Thanks for the advanced copy.

I work in the NHS and find this book upsetting in parts. I find this time of year difficult with pressure and this brings it home just how under funded the NHS really is.

Well worth a ready and an honest and open account that many need to read.

Book Review for Ward Nine: Coronavirus by Alys Morgan
Full review for this title can be found at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

Having actually worked on this ward of this hospital, I found this book very close to home. I also grew up in the local area and have friends who work at this particular hospital who have seen this happening for the last 10 months day in. Day out. This book was a tough read purely because of its subject. It was heartbreaking to read and so sad to hear of the people who passed away. Very touching and thought provoking. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers and the author for the privilege to read this book for my honest opinion

I enjoyed this book for what it was - a diary of the experience of being a hospitalized covid patient in the UK. I also enjoyed the inserted portions about the plague to compare that experience with the one we are experiencing today. I am an American and in December 2020, when I read this book, we are at the worst of this pandemic and it resonated differently than if I had read it three months ago when my city had one of the lowest infection rates in the country. That said, I did wish there was more medical commentary. I would have liked there to have been more from the doctors and nurses about the specifics of the author's illness or how the virus was affecting others. I would have also preferred a detailed afterword as we know that many covid patients suffer from long term lingering symptoms, but this book just ends with the author being discharged from the hospital. I was provided a free copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Early in the Covid-19 pandemic a number of articles appeared online drawing comparisons between current times and Daniel Defoe's 'A Journal of the Plague Year' originally published in 1722. Alys Morgan draws similar parallels in her own journal published here as a short novella that includes paragraphs from the aforementioned publication.

Alys contracted the virus after caring for a daughter who back in March was incorrectly diagnosed with gastroenteritis. As her daughter recovered Alys found herself becoming ill and it was only when her condition worsened and she was admitted to hospital that a routine test confirmed that she had coronavirus.

The authors diary provides an honest and frightening insight into her thoughts and fears on a ward where not everyone was as lucky as her. The noises, the smells, the fear, the gratitude and the little things that meant so much makes for a thought provoking and often harrowing read.

This short read tells of not just her experiences but also the dedication of the health workers and support staff who worked long hours with unquestionable commitment trying to fight a virus they had no experience of and weren't properly equipped to deal with. My utmost respect to all of those who put others before themselves working long hours as the fight continues.

My thanks to Parthian books and Netgalley for the review copy, I was under no obligation and all opinions expressed are my own.

This book is a direct and honest account of one woman's battle with coronavirus. It is written in the form of dated journal entries starting on the day the (first) lockdown was introduced in the UK and covers the period until the 8th May when Alys was able to go home after being teated in hospital for three weeks with Covid-19. It is interspersed with extracts from Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) which highlights in a really poignant way the similarities beween then and now.

Alys and her partner John receive the news of the pandemic like most of us did around that time; not knowing much about the nature of the disease, trying to find their way around the "New Normal", having medical appointments cancelled or re-arranged and waiting for more news when Alys's daughter Catrin moves back in with them with symptoms of gastroeneritis. Although both Alys and John are aware of the risks associated with having her at home, they are conerned about her and anyway she doesn't have the typical Coronavirus symptoms. Catrin gets better ad moves out but a few days later Alys goes down with symptoms of gastroenteritis too. She hopes it will go away until at some point she realises that she needs to go into hospital: she hasn't been able to eat anything for ten days and this thing is not going anywhere.

In hospital she is diagnosed with Covid-19 -- a very atypical case of the disease. Alys gives us a heartfelt account of her journey in ward nine (where the Coronavirus cases are kept). We are privy to her feelings and innermost thoughts: how grateful she was to NHS staff but also how at some point she just stopped trying, as if death did not matter, as if it possessed a certain allure. How she got to the point where she had to be fed via tubes, and how at that point she realised she had to make a conscious effort to get better. How she felt estranged from her family who were understandably very concerned and called the hospital every day but who were not allowed to visit. How other women in the ward passed away and were taken out covered in white sheets because there were not enough body bags.

Alys raises some very important questions: why were we not prepared for this? Why was there not enough PPE? Why did some make tremendous sacrifices, dying without seeing their families, when others didn't? And what will happen when it happens again? Did we learn anything?

What I liked most about the book was Alys's brutal honesty. Having been treated in a hospital (though not for coronavirus thankfuly) there was so much I recognised in her account. How you worry about inconveniencing others especailly NHS staff and doctors. How touched you are to see that staff actually cares. But there were aspects of her illness and its aftermath that were new to me: how alienated she felt from the outside world and even from her closest family members. How this disease left marks in her mental health. "Why me?" is a thought that recurs to Alys. Why have I suffered? Have I become a better person for suffering? Or not?

Following three weeks of treatment Alys was able to move out of hospital. She additionally needed help to learn how to walk again as her muscles had wasted. She had sessions with an occupational therapist and with counsellors. But the disease left an indelible mark on her; and she wanted to let others know.

"This book was also written in the memory of the thousands who died, and continue to die, without any final contact with their loved ones -- amongst them many NHS workers. I wanted to give a voice ot the voiceless. This is also their story. They deserve to be remembered. They should not be forgotten."

My thanks to netgalley and Parthian Books for an advance copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

This book was just ok for me. I actually liked that it drew parallels with the Great Plague and enjoyed the Defoe excerpts.

I would have like it to be more rounded out as a novel instead of fairly disjointed diary entries. I feel like people could have connected a bit more with Alys if it had some emotion behind it. It came across as very flat and cut & dry.

Very hard hitting, a side to this pandemic that isn't spoken about or seen by some.
I literally read this book within a couple of hours! It had me hooked. It really put into perspective the seriousness of covid19 (not that I was in any doubt how serious it is). Whilst some people may have complained about being in lockdown or stuck indoors, this book proves that this is the only way to try and save our lives, and the lives of our loved ones.

There is a couple of things I disliked about this one was the use of the word 'mom' instead of 'mum' I know it's only a spelling but it's not an American novel/account.
The second was I would have like a little less quotes from Defoe, I completely understand the links to his texts but I felt less would have been better, just my opinion.

I liked the diary style and the way it was written because it is someone's real life story and that exactly how I read it.

I would like to see more books like this I.e different people's accounts of living through this pandemic.

This was an utterly heartbreaking story of a woman who suffered at the hands of the corona virus.

I had tears in my eyes so many times reading this. If anyone doesn’t believe how devastating the virus is, read this.

It really hits home how underfunded the NHS is, how amazing the staff are and how quickly covid can change you life

So strange reading a book about such real events like the Covid 19 Pandemic as we are going through them. A poignant story that gives me a better perspective of the tribulations people are facing during this time. Puts things in perspective as it relates to the Spanish Flu throughout. Nicely written.

#WardNine #NetGalley

There's something very odd about reading a book about living through a momentous occasion in history when that occasion is still very much underway. As different as things feel now, in November 2020, to the way they did back in March, coronavirus is still in every headline. We're still living under lockdown rules, and although there are some signs of light at the end of the tunnel, it's still a very, very long tunnel.

This was a hard book to make sense of. I understand that it's timely; that reading this book when Covid is still a threat adds to its impact, because it serves as a warning of how much work there still is to be done, and how bad things can get. I do, however, think that getting this book out quickly means that it feels somewhat rushed. Morgan writes very matter-of-factly and we never really get much insight into how she's feeling or what she's thinking; only what's happening to her. She sees people die and yet there's very little interiority or depth to those scenes. Sometimes, this sparse and unfeeling prose works very well, such as when she's describing the actions of the NHS staff. She doesn't dwell on sentimentality there, and just explains how hard they're working and how they're being run ragged, and I think this is the right call. In other instances, it comes across as almost cold. That said, none of us knows how we'll respond to living through such traumatic events, and Morgan's reaction is completely valid; it just doesn't always make for very compelling reading.

As a testament to the year that was 2020, this book is invaluable. Morgan includes a lot of the details that, to anyone in 2019, would seem ridiculous. Being afraid to walk too close to your neighbours in the street. Queuing outside to buy your groceries. The suspicion when you hear that anyone you've ever been in contact with might be ill; the worry that your sniffle is a deadly virus. She also astutely compares the whole thing to her mother's experience with the Blitz, the last time that the UK was undergoing such a rapid sea change in its way of life. There's a real sense in this book of living through history and of being part of it, and, of course, of how many people don't survive that history at all.

Throughout, Morgan includes related excerpts from Defoe's 'A Journal of the Plague Year', a book that Defoe wrote purportedly based on his uncle's experiences with the plague in 1665. Sometimes, these excerpts work - I had a little chuckle at her comparison to Trump's notorious bleach-injecting gaffe with the charlatans who peddle snake oil and herbs in the streets of Defoe's world. There are times that these comparisons are a little more tenuous - as haunting and unfathomable as the makeshift mortuaries of 2020 are, they don't quite compare to the plague pits and body collectors of the 1600s.

I wonder what sort of book this could have been if, like Defoe's work, this had been released after the crisis had eased, and been allowed to stand as a sort of historical document. If Morgan had been able to write with some of the benefit of reflection, I think it could have been an emotionally stronger piece. None of this is to say that I didn't enjoy it, because I did; or perhaps 'enjoy' isn't quite the right word. 'Appreciated', maybe. Morgan is a very competent writer, and reading this was one of the most - to use a horrible buzzword - relatable experiences I've had in a very long time. Coronavirus might affect everyone differently, but it does affect everyone, and Morgan's testimony is a stark reminder of that. I can absolutely see myself rereading this book in years to come, when the New Normal, as Morgan puts it, is hopefully in full swing, and being transported back to this year when everything changed.

I felt so emotional reading this book - prob as it is so real and so relevant. It is written so beautifully and honestly. I think everyone needs to read it

I can’t say I enjoyed this book since it discussed such a difficult topic. Enjoyed is the wrong word, but I would recommend it as an insight to life during coronavirus. I originally rated 5* but I think I’m going to drop to a 4* after discussing with a friend and realising that even though a lot of the funds are going to Mind, the psychological impacts of COVID weren’t really discussed. They are a huge part of the impact of the virus and should be publicised more. Her story was so scary especially as people hadn’t realised that her sickness was actually a symptom.

I was alerted to this book by my friend who is a student mental health nurse and was brought to tears upon reading it. I also have a very close friend who is a doctor working on Covid wards risking her life fighting this virus everyday. The stories I have heard haunt me and I know she filters this and there is so much more she keeps to herself. I worry about the mental effect this has on her and other frontline staff, being thanked it seems with an empty gesture “Clap for the NHS”. How about adequate pay, funding, resources and equipment? Reading this book made me angry on their behalf.

I read this book today lying in bed recovering from Covid, I tested positive almost a month ago and despite serving my 10 days of isolation am continuing to suffer from its effects. I was lucky that I am strong enough to recover at home and have not required medical assistance but I resonate with so much that Alys describes and it was reassuring to know that she shared so many of my strange symptoms!

This is an honest and raw account of her experience, I loved how she used the quotes from Daniel DeFoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year written in 1722 as a perfect mirror of modern day. Humans it seems do not learn from history.

The most important aspect of reading this book is listening to her talk about the mental affect the virus has had which I feel is less mentioned within the media. You are bombarded with the 4 main symptoms everywhere you look, but what about the affect this virus has on our mental health?

A particular poignant statement she makes stuck with me “I thought about how the world is divided into two groups: those who have had it and those who have not.”

I feel this book is going to a be time stamp in our history, this period is going to be studied by historians in the future and this short account will form part of that narrative.

this book found refreshing as it was written by someone who suffered with coronavirus (COVID19) and survived even though they initially didn't have the classical side effects. its their journey from falling ill and their progress of the illness/virus and interlinked with quotes from the 1665 great plague of Defoe and Pepys

A truly excellent and very moving first hand account of the coronavirus.
This book is harrowing, brutally honest, and exceptionally emotive.
Insightful to all of us who are lucky enough not to have encountered this awful disease first hand, and educational enough to advise us what to do if we ever do become infected.
I wish Alys well in her continuing strive for recovery, and thank her for sharing her story with us.
An easy 4 stars.

I have luckily not tested positive for COVID and I can only understand what it’s like for an individual suffering with it as an outsider looking in. I am a student mental health nurse and believe it or not, we do work with COVID cases and every single case is truly heartbreaking. The sheer determination and compassionate care that I see professionals deliver on a daily basis is next to nothing.

This short memoir is something that needs to be read by anyone who has any doubt about the severity of COVID-19 and anyone who works within the NHS or not. This is a very raw and authentic story of an individuals experience with COVID. It highlights not only the physical effects of the virus, but the mental and social effects it can have on us too.

Thank you so much Alys for sharing your experience, it was eye-opening, raw and interesting. Thank you to NetGalley and Parthian Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A book that is so timely so relevant .Really hard to read as we all live through the pandemic but important moving so many courageous people.#netgalley #wardninecoronavirus..

Alys Morgan lives in the town where I live and was admitted to the hospital where I work, I didn’t know that when I sat down to read this very personal diary of her experience with Coronavirus. The tale is quite harrowing and frightening but so relatable. The comparisons to Dafoe’s work are really uncanny and stop you in your tracks to think this has happened before and yet here we seem to be again. I have lost friends and colleagues and family members, some recovered some have not and the grief is crippling and yet we carry on, determined to make a difference in some small way. A great recount, it immersed me, and made me cry, to be clapped off the ward for ‘making it’ is so emotional and yet so fitting to the success of the nursing staff’s care.
Highly recommended, insightful and thought provoking.
ARC copy.

I was particularly intrigued to read this book as I’m a nurse and worked on a corona virus end of life ward during the first wave ,so it was revealing to see how this experience was felt by a patient who had endured and conquered the virus, particularly the aftercare that was needed both physically and mentally especially as now the longer term effects of the virus are being brought to light! The parallels with the plague interestingly highlighted the many similarities between this current corona virus pandemic and the plague! A good insightful account well worth a read.