Written by Kristen O’Neal, this novel follows Priya, a young college student whose life has been turned on its head because she had a severe case of Lyme’s disease that left who with chronic pain, fatigue, and other issues. Being stuck at home, her closest friend has become Bridget, a girl who she met through her blog, and a discord group for folks with chronic illness.
And, yes, there is a werewolf in this novel.
And, y’all, I had feelings about this book. At first I loved it, I loved that this is about people who suffer from chronic illness, particularly the bit about others thinking they are fine etc. I liked the idea of this exploring a discord server and how you interact and can become so close with those people.
But, and there is a big but, at some point I stopped being invested in the story. It wasn’t a poorly written story, far from it in many instances. Again, but, it felt like the author choose to write about a subsection of India that I don’t think she knows much about, because they are Christian and she is a Christian writer. There are points when she says that the family talks in a mixed language of English and another, yet she still has the character refer to her parents as ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’. I’m pretty sure that most other languages don’t use Mom and Dad for their parents… and a lot of the ‘references’ felt SUPER forces. At one point the mother draws a bath for Priya and puts epsom salts and coconut oil in the water and Priya says it smells like curry. Um, I’m sorry, but I do NOT agree with that statement. Curry smells of spices. That statement just… it makes ABSOLUTELY no sense. I’m sorry, but I don’t think it does.
And, let’s talk about how terrible and annoying the discord part is – nothing has time stamps, it is implied that, with a TEXT CHANNEL, when she isn’t online she can’t see previous messages. If it wasn’t for the fact that I use that service, maybe it wouldn’t bother me so much. But not having the images that are listed actually on the page DOES REALLY, REALLY BOTHER ME.
Okay. So, who would like this? I read this because of the werewolf, and once we get to that part of it, it is really interesting. And parts are good. But parts are also really frustrating. If you like werewolf novels, if you like reading about chronic illness folk, I suppose give this a shot?
