This book is wonderfully written and completely draws me in. The detailed descriptions make everything feel very real. It also mentions many other books which have inspired the author and have given me ideas for my next reads.

What I appreciate most is how the author addresses society's lack of awareness about chronic illness. It's refreshing to find a book that openly discusses this issue. Those with chronic illnesses suffer not just from their condition, but also from how others may unfairly judge or blame them. This book is a must-read for everyone, to increase understanding and empathy for those affected by chronic illnesses.

Some of Us Just Fall, by Polly Atkin
Rating: 5/5
Published: Now
‘I am a little outside my body, tethered only lightly to it. When I move bits of it, it is like moving a puppet. I stare at my typing fingers aware they are mine only because I can feel the faint pressure of their pads on the keys, and a tingling running up them into my hand, but it is unconvincing.’
After years of unexplained health problems, Polly Atkin's perception of her body was rendered fluid and disjointed. She describes the strange experience of being constantly unwell and feeling disconnected from her body. Her experiences of illness are juxtaposed with beautiful prose about the natural world, and how she finds calm and healing within it. She draws upon a wealth of knowledge about her own condition, whilst describing her horrific encounters with medical practitioners who saw her symptoms and decided to ignore them. This book is a striking act of activism, and one of the best pieces on chronic illness that I have ever read. There were times when I had to put it down, because it struck so close to my own reality. Chronic illness is a constant battle, and Atkin captures its difficulties with grace and eloquence.

"Some of Us Just Fall" is Polly Atkin's memoir of her life with illness. But it is also very much more than that too. Polly story makes sense of her personal history, her misdiagnoses, and her treatment (both medical and complementary). She also writes on the misogyny and disbelief that she finds when not fitting in an easily-defined medical box.

I found this memoir more lyrical and very beautifully written in comparison to similar books. Polly's writings on nature really make this a treat. Discussions of pacing and peace were particularly poignant, as well as the honest writing on continual navigation, moment to moment, on what pacing could look like.

All in all, an excellent book that I widely recommend. Thank you to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the ARC. All opinions are my own, and I have already bought another edition.

One of the most thought-provoking memoirs published this year, Some of Us Just Fall is a beautifully written account of the ways in which “the kingdom of the sick shimmers within the quotidian geography of every place on earth.” Slipping between the wilds of Grasmere and the sterility of emergency rooms, Polly Atkins’ account of living with chronic illness challenges simplistic understandings of disability and highlights the ways in which women’s experiences of illness are often minimalized, marginalized, and misidentified.

The narrative mirrors Atkins’ sense of herself in the world: her story is loosely held together and moves forward with slips and gaps between ideas such as fracture, cure, chronic, and maintenance. The tone of the book is slow and meditative: it circles ideas and disrupts straight-line narratives. Atkins’ digressions on Celtic myths, the linguistic history of words (fey and fate), literary ways of seeing (from Wordsworth to Emily Dickinson), and the life-affirming wonders of lakes and water offer readers a stunning examination on the nature of memory and identity.

I already knew about Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome before I came across this novel.

In Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better, Polly Atkin has created an immediately immersive account of what she goes through with this.

I am a person with disabilities. I have Cerebral Palsy, Hydrocephalus and visual impairments, and I understand the aspects of fatigue and how being cold affects Polly. I was able to identify with her immediately, although we don't have the same medical condition. This was thanks to her approachable writing style which made me want to learn more.

Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better has amazing visuals and I really felt at one with nature at the beginning of the book and every time it was mentioned. The Lake District setting is breathtaking.

This is a memoir everyone should have a copy of. I am all for disability awareness and it's one I won't be forgetting about anytime soon.

5 stars

Raw, impactful and moving. These are the words I would use to describe this book. I have never read a memoir about illness before, and I was very impressed. The author shares her arduous journey and it is fascinating to read. The most powerful part for me is the one about diagnosis. It resonated with me in a very particular (and personal) matter, the way the author depicted the long years of being misdiagnosed is absolutely revolting. At this moment, I felt a lot for her. The details about her ever-lasting pain and the way it ruins her everyday life are hard to read but also necessary to better understand such a complicated thing.
It is reading books like this one that makes me love reading non-fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

Polly Atkin, a patient who has suffered greatly with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and hemochromatosis, documents her long struggle to be taken seriously by the medical profession, obtain diagnoses, and manage her condition. <u>Some of Us Just Fall</u> offers insight into what it is like to be a person living with chronic diseases that set her apart from those with normally functioning bodies. Atkin packs a lot of other “stuff” into her book as well: commentaries and reflections on the writing of others who live with disabilities; considerable nature writing (focused mostly on Grasmere in the Lake District); academic musings on Thomas de Quincey and the Wordsworths; mini essays on hydrotherapy, cyanobacteria and figures in Scottish history; and excerpts from her journals (some of them recounting nighttime dreams).

I would have much preferred a shorter, more linear narrative. Part of Atkin’s point is that chronological time doesn’t really exist for the chronically ill patient. Life does not progress, move forward, for her in the way that it does for more able-bodied humans. Instead, time is layered, a palimpsest. To a certain degree, the patient is stuck. The same things happen over and over again, though there are variations in the bones broken, the joints dislocated, and the organs that require imaging. To emphasize this deviation from time as most experience it, Atkin’s telling appears to be intentionally fragmented and disorienting. It’s 1997 in one paragraph and almost twenty years later in the next.

Since my own preference is for a clean, economical writing style, I did not get on well with this long and sometimes wordy book. I also grew impatient with the nature writing, the stories about class trips in childhood, and the retelling of dreams. I was most engaged when Atkin wrote plainly about her condition. I didn’t have the mental wherewithal to grapple with her metaphorical musings about liminal realms—the caves under Nottingham or the kingdom of faery. The author was evidently drawing parallels between these places and the illness experience. Unfortunately, I cannot say I always grasped her points.

I was greatly saddened to read of Atkin’s suffering, and while there were aspects of her book that I appreciated and learned from, it often felt too cerebral and highbrow for me.

Many thanks to the publisher and Net Galley for providing me with a digital copy for review purposes.

Some of Us Just Fall is a truly beautiful and earnest examination of illness, pain, joy, and nature.

Enlightening. Vulnerable. A Gift .

Some of Us Just Fall was validating, engaging, and vulnerable—a memoir of Atkin's journey to diagnosis and ongoing experience of being chronically ill, continually navigating the healthcare system and searching for relief.

I share a number of the same diagnoses with Atkins and was a bit disappointed she didn't go into more detail regarding their consequences and comorbidities, which are numerous and extensive, but perhaps that in itself is the reason why. Feeling slightly aimless and meandering in parts, perhaps this echoes her journey, or perhaps the book might also have benefitted from another round of edits, either way it was a bit tiring.

Atkins meditations and ruminations on pacing I found to be enlightening and on point. As a chronically ill/disabled individual I identified with her shared experiences with pervasive medical gaslighting and indeed many steps in her journey.

Despite being a memoir and gaining a close view into Atkins' life there remains a sense of depersonalization, a lack of intimacy, an alienation from the self, which seems to come along with chronic illness, an objectification. Though it is a personal narrative it is not balanced by spending much time giving the reader any insight into the deeper dynamics of illness, disability, pain management, doctor preferences,.etc. The book skims the surface of her personal life just enough to tell the story but not enough that you feel like you are getting to know the author, or have sufficient context, depth or insight— much of the complexity is lost—and with it the depth of her humanity. It's a felt loss—an absence on the page.

Nevertheless, Some of Us Just Fall is a welcome addition to a chorus that needs more voices.

A huge Thank You to NetGalley and Publishers for access to the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

This book approaches so many important topics with beautiful prose and relentless honesty - living in constant pain, the struggles of misdiagnosis, medical misogyny, and the idea that you can be healed from your chronic illness by just "going outside" and "not thinking about it so much." The story is not told chronologically, but it is categorized thoughtfully into sections that tell the story from different perspectives. I was inspired by the core message of this book, that "a cure" is not the magical solution, but rather that people who are ill can still live better, happier, more comfortable lives. What kept this from being a 5-star read for me is the poetic/academic ramblings on William Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott, etc - I sometimes got lost in those passages and did not always see the connection. However, overall a brave and helpful memoir that I am glad to have read.

This book is beautifully written. Every line is like poetry and flows with an artist’s paintbrush. However, I found it hard to finish. It is a book of meandering reflections on nature and humanity and life with chronic illness. As someone with MS, I can appreciate that. But I felt I needed a little more structure and forward momentum to keep my attention. With that said, this may be the perfect book for someone else at the perfect, necessary moment in their life. I’m excited for that person to find it!

This was my first time reading about this kind of illness, especially from a non-fiction standpoint, and I was wonderfully entranced. Every single sentence felt like poetry. Polly Atkin has a way of climbing in to your brain and painting the vivid scene of emotions and dismay and hope and love and curiosity for everything within this world. Quite fascinating. I will be keeping my eye on this author, yes please.