#BookReview ‘Everything is going to be K.O’ by Kaiya Stone

About the book…

In Everything is Going to be K.O. Kaiya Stone writes about her own experiences of living with specific learning difficulties: from struggling at school to being diagnosed with dyslexia and dyspraxia while at university, to performing her own one-woman stand up show inspired by her journey.

Always funny and unfailingly honest, Kaiya outlines the frustrations of having SPLDS but also the ways in which they have fuelled her creativity. She calls for neurodiversity to be celebrated and stresses that instead of questioning how we are ‘supposed’ to think we should take pride in our cognitive differences.

Everything is Going to be K.O. is an uplifting book for anyone who has ever wondered what it is like to live with learning difficulties today.

Hugest of thanks to Martina at Midas PR for inviting me to read this debut book, Kaiya Stone’s autobiography, ‘Everything is going to be K.O’.It is out now in hardback from Head Of Zeus publishing.

I resonated with this book so hard-the sense of disclocation, feelings of being out of place and out of touch with the mainstream and hiding your worries is so familiar. I was diagnosed at the age of 44, on my second time at university, with dyslexia and dyspraxia after spending an entire lifetime tilting at windmills, at odds with life.

This is such a wonderful book in its exploration of neurodiversity, how it makes you feel in the context of a personal memoir, and how these traits are perceived by family and institutions alike. It is moving, hilarious, and incredibly brave and fierce. It might sound odd but this is such a readable book, everything about this publication is so well thought out-the font, the page size and the illustrations, all of it creates a book which is so accessible, moving and funny. I absolutely loved it, I will be sending it to my dyspraxic and dyslexic daughter-also working as a nurse diagnosed at uni-because she will be like me, so thrilled about this insight into what it is like to have a SpLD (Specific Learning Dificulty).

Her disarming honesty in being so open about her journey will be a beacon for those who have family members with these diagnoses, it will lead to a greater understanding of how our brains process information and most of all, do it with positivity. This will hopefully lead to greater empathy and patience with those who struggle with what should be otherwise straght forward daily tasks, and yet have so much to offer in lateral thinking skills and self deprecating humour. Outstanding!

About the author…

Kaiya Stone is a writer, performer, and director who likes to tell stories any way she can. She snuck her way out of Yorkshire into the hallowed halls of Oxford University only to discover that she had many undiagnosed learning difficulties. She turned this experience it into a one-woman show which debuted at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and then ran at Edinburgh Festival 2018. Everything is Going to be K.O. is her first book.

Twitter @kaiya_stone @HoZ_Books @midaspr