Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood

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Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood

3.64 of 5 stars 3.64 · rating details · 6,738 ratings · 629 reviews

A young girl is perched on the cold chrome of yet another doctor’s examining table, missing yet another day of school. Just twelve, she’s tall, skinny, and weak. It’s four o’clock, and she hasn’t been allowed to eat anything all day. Her mother, on the other hand, seems curiously excited. She's about to suggest open-heart surgery on her child to "get to the bottom of this....more A young girl is perched on the cold chrome of yet another doctor’s examining table, missing yet another day of school. Just twelve, she’s tall, skinny, and weak. It’s four o’clock, and she hasn’t been allowed to eat anything all day. Her mother, on the other hand, seems curiously excited. She's about to suggest open-heart surgery on her child to "get to the bottom of this." She checks her teeth for lipstick and, as the doctor enters, shoots the girl a warning glance. This child will not ruin her plans.

Sickened

From early childhood, Julie Gregory was continually X-rayed, medicated, and operated on—in the vain pursuit of an illness that was created in her mother’s mind. Munchausen by proxy (MBP) is the world’s most hidden and dangerous form of child abuse, in which the caretaker—almost always the mother—invents or induces symptoms in her child because she craves the attention of medical professionals. Many MBP children die, but Julie Gregory not only survived, she escaped the powerful orbit of her mother's madness and rebuilt her identity as a vibrant, healthy young woman.

Sickened is a remarkable memoir that speaks in an original and distinctive Midwestern voice, rising to indelible scenes in prose of scathing beauty and fierce humor. Punctuated with Julie's actual medical records, it re-creates the bizarre cocoon of her family's isolated double-wide trailer, their wild shopping sprees and gun-waving confrontations, the astonishing naïveté of medical professionals and social workers. It also exposes the twisted bonds of terror and love that roped Julie's family together—including the love that made a child willing to sacrifice herself to win her mother's happiness.

The realization that the sickness lay in her mother, not in herself, would not come to Julie until adulthood. But when it did, it would strike like lightning. Through her painful metamorphosis, she discovered the courage to save her own life—and, ultimately, the life of the girl her mother had found to replace her. Sickened takes us to new places in the human heart and spirit. It is an unforgettable story, unforgettably told.

From the Hardcover edition.(less)

ebook, 256 pages

Published November 19th 2008 by Bantam (first published January 1st 2003)

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Jan 21, 2010 Caroline Alicia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jan2010, family, coming-of-age, nonfic

The entire time I read this book, I was screaming in my head. Giving the riot act to the doctors to the father to the social workers that turned a blind eye. I was just as bewildered and pleading as Julie as, watching the doctors slice her open when nothing was wrong.

I understood Julie. I can remember countless times, my eyes screamed volumes that no one wanted to hear or understand. And how everyone turns away, or shakes their head in disagreement but not one single adult will stand up for you...more

12 likes · like · see review

Mar 22, 2009 Annie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs

This disturbing memoir is the account of a mother who intentionally invented symptoms and illness for her daughter to gain attention from medical professionals. This is known as Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. The best pop culture example is the little girl in the Sixth Sense (Mischa Barton pre-O.C. days). I learned a lot about this syndrome from a short medical introduction; the rest of the book is Julie Gregory’s story. It is heavy, lots of adult content and language. Some of the events that hap...more

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 12, 2011 Sammy Sutton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An excellent book to read for those with a need to know and understand this complex illness. For others use your own judgement. This is a very disturbing illness that really created a lot of attention about 10 years ago in the mental health and medical field. 'Sickened' is a very well written page turner, but it is a true story...no fiction here.

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 23, 2010 Jasmine Diaz added it · review of another edition

Its about this girl who's parents asumes shes sick and always has her missing school to take her to the doctors. The mom takes her to the doctor and tells the doctor all these simptoms she says her daughter has. The weird thing is that her daughter is not sick her mom is just making it up. Her mom takes her to a hospital where the doctor runs all these heart test because she says her daughter has a heart condition. They run several test but all of them came out negative indicating that nothing w...more

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Jul 22, 2008 Eva Leger rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: childhood memoir readers

Recommended to Eva by: book swapping site

Shelves: b-abuse-recovery, b-non-fiction, autos-bios-memoirs

I'm not sure what to even say about this book. Most of the time I was reading it I felt just as the title says, sickened. I've read a lot of true crime and child abuse books and it never fails to resonate with me when someone can treat a child like this. This girl went through such terrible, terrible situations as a child, her mother actually succeeding in making her, along with many, many doctors and hospitals, believe she was truly sick and is still dealing with the after effects to this day....more

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Aug 26, 2008 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interesting novel written by a victim of Munchausen by Proxy. I've seen Munchausen in my practice and it is an ugly disease, and very diffcult at times to detect. I'm not surprised the abuse Ms. Gregory suffered went on as long as it did, because of how sneaky and insidious the disease is. She does an admirable job writing about the abuse without becoming maudlin or playing for sympathy. She seems to be a woman in charge of her own health now, and the story rings of her strength and ability to f...more

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Jul 30, 2007 Abby Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Julie Gregory grew up in an abusive household. Her mother had Munchausen by Proxy, a mental disorder that causes someone to seek attention by inflicting medical symptoms on a dependent. Throughout her childhood, Julie was told that she was sick. She was starved, beaten, and taken out of school for doctor's visits and hospital stays. Her mother insisted that every possible test be done (including invasive ones), in order to "get to the bottom of this". Julie was punished if she didn't go along wi...more

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Aug 10, 2008 Deborah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who enjoy reading about other people's dysfunctional upbringings.

Though Munchausen's by Proxy is a terrible disorder that causes parents to inflict grievous pain and suffering upon their trusting and powerless children, I simply was not impressed with this book. Just another "look how ****ed up my upbringing was, but by god I'm a SURVIVOR!"

There are so many survivors of so many diverse kinds of abuse, and it seems like everyone wants to write a tell-all now. Some are excellent -- e.g. "The Glass Castle" -- and some are so deliciously horrifying I couldn't sto...more

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Aug 13, 2008 Sierra crosby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: alex, non-fiction

Wow this book was disturbing, yet I was unable to put it down. It drew me in fast and kept me riveted. It a memoir of a childhood lived with a muchausen by Proxy mom. Julie was carted to doctor after doctor, made sick with pills, all sorts of terrible things. There was also physical abuse. It was hard to read it spots. A very good book, one that I think more people should read, specially hospital/doctor staff. It really gives a deep look into what a person with muchausen by proxy is like, and wh...more

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Jan 05, 2009 Sara rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was a little disappointing. More than following the issues of Munchausen by Proxy, the author reveals more about the emotional and physical abuse her mother and father. I was expecting more detail (and I guess more Munchausen issues) then was given.

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Feb 02, 2009 Eileen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I read stuff like this, I am truly horrified at how parents can be so brutal and cruel to their own children or to any other human being. Sometimes, I wonder at the irony of people requiring permits to keep specific breeds of dogs, yet people who are obviously unsuitable to be parents don't need a licence to reproduce when the responsibility is so much greater. Not that I'm saying this is something that should be regulated but it is painfully heart-breaking to read about child abuse, especi...more

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Mar 11, 2013 Alyssa rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Okay, here's a depressing book about how some people just should not have children ever. Specifically, traumatized abuse survivors who marry vietnam veterans. The author's parents (this is a memoir! Holy crap!) simply had no idea what normal life was, let alone how to raise a child in it. The narrative starts with some bizarre details: a little girl whose grandmother takes her out to get in car accidents so she can talk to people; whose mother gives her matches to eat instead of candy; whose fat...more

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Oct 27, 2012 Roos Boum rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read the Dutch version of the book.

Lotgenote zijnde van Julie Gregory, nam ik via haar site eind 2003 contact met haar op. Ik kon niet wachten tot haar boek in het Nederlands vertaald zou zijn en uit zou komen. (De sterke Julie en haar boek waren voor mij als overlever van Münchhausen by proxy (Mbp) de motivator mijn verhaal op papier te zetten, in eerste instantie voor mijzelf als therapie en in tweede instantie als hart onder de riem voor lotgenoten. Het was Julie die mij sterk aanmoedigde m...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Dylan Antila rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sickened is the disturbing memoir of Julie Gregory. A girl who lost her childhood because she was stuck at her mother's wimp who tried to unravel what was "wrong" with her. Ms. Gregory's story has her mother dragging her from doctor's office to doctor's office to try and uncover what she suspected was wrong with her little girl. Treatment after treatment, medication after medication, not a single doctor can pinpoint was is truly wrong with her. What was truly wrong with her was a highly abusive...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Isabelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sickened is an account of Julie Gregory's childhood life in and out of doctors’ offices and the journey to find "what was wrong with her." Julie had to endure painful procedures like being cut into her leg in order to see if her heart was working properly after other, safer, tests came back negative for a heart condition. Julie never knew what was wrong with her, but followed her mothers lead into telling the doctors her many symptoms that were either exaggerated or not even true at all. Julie w...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Morgan Mayer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book "Sickened".

The authors point of purpose for writing this book was not stated directly but it was pretty obvious I think. I believe the authors purpose for writhing this book was to tell others about her very difficult life. Another reason I think she wrote this is to reveal the secrete behind troubled families and what it is really like first hand. I also think the author wrote this novel so that any child who has been a victim of any kind of child abuse that they are not alone...more I read this book "Sickened".

The authors point of purpose for writing this book was not stated directly but it was pretty obvious I think. I believe the authors purpose for writhing this book was to tell others about her very difficult life. Another reason I think she wrote this is to reveal the secrete behind troubled families and what it is really like first hand. I also think the author wrote this novel so that any child who has been a victim of any kind of child abuse that they are not alone and they can persevere.

I think the main theme throughout this book is perseverance. Julie pushed through the beatings from her parents and her constant unnecessary hospital visits and tests, that was ongoing for years and years. I also think another theme is that you should count your blessings. She shows you how the secrete life of a neglected abused child lives; so maybe she was trying to get across to the well off kids, who think they have it bad. She shows them that it could be much much worse.

This novel was told in first person and is a narrative, and also a description. The author really made you feel like you were there, using her description. For example when she was having different tests done she was very descriptive on what the doctors did.

I liked the book though some parts where slightly slow. At some points in the story you had to reread a paragraph because sometimes the way she worded things didn't make sense to me, and I was confused about what was going on. I liked how at times I could not put the book down because it can be intense. I liked how this book was sad and depressing. That sounds weird but for me to keep my attention on a nonfiction book it has to be sad and intense at times, like this one was. The only thing I would change might be the wording. This book is actually like other books I have read. It was similar to the novel "Three Little Words" and "A Child Called It" It was similar to "Three Little Words" because it had to do with being in foster care. Sickened had some foster care too. They are also similar because the both deal with women in their life being abusive and negligent. In "Sickened" It was her mom in "Three Little Words" it was one of her foster parents. The two books "A Child Called It" and this one are also very similar they both deal with foster care and abusive parents.

In conclusion I enjoyed this book and would recommend It if you can handle some very sad parts.
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Jul 01, 2012 Leah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arcs-freebies, autobiography-memoir, bantam, nonfiction, random-house

Munchausen's is a disorder in which someone fakes or induces symptoms of disease in order to get attention and care as a patient. Munchausen by Proxy is a disorder in which someone fakes or induces symptoms of disease in someone else for that same attention. Julie Gregory has a mother with Munchausen by Proxy and was unlucky enough to have been the proxy.

Constant doctor's appointments, medications, hospitalizations, and ever more invasive procedures characterized Julie's childhood. When a doctor...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Ayu Puspita Sari rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: about-life, autobiography-memoir, family, non-fiction, parenting, psychology

Buku pinjam di perpustakaan pusat UI disaat sedang berusaha lari dari stres tugas kuliah yang menumpuk. Kisah di buku ini menceritakan tentang Julie, sang pengarang, yang hidup di bawah pengasuhan seorang ibu yang mengidap sindrom Munchausen by Proxy, sebuah jenis penyiksaan dari seorang ibu terhadap anak dimana sang ibu terus mengira anaknya mengidap penyakit berbahaya dan terus-terusan membawanya ke berbagai jenis dokter untuk berusaha mengetahui penyakit sang anak yang sebenarnya sehat-sehat...more

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Oct 22, 2010 Jay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, hunger-hurts-but-starving-works, non-fiction, psychology, biography-us-american

So, I generally scoff at these books. Not because of the situations depicted in them, but because they all look the same. A white background, a handwritten font title, sad picture of a child on the front. The names are usually one word: NAKED, UGLY, SICKENED. And so on.

Buuut, I liked this book. I liked how Gregory was able to depict MBP, and how she believed herself to be sick up until her mid-twenties. If you're told something for so long, eventually you will believe it right down to your soul....more

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May 04, 2010 Terry rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir

Hoo boy, this is a tough read. I actually turned to the end of the book to see if there was a reason to slog through the rest of it. I know, I know, that's cheating.

I am probably the only human being on the planet that hated Pelzer's The Lost Boy, for various reasons including what I thought of as terrible writing; and unfortunately, this book reminded me a little too much of that one, and that ruined some of the experience for me.

On the other hand, I think Gregory exposes a kind of abuse that...more

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Dec 26, 2009 Karin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography-memoir, munchausen-by-proxy, mental-illness, nonfiction, adult-ya-crossovers, coming-of-age, abusive-relationships, families, borrowed-from-the-library

Julie Gregory’s mom is obsessed with her daughter’s health. She spends years convincing everyone that Julie is a very sick little girl. Even Julie starts believing that there’s something wrong with her. Her illness keeps her out of school, keeps her from graduating, keeps her from making friends, keeps her from having a normal life, and keeps her right under her mother’s thumb. Mom also makes her take medicines she doesn’t need, and has her on a variety of diets to control her illness that only...more Julie Gregory’s mom is obsessed with her daughter’s health. She spends years convincing everyone that Julie is a very sick little girl. Even Julie starts believing that there’s something wrong with her. Her illness keeps her out of school, keeps her from graduating, keeps her from making friends, keeps her from having a normal life, and keeps her right under her mother’s thumb. Mom also makes her take medicines she doesn’t need, and has her on a variety of diets to control her illness that only serve to make Julie more sick and malnourished. Julie and her brother (and eventually the foster children their parents take in) are marched off to specialists to have their problems diagnosed. In one harrowing experience, Julie is forced to spend a week in the hospital for testing and exploratory surgery. In desperation she screams that her mother is making it up! But the nurse doesn’t believe her. In fact, every time Julie is able to articulate and identify her mother’s abnormal behavior, no one believes her. She finally breaks down at work one day and confesses everything to her supervisor, who makes sure that Julie gets to talk to someone who can help her. Melissa, her savior, gets both Julie and the foster children out of mom’s reach.

For years after this, Julie has an uneasy relationship with her parents – her mother, in particular. She is in and out of foster care, returns home for awhile, lives in her own apartments and houses, but she can’t find a direction, and when she’s under a lot of stress she recreates the habits and behaviors (and the sickness) her mother ingrained in her when she was growing up. Finally, sick and attending a class in abnormal psychology she learns, for the first time, about Munchausen by proxy (MBP) – and runs out of class. That’s her mother they’re talking about! But identifying what’s wrong doesn’t suddenly make everything better. Things are still very bad for her. Most people she talks to, therapists, even, have no idea what MBP is. Julie ends up living by herself, making up her own cure. And when she emerges from her self-imposed, self-devised therapy, she’s almost whole. She goes to see her mother in Montana. She finds her perpetrating the same kind of treatment on yet another little girl in her care. Julie cannot stand it. She writes:

“I have come back to prosecute my mother, to tell her secrets, to rip from her a veil burnt, sewn, crusted onto her skin. I don’t know what shape the process will take, but I have got to stop my mother. Stop her from taking each new girl she lures into her life under a false pretense…I have pushed the last bubble of my guilt from out behind the wrinkle of wallpaper. I owe her nothing…I will save that eleven-year-old girl, that next-generation replica of me…Because my mother is not done yet; she never will be.” (p. 244)

This was a very powerful and moving memoir. The thing that is so awful about these memoirs of terrible childhood experiences is that you can’t do anything to save them. Their powerlessness becomes shared, becomes your powerlessness. You can’t reach them, can’t touch them, can’t rescue them. They are trapped until someone does see, or they can escape under their own power. The waiting is suspenseful, awful, frustrating. I’m hesitant to “rate” abuse, but on the scale of graphic and physical abuse, this was somewhat less horrifying than Dave Pelzer’s memories of his mother. There’s plenty of crazy mother to go around, though - and crazy father, and crazy-in-denial doctors/society/world. We can learn the reasons, perhaps, behind the crazy, but it’s awfully hard to forgive it or even understand what compels them to do what they do. Julie has got to be an extraordinary person to have come out of her abusive childhood with such strength and determination. She may have been sprung initially from her mother’s clutches by an outsider, but she had to be her own healing influence. Now, how did she manage to cling to sanity when abuse has destroyed so many others? What about her made a difference? (less)

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Jun 12, 2009 Talia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book differs from your typical "Painful Lives" autobiography in the unusual form of abuse it chronicles. Munchausen by proxy is a largely unknown phenomenon, and difficult to understand for those unfamiliar to the idea; after all, how could a person deceive a whole string of doctors - as well as the child herself - that a perfectly healthy child had a mysterious disease so serious it might require open heart surgery to diagnose?
The positives of this book: you can really start to see the psy...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Lynsey rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biogs-memoirs-non-fiction

I generally steer away from child abuse memoirs - they're not my idea of an entertaining read. But I read all of my holiday books & there were slim pickings on offer in the hotel lobby. Besides, I am mildly intrigued by MBP.
However, this account didn't really address MBP syndrome, more than it did reflect on a terrible emotionally and physically abusive childhood. The writing style was amateurish, disorganised & focused on to many irrelevant details. Sure it was appalling & illustra...more

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Jan 08, 2012 tee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-pube, memoirs, mental-health

Weirdly, ones first reaction is to want more from this book. She didn't suffer enough, she should have been sicker, her mother should have been worse (and I'm not alone in this, there's other people who echo my thoughts but just aren't aware that they're hungry for the gore). The thing is, Gregory's abuse was severe and it doesn't matter how mild a case of Munchausen's it was- if you put yourself in her place, in the body and mind o a fragile, dependent child - the experience must have been horr...more Weirdly, ones first reaction is to want more from this book. She didn't suffer enough, she should have been sicker, her mother should have been worse (and I'm not alone in this, there's other people who echo my thoughts but just aren't aware that they're hungry for the gore). The thing is, Gregory's abuse was severe and it doesn't matter how mild a case of Munchausen's it was- if you put yourself in her place, in the body and mind o a fragile, dependent child - the experience must have been horrific. Her mother was twisted, her father turned a blind eye and she was completely alone with her trauma. Her brother, so damaged by his childhood, that he's repressed all memories of it.

Not many of us have probably experienced a perfect childhood. Even if you had fabulous parents, I'm sure there were moments that have left you a little scarred. Perhaps a heated argument between your parents? Can you remember the fear from that moment? And I bet you still carry it around with you. Imagine living with Gregory's experiences. I experienced a fair amount of damaging shit in my childhood and it's amazing how the smallest things are what I recall, my stomach churning in knots - days where dad had had enough of being as patient as a saint with mum's bullshit and finally snapped, thumping his hand on a wall making a clock fall down and smash. The terror I remember from that moment is immense! Let alone someone like Gregory whose father smacked her head into the coffee table, or whose mother ignored broken wrists for her own amusement. Or stood by nonchalantly while her daughter screamed whilst getting catheters put in. Pain and trauma isn't comparable, everyone handles and processes it differently but you can't help but feel your heart go out to Julie.

The book itself was fairly well written. Gregory's prose was a little overblown and dramatic at times, she shifted tenses frequently and the last 30 pages or so dragged on without much structure but all in all, it was an interesting account of a childhood living with a MbP mother. It must have been extremely cathartic to write and I hope that she's in a much better place these days. I also hope that her mother has been brought to justice and has had the right to have access to children stripped from her. It's so sad that this shit happens in the world.(less)

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Jun 27, 2011 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first half of this book earned a solid 4 stars (which in my quirky scale, is a 'Wow. Quite enjoyable'. The second half, however, floundered its way down to just 2 stars (a 'meh...didn't really care for it). I'm a sap for memoirs. I am convinced that everyone has a story to tell, and while the better part of the population's story is more interesting than my own bland story, not everyone's actually is going to make a fascinating read.

Sickened did not, in fact, fall in that category. This is t...more The first half of this book earned a solid 4 stars (which in my quirky scale, is a 'Wow. Quite enjoyable'. The second half, however, floundered its way down to just 2 stars (a 'meh...didn't really care for it). I'm a sap for memoirs. I am convinced that everyone has a story to tell, and while the better part of the population's story is more interesting than my own bland story, not everyone's actually is going to make a fascinating read.

Sickened did not, in fact, fall in that category. This is the sort of story that needed to be told. Munchausen by Proxy has been a sort of fascination of mine since I first learned about it in an Intro to Psych class I took in high school. While I knew about child abuse, neglect, and parents who generally did not treat their children as little dependent people who sprung from their own bodies, I found it appalling that people would pretend their children were sick for attention and sympathy, and even worse, would actually make their children sick for the same reasons.

The first part of this memoir is actually about MBP and Julie Gregory's experience with it. It's anyone's guess what kind of problems that poor girl actually had, not because her mother imagined them, but rather because doctors believed her and prescribed all sorts of medication to be shoved down her throat.

The second half of this book was less of an interest to me (does it sound rude to judge another person's life?). Don't get me wrong, Julie had terrible experiences, but while the first part of the book was strictly regarding the MBP (as the book implied), the second part revolved more around the physical abuse, the foster children, and Julie's later-life and coping. It was sad, no doubt, just not as intriguing to me as the beginning. The writing, much like my review here, seemed disjoined and more like the perspective of an outsider rather than a survivor.

Despite my only giving this book 3 stars, I recommend that anyone read it and form their own opinions. While it sounds terrible to compare abuse stories (as it's all disgusting), I would say this book was every bit as gruesome- though in a different manner- as Dave Peltzer's books.(less)

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Nov 30, 2011 Lexi Elmore added it · review of another edition

I believe that Julie Gregory’s purpose for writing the book “Sickened” was inform us that there are many ways that parents abuse their children, but this one called Manchausen by Proxy Syndrome could possibly be the worst. In the story her mother takes her from doctors to doctors to get tested. She also explains how tough it can be to be a victim of this disease. It would be hard to live in a house hold such as this one.

The theme of the story is to stay strong during tough times like this one...more

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Nov 22, 2011 Kyle rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Like a lot of other reviewers, I liked the first half of the book much better than the second half. It was really interesting to read about Julie and her mother - I actually totally forgot this book was a memoir (I had it on my Kindle under "Sickened") but I read it thinking that this reads more like a memoir than fiction. Halfway through, I realized my mistake. Whoops!

Anyway, Julie's story is definitely interesting. However, I got totally lost in the last half - all of the sudden, her life seem...more

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Jun 03, 2009 MAP rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: psychology, biographies-and-memoirs, non-fiction

I would say the first 1/2 of the book is actually four stars, but the second half of the book becomes disjointed, abstract, and scattered, almost as if she wrote each sentence at 2 AM after a revelation (except that the paragraphs aren't set up like that, so you're left lurching from thought to thought between sentences with no visual sense on the page of a separation of thoughts.)

The book is an interesting journey of a child growing up with MBP and abuse and not fully realizing the extent of wh...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Cindy Vine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Reading a book like Sickened really brings it home what sickos we have living with us on this planet. It's amazing that Julie survived her childhood but there is no way she'd not carry the psychological scars of what was done to her. It seems that her grandmother probably did the same to her mother when she was little. The scariest thing is that her mother carried on'adopting' more children so was able to continue doing the same thing and ruining the childhoods and lives of others. I agree with...more

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Dec 02, 2008 Sandra D rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir, medical-health, children

I feel faintly guilty for having read this, like slowing down at the scene of a car wreck to catch a glimpse of mangled bodies.

The dysfunctional family memoir isn't my usual genre, but this one sucked me in and held me until the end. Or nearly the end. The "house of mirrors" part was pretty weird. Also, for an expert on MBP, the author offers very little educational info about it. But the writing was good and it was an absorbing, if horrifying, read.

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“I start to see that I surround myself with broken people; more broken than me. Ah, yes, let me count your cracks. Let's see, one hundred, two... yes, you'll do nicely. A cracked companion makes me look more whole, gives me something outside myself to care for. When I'm with whole, healed people I feel my own cracks, the shatters, the insanities of dislocation in myself.” — 57 people liked it

“But the memories that hang heaviest are the easiest to recall. They hold in their creases the ability to change one's life, organically, forever. Even when you shake them out, they've left permanent wrinkles in the fabric of your soul.” — 8 people liked it

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title link	preview: Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood
avg rating	preview: Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood Goodreads rating: 3.64 (6738 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7201773-sickened?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1360569985l/7201773.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7201773-sickened?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood by Julie Gregory[/url]

Sickened: The True Story of a Lost Childhood

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