get used to living alone again! Obviously over the summer I was constantly around my family and working, and then in the USA you’re just never alone because you have a roommate and eat with people in a dinning hall.
Right now though I’m getting used to just being by myself again … and cooking for myself. My meals this first week have been atrocious: salad, pot noodle two days in a row, microwave meal, tortellini with pesto (first and only decent meal), cereal.
While I may not be loving my meals, I do think I’m gonna enjoy my classes this semester. I’m doing Scriptwriting, Working With Words – a mandatory publishing module where I’m on the blogging team – and finally, the inspiration for today’s list of recommendations, Sick Novels – all about illness and disease in literature.
Today I’m going to be giving some recommendations for YA books that deal with some sort of disease and illness!
Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White

I have a fair few irrational fears including clowns, undercooking chicken (even when it’s very clearly cooked), being kidnapped by any white van I see parked in the streets. Thanks to Andrew Joseph White I can now add “religious groups unleashing a a monstrous disease and wiping out the human population” to that list.
The disease in question in this novel basically liquifies your organs. That’s not even the worst part because once you’re dead you and other dead bodies around you can basically meld together to form a monster that this religious group controls. Every single description in this book was so gross and gruesome. I loved it!
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Tears are close to strolling down my face just thinking about this book which is to be expected when you have a child who’s mother is dying of Cancer as the main character and a giant tree monster is visiting him each night and telling him some very odd stories.
Of all the novels that I’m going to include on this list of recommendations, this is the book that most represents what the friends and family go through when a person is sick.
I re-read this for a class last semester and ended up writing an essay which partly focused on Conor and his grief so I think since then I just have a special place for this book in my heart. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t picked it up yet. Make sure you have a box of tissues on hand.
Continue reading “Here’s some books about disease”