Tremendous pain and incredible victory, told through fluid writing style

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	• Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood Julie Gregory Bantam, 2004 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Wonderful Book

I usually read fantasy, but when a friend loned me this book, I decided to try it. I couldn't put it down for the next two days!
The story is tragic, and heart-breaking and you don't want the things that happened to be true, but at the same time, you want to keep reading to find out what happens. The book ends on the last page, but the story does not, and I hope dearly that Julie Gregory publishes another of her memoirs.

Tremendous pain and incredible victory, told through fluid writing style

Anyone who have been abused or who have supressed your genuine needs and desires in order to be loved or to fit in, or those who know one, can find this book a powerful encouragement to press on with your recovery of self. This book made me feel, more than any other books, text books, or therapists, that one is simply not alone. Few are willing to share a story like this. Often one does not feel that others can understand the meaning and depth of what s/he's gone through and are afraid to be thought as different and would refrain from sharing their stories. I am extremely greatful that Gregory wrote this book and that it has been doing very well in 16 countries.

I also vastly enjoyed this book simply for Gregory's writing style: often light and easy while exposing one of the most painful childhood stories I have read.

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Terrifying Because It's Real

Julie Gregory was abused as a child. She was abused in one of the most undiscussed ways a child can be violated. Julie was the victim of her mother's mental illness. Her mother suffered from Munchausen By Proxy Syndrome. Julie's mother, Sandy, would feed 3-year-old Julie books of matches and tell her they were lollipops. She would give Julie pills that caused blinding migraines, all the while, taking Julie from doctor to doctor insisting Julie was seriously ill. At the height of her illness, Sandy was trying to have open-heart surgery performed on 12-year-old Julie. And when Julie tried to tell a nurse and her school friends what was happening, no one believed her.

Julie and her brother also endured physical abuse. They were beaten and Julie was constantly starved to make her appear ill. "Sickened" is Julie's heartbreaking, but uplifting story.

I was appauled and horrified by the treatment that Julie suffered. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to live with the knowledge that there was nothing wrong with you, but you were at the whim of a deranged mother. This book was an amazing tale of courage and spirit. If you are an abuse survivor, this book will be very hard to read, but it is definitely worth it.

I highly recommend this work.

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Wang's Bradbury's Class Book Review

This novel was a very good. It told me about a syndrome I have never heard of. It was very disturbing to me on how her own mother would treat her child.
Julie has been a sickly child since she was born. Her mother and grandmother often ran her to the hospital for mysterious food poisoning. Her mom was crazy, and wanted attention so she took her daughter to doctors to find something wrong with her when there wasn't anything wrong in the first place. Sometimes her sickness was the cause of Julie's mom. Her whole family was weird.
Her father He spent days in front of the TV, and watching it endlessly.
Her mother took her to endless doctors, only rushing her away to another one when they couldn't find anything wrong with her. When that didn't work, she starved her daughter.
When Julie stayed in the hospital so the doctors could take a closer look at what was happening with her heart, the sickness wasn't there anymore. Her mom wasn't going to give up until she found an answer.
Later, she actually left, but came back. She's been abused in so many different ways that you can't even imagine. Like her dad forcing her to eat used "snot rags" and kicking her in the stomach repeatedly. When Julie was telling people of what happened, no one wouled believe her. Julie's mother, Sandy put on an act to be a perfect mother.

At the end, it says that she was going to prosecute her mother of the abuse towards her children.
I wish at the end, that there was more information on what happened after she dialed Child's services to save the other child her mother may abuse. I was kind of left hanging.

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Brimming with unnecessary details

I was anxious to read "Sickened" as the bizarre disorder of 'Munchausen By Proxy' is an interesting and twisted piece of abnormal psychology, however, I was disappointed with this book overall. Although Julie Gregory has a compelling story to tell, I felt her book was overly detailed with extensive 'filler' material and was brimming with unnecessary details; ultimately making this book boring and a long read.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7

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