Priya worked hard to pursue her premed dreams at Stanford, but a diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease during her sophomore year sends her back to her loving but overbearing family in New Jersey—and leaves her wondering if she’ll ever be able to return to the way things were. Thankfully she has her online pen pal, Brigid, and the rest of the members of “oof ouch my bones,” a virtual support group that meets on Discord to crack jokes and vent about their own chronic illnesses.
When Brigid suddenly goes offline, Priya does something out of character: she steals the family car and drives to Pennsylvania to check on Brigid. Priya isn’t sure what to expect, but it isn’t the horrifying creature that's shut in the basement. With Brigid nowhere to be found, Priya begins to puzzle together an impossible but obvious truth: the creature might be a werewolf—and the werewolf might be Brigid. As Brigid's unique condition worsens, their friendship will be deepened and challenged in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with their own ideas of what it means to be normal.
The best ideas are ones that seem so simple, it surprises you that no one thought of them before. Rory's StoryCubes were like that for me; such an obvious idea, but no one else had thought of it! And this novel is another. Lycanthropy as a chronic illness! Although Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter franchise is often read as an AIDS allegory, I don't think I've ever seen lycanthropy presented in quite this way.
I knew a little about Lyme disease before this - carried by ticks, causes extreme fatigue - but I hadn't known that there's a lot of pain associated with it. Kristen makes us really feel everything Priya is going through, which is occasionally tough but worth it. I felt so tired after reading!
My proof copy's formating wasn't great, so I occasionally had trouble telling speakers apart in the Discord chats and text chains. I'm sure this will be fixed in the official version, though; I definitely hope so, because it's a really clever mechanism that added a fantastic touch to the story. I think this novel will help people empathise with chronic illness sufferers; the conversations around 'I wish people wouldn't say Have you tried thinking positive?' were fantastic, really clever.
I really enjoyed this, and I look forward to seeing other people enjoy it as well. I'd love to read more about these characters, but if this is all we get, it's enough.
Lycanthropy and other Chronic Illnesses was due to publish in January but is currently scheduled for the 27th of April, 2021.
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