Sick Bay

Sick Bay by Nova Weetman 

This story follows the turmoil of two young girls as they struggle through the difficult transition from childhood to adolescence, finding friendship through the unlikely solace of the school’s sick bay. Riley is a Type 1 diabetic with an overbearing mum and a toxic friendship group that doesn’t understand why she can’t eat “normal food.” She wants to do all the typical things the other girls are doing - going swimming, drinking slushies, and wearing clothes without worrying about how to disguise her insulin pump.

Then there’s Meg: relatively friendless, reads too much, and has a mum who hasn’t gotten out of bed since her dad died. Nicknamed “Slipper Girl” because she doesn’t have appropriate footwear, Meg’s panic attacks find her sitting in the sick bay on a regular basis. She’s given food by student support services because she’s underfed and is treated as odd by a lot of the other school kids.

Although this is junior fiction, I enjoyed it as an adult reader, and I think its themes can speak to a wider audience. Abusive relationships, identity evolution, mental illness, financial distress, and a desire to “fit in” are universal struggles. The novel depicts challenges that are real, no matter what age you are when you’re going through them, and it doesn’t trivialise teenage issues by assuming they’re always something one will simply “grow out of.” Young people do face very real problems, and it’s refreshing to read a novel that doesn’t underplay this.

The book is a light, easy read and serves as an enjoyable palate cleanser if you’re typically bogged down with heavier adult literature. For juniors and young adults, I think it’s a good alternative to the prescriptive girl-gets-crush stories dominating the shelves, and I’d encourage them to check it out.

Find Sick Bay by Nova Weetman.

Karolina