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My Review:Title: Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
Author: Kristen O'Neal
Published by: Quirk Books
Release Date: April 27, 2021
Format: ebook, Audiobook
Narrator: Soneela Nankani
Pages: 383
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal
Source: Overdrive
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2021 COYER Spring, Lenoreo's 2021 Diversity Reading Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound ✩ Book Depository
My rating:
Blurb:Teen Wolf meets Emergency Contact in this sharply observed, hilarious, and heartwarming debut young adult novel about friendship and the hairy side of chronic illness.
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.
4 stars — Well, that was entirely unexpected!! I actually started off listening to the audiobook for this one, and while I was really enjoying Ms. Nankani’s narration, all of the online chatting made for a tedious listening experience (because she had to read off EVERYTHING). And confusing on occasion. So I switched to the ebook and enjoyed it much more. Which is not to say it wouldn’t work for anyone, but something to consider.
I was a bit hesitant over the main character being BIPOC when the author is not. I personally don’t feel like anything came across stereotypical or insensitive, but…you know…I’m white. Honestly, other than a few bits and the unique names, Priya and her family could have been white, so take from that what you will.
The really wonderful diversity bits come in the disability representation IMO. I think you could really tell that the author has experience with a chronic illness, because all of the feelings were very raw and believable. As someone who doesn’t have a chronic illness (unless we’re counting mental health, which is its own beast), I very much appreciated getting this glimpse into daily life and all the different struggles and joys that come with it. Now, saying all that, I wouldn’t say it’s the focus of the book, but a very strong component of who Priya is *now*, and something that links her to her new online friends.
The online group (Oof, ouch, my bones) was an absolute delight. So many different kinds of people dealing with so many different kinds of struggles, sharing so many different kinds of little joys. I loved them every time we got a glimpse of them.
Priya was pretty easy to connect with for me. I could understand her frustration with her body, with the changes in her life, and how much it disrupted who she is. She had moments of great positivity, and moments of total YA/NA angst and whining…justified in my opinion, but still. I loved that she had a bit of a peacekeeper vibe to her in the group, because that’s totally my dynamic and I get that. She had such an interesting journey to go on, and I felt all the highs and lows with her.
I also really appreciated her friendship with Brigid, and what that brought to her life. They were hilarious with one another, and yet their friendship wasn’t perfect either. But man, it was like they’d been friends forever…they just had that dynamic. Not that there weren’t uncomfortable moments when they went from online to in person, but it all just felt very real. I guess I just really loved that their relationship wasn’t without its own bumps, because that’s just the way things go in life…it felt very real.
The lycanthropy thing was both hilarious and crazy and disturbing and a strange way to draw a correlation with chronic illness. I wasn’t expecting so much of it, but I enjoyed myself. And dude, Spencer was awesomesauce.
I think one of the things that didn’t work for me wrt the online chat component were the number of references that the reader was entirely left out of. Sometimes I could type out the web address and see it myself, and some I could infer, but some I couldn’t even figure out what to Google. It’s like, if you’re old and not with it (like me), you might feel lost at some of the jokes. I almost wish there were old person footnotes or something.
Anyways. Even though this is a bit more NA age wise, it felt more mature YA for me. I didn’t mind that, because sometimes I wonder where all the rest of the less mature folks are when I read these books (I know I wasn’t a mature University student). I was also surprised at the lack of romance in this one. Again, not a bad thing, I was just surprised. It didn’t take away from the story though, instead we got the story of an epic friendship…
I get what you’re saying about the non BIPOC author writing a BIPOC character. Also being white, it’s hard to know what could be written incorrectly. I’m glad it didn’t seem to come across poorly. Hopefully that will stand up with other readers.
P.S. I sent you an Instagram message. Bowen has your name as a character in Waylaid…It’s in there A LOT!