Book Review: Sick Kids In Love by Hannah Moskowitz

Welcome back to Musings of an Arthritic Artist! Today I am going to be doing another book review, this one for Sick Kids In Love by Hannah Moskowitz. 

This is a book I read pretty recently, so let's discuss it. There will be spoilers for this book. If you haven't read it and wish to, I'd recommend not reading this review. 

February (in the United States) is Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month, while February 2 is Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness Day, so I thought that this was the perfect time to post this review.

With that aside, let's get into it!

Sick Kids in Love is a YA sick lit novel about Isabel, a 16 year old girl with RA who meets Sasha, a 16 year old boy with Gaucher's disease in a hospital, where she is at for RA infusion treatments. This story isn't a standard sick lit novel. It isn't like Midnight Sun, Five Feet Apart, or The Fault in Our Stars. It's a sick lit novel wherein nobody dies. 

This isn't a spoiler, especially if you pay attention to the cover. The tagline reads "They don't die in this one," obviously taking a small jab at other sick lit novels wherein death is always imminent. This book also isn't like Everything, Everything which I already reviewed and expressed my animosity for. Both Sasha and Isabel stay sick throughout the whole novel, but neither of them dies.

One thing I noticed right off the bat in chapter 1 is that Isabel tells Sasha that she is taking DMARD infusions for rheumatoid arthritis that she was diagnosed with at the age of nine. This is a fallacy. Children cannot get RA. RA is an adult disease, meaning 18 and older. Children can get JIA, juvenile idiopathic arthritis. 

Fun fact: JIA used to be called JRA (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis), but the terminology was changed because too many people thought that JRA/JIA was just a child version of RA. Nope. False. While RF-factor positive polyarticular JIA is closely linked to RA, the two are distinctly different, despite being treated in similar ways. 

Someone with JIA/JRA wouldn't tell a doctor that they have RA when asked about their medical history, because symptoms are different. Instead, it would be referred to as juvenile idiopathic arthritis or juvenile-onset arthritis, not rheumatoid arthritis because they're two distinct diseases. 

Yes, once people with JIA become adults, their type of arthritis--depending on the symptoms or severity--will sometimes be 're-diagnosed,' but Isabel wouldn't have been diagnosed with RA at 9. She would've been diagnosed with JIA/JRA, THEN once she becomes an adult MAY be diagnosed with RA. 

There is no way that Isabel actually has RA. She's 16 years, 9 months old, as she tells Sasha in chapter 1. At the end of the book, she's 17. The youngest age where someone can be diagnosed with RA is 18. Children used to be diagnosed with RA a long time ago, however, once the medical community found that JIA/JRA and RA are two separate diagnoses and conditions (despite being related), children started being diagnosed with JIA/JRA. Therefore, because this book is a contemporary romance, and it came out a few years ago and takes place in the modern day, Isabel, wouldn't have been diagnosed as having RA by doctors.

How was she diagnosed with RA? I'd love to know. Because, in all actuality, Isabel has juvenile idiopathic arthritis. No way does she have rheumatoid arthritis. That's not me being ignorant. That's me doing my research/living with the same disease.

The reason Isabel cannot have RA is because arthritis in children tends to affect growth and development. RA is the development of arthritis in adults that does not lead to joint deformities when it comes to growth. Juvenile arthritis on the other hand is a distinctive condition because arthritis in children can affect growth and joint development because their bodies are still developing.

There are links at the end of this post for anyone who wants any further information on this. It's also included so nobody can call me out for being 'ignorant' and spreading 'misinformation.' I like to cover my bases 😇

In chapter 4, Isabel mentions the walk home. She mentions getting a taxi, but that her dad will wonder why she used a taxi to go fifteen blocks? I didn't understand this. Her father is a doctor, and Isabel has supposedly had arthritis since she was at least nine. Fifteen blocks is 0.75 miles, which is pretty far. 

Honestly, just use the taxi. I know I would, and my parents would understand. What's so wrong with using a taxi? Who cares if most people would just walk? You aren't 'most' people. To most people, you aren't even normal. So just take the taxi, or walk, and just stop talking about it.

Character-wise, Sasha was hilarious.

The romance was super sweet. I loved all the illness humor.

There were many scenes that I liked, but one of my favorites was when Sasha and Isabel were on the subway the day they went to LIC Landing. One of my favorite scenes was when Isabel was having a hard time standing due to joint pain, and Sasha asked a man who was sitting down if Isabel could sit down in his spot. I loved that part. 

That's it for this review! I hope you enjoyed it! 

See you Thursday, 

Lexi K🖌

Further information: 

Do Adults Have Juvenile Arthritis? (opens in new window)