#BookReview ‘Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses’ by Kristen O’Neal

About the book…

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.

Hugest of thanks to the awesome team at Black Crow PR for the blogtour invite and Quirk Books for the gifted review copy of this absolute banger of a debut novel,‘Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses’ by Kristen O’Neal

‘Lycanthropy…’ is out now, it is, to this humble reader, a hugely engaging novel which throws a spotlight on the hidden cost of invisible illnesses, especially amongst younger people, which often go misunderstood and ignored.

It has a quiet strength and maturity, underlined with a wicked sense of humour which goes hand in hand with the development of lead protagonist, Priya.

Diagnosed with Lyme disease, her first taste of freedom and ambitions curtailed by this vicious, invisible illness, she has returned home to live with her parents who struggle to cope with it’s debilitating effects as much as Priya herself does.

The online community , in the shape of a support group, is the place where Priya can truly be herself and, reaching out to others, she begins a firm friendship with a girl named Brigid. When Brigid goes offline, and doesn’t return, Priya has to take drastic action and embarks on the journey of a lifetime to find out what has happened to her friend.

A voyage of discovery, raising awareness of what it’s like to live with an invisible illness and a sense of ‘othering’,this is a storming debut with many layers and nuances that I completely adored!

About the author…

Kristen O’Neal is a freelance writer who has written for sites like Buzzfeed Reader, Christianity Today, Birth.Movies.Death, LitHub, and Electric Literature.

She lives on the internet.

Twitter @Kristen_ONeal @BlackCrow_PR @quirkbooks