- Title: Wait with Me
- Author: Emily Ava Gillespie
- Genre: Medical Fiction
- Form: Novel
- Reading Age: Adult
- Content Warning: illness, hospital systems
Summary
Something isn’t right with Jade O’Reilly. She’s felt this way since that strange trip to an abandoned hospital where her Dad told her Mom had Stage-4 cancer. In the following days, and while drifting in and out of consciousness, Jade wonders if she hit her head, or if she’s slowly losing her mind. Desperate for answers she visits an urgent care clinic and two hospitals and is treated inhumanely as her crisis escalates. Her mismatched friends and a well-intentioned cousin try to help, yet frequent episodes of dissociation continue to pull Jade into a hellscape of her own. Will she find the answers she seeks? Will any of her friends wait it out with her? Or is Jade meant to navigate this desert alone?
Other Books by this Author
Previously, Gillespie co-edited Mighty: An Anthology of Disabled Superheroes. The link to this book is available below. They are also the author of Dancing with Ghosts.
Image Description: The cover of Wait with Me by Emily Ava Gillespie. A black and white image of a pale girl with dark hair curled up on her side is arranged in the upper third. A torn strip of light blue paper highlights the title underneath the image. Below the title, the author's name is accented by a torn strip of light pink paper.
Credit: c/o Emily Ava Gillespie
Image Description: The author, Emily Ava Gillespie, looks into the camera with a smile on their face. She has shoulder-length, purple hair, dark-rimmed glasses, and a peachy complexion. They are wearing a cheerful-looking shirt with swirling shades of blue, teal, and white. Gillespie is seated in front of a slender bookshelf overflowing with books that have brightly colored spines.
Credit: c/o Emily Ava Gillespie
About the Author
Emily Ava Gillespie (they/she) is an author, disability activist, and professional daydreamer. They won the 2021 Dr. James Jamieson Influential Alumni Award from Nipissing University. Gillespie has a BA in Gender Equality and Social Justice and an MA in Critical Disability Studies. They earned a certificate in Creative Writing from Concordia University.
They have volunteered and worked in the disability community as an activist, researcher, peer support and facilitator for fifteen years. Gillespie is also an author and performance artist. Her work explores themes of memory, identity and mental health journeys. They enjoy working in community spaces and examining individual and collective experiences.
Dancing with Ghosts (Leaping Lion Books, 2017) is her first novel. Their poetry and short-stories can be found in several journals and anthologies. She co-edited Mighty: an Anthology of Disabled Superheroes by Renaissance Press published fall 2023. Her most recent novel is titled Wait With Me and was released in 2025.
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