The Invisible Kingdom

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness is a 2022 medical memoir by Meghan O'Rourke, published by Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

The memoir details O'Rourke's decade-long struggle with debilitating chronic illness and the medical system's inadequacy in properly diagnosing and treating her.

Eventually, her illness was found to be due to Lyme Disease and an autoimmune disorder, her symptoms improved, and she was able to gain more independence.

"[3] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Hillary Kelly said that the memoir, despite lingering too long on O'Rourke's daily symptoms and delving far too deep into technicalities about autoimmune diseases, is "a cultural history of 'one of the most powerful contemporary Western delusions: namely, the idea that we can control the outcomes of our lives'", calling the book "profound and almost soothing".

[4] Writing for The Nation, Libby Watson said that O'Rourke intimately portrays how having a chronic illness not easily explained by medical diagnostics and not attracting empathy from others who may not have similar symptoms, can lead to feelings of isolation.