Notes from a Sickbed

by Tessa Brunton, Tessa Brunton (Illustrator)

Overview

In 2009, Tessa Brunton experienced the first symptoms of myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as chronic fatigue syndrome). She spent much of the next eight years unwell, in a medical holding pattern, housebound and often alone. In 2017, she found a strategy that helped reduce her symptoms, and soon began creating the first installments of a graphic memoir. Notes from a Sickbed collects previously released and brand-new, unseen comics that recall her experiences with honesty, a pointed wit, and a lively visual imagination.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728462936
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/01/2022
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	429,772
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.35(d)
Lexile:	HL590L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 13 Years

About the Author

Tessa Brunton is an cartoonist and author based in Santa Cruz, California. Her first comic book Passage was nominated for two Ignatz Awards: Outstanding Comic and Promising New Talent. Her mini-comic Second Banana is a Best American Comics 2014 notable comic. Her comics have appeared in Bitch Magazine, Maisonneuve Magazine, The Comics Journal, and many anthologies.

Tessa Brunton is an cartoonist and author based in Santa Cruz, California. Her first comic book Passage was nominated for two Ignatz Awards: Outstanding Comic and Promising New Talent. Her mini-comic Second Banana is a Best American Comics 2014 notable comic. Her comics have appeared in Bitch Magazine, Maisonneuve Magazine, The Comics Journal, and many anthologies.

Editorial Reviews

10/10/2022

Brunton (Passage) alternates whip-smart humor with searing emotional honesty in this graphic novel memoir about living with myalgic encephalomyelitis, also known as chronic fatigue syndrome. Over a five-year period, Brunton’s condition worsens, forcing her to stop working, avoid social gatherings, and curtail her artistic ambitions. Told through a series of vignettes and infused with a fanciful tone—items often magically appear at Brunton’s bedside, including a book titled Mr. Dead’s Guide to Scaring the Living, which she uses to imagine herself as a ghost pestering loud neighbors—Brunton casts her situation in a wryly funny light without shying away from feelings of frustration, anger, and despair. Despite misgivings about potential health effects, she begins work on a graphic novel and makes plans to visit Disneyland for research, a seemingly impossible endeavor that Brunton is adamant to see through. Loose b&w line art renders busy, intensely detailed indoor settings that closely mirror the creator’s feelings and mood at each life stage. Brunton’s varying hair lengths denote the passage of time as she details her experiences with unpredictable symptoms, misdiagnoses, and a fierce pursuit of her wants, making for a revelatory look into one person’s experience managing a chronic condition. Ages 14–up. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Painfully real." –starred, Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

11/01/2022

Gr 8 Up—In her graphic memoir, Brunton recounts her early experiences with myalgic encephalomyelitis, more commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome. Years before receiving an official diagnosis, Brunton spends a significant amount of time at home in extreme pain, with intense exhaustion. One of the most vexing parts of the illness, Brunton recalls, is the unpredictability; she finds it impossible to tell when symptoms will set in as well as how long it will take to recover. Some of the memories shared by Brunton focus on her day-to-day attempts to cope with and learn about her chronic illness, while other sections are lively imaginings, such as visualizing herself haunting noisy neighbors and brainstorming the best kind of mobile bed, to name a few. Brunton's tone is often humorous, with each spread filled with highly detailed black-and-white illustrations. The memoir's final spreads depict Brunton ruminating over which comic she wishes to create. VERDICT An incredibly authentic and honest look at life with a chronic illness. Recommended for purchase for all collections.—Olivia Gorecke

School Library Journal

★ 2022-08-03
In imaginative, often funny autobiographical vignettes, a comics creator depicts life with myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome.

Years before she’s diagnosed with ME, Brunton is forced to take to her couch, miserable and in pain. The vignettes take place over several years, as readers see Brunton, who reads White, go through multiple hair colors and styles. Some episodes are fully realistic depictions of a creative young woman learning to live with a life-altering illness, and others are fantastic visions of her imagined worlds. Lovingly detailed, black-and-white cartoons of idealized mobile beds and homes include a snail shell, a giant cake, and a multipage spread of a tower home with a bed flume, talking goats, and a room dedicated to Halloween costumes. Brunton rarely offers medicalizing details about the symptoms she experiences, with only brief mentions of headaches, fevers, and brain fog. Instead, she focuses on some of the infuriating aspects of ME, including its unpredictability, post-exertional malaise, and the exhausting grind of despair and grief. She falls for a few wellness scams and is gaslit by labor-intensive diets that can’t possibly be implemented by anyone who needs their claimed benefits. The final comic ends with Brunton, in bed long enough for her hair to grow, pondering the fantasy and science-fiction comics she wants the energy to write. This honest work depicts a bleak but not comfortless world familiar to many readers with chronic illness and disability.

Painfully real. (Graphic memoir. 13-18)

Kirkus Reviews