Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal

“Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses is a funny, heartfelt book with a phenomenal premise.”—New York Times Teen Wolf meets Emergency Contact in this sharply observed, hilarious, and heartwarming debut young adult novel about friendship, chronic illness, and . . . werewolves. Priya worked hard to pursue her premed dreams at Stanford, but the fallout from undiagnosed Lyme disease sends her back to her childhood home in New Jersey during her sophomore year—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.

Screeching delight. Favorite book of the year. Ten stars. That may just be my currently-more-angry-than-usual joints (courtesy of the stupid miserable weather we keep getting lately) speaking, or it could be the character with my same joint disorder, or it could genuinely just be an amazing book.

If you're not here for stupid in-jokes and group chats, you probably won't like this one, but I super loved it.

My husband suffers from a chronic illness, so I was excited to see a book that took a reader into that world. I was so pleased with this book! These characters are real people struggling with their illness and making a life around it. The conversations, the struggles, and the “life after” were realistic. They weren't sugar coated, nor were they helpless. They struggled to ask for help and still made real connections and real friendships. I think the friendships were the best part of the book. I loved it!

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a quick-takes catch up post. The point is to catch up on my “To Write About” stack—emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness..
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It's really bothering me that I haven't gotten a full post out of this yet—and it's been long enough (and I lost my notes) that anything I end up saying will be super vague and would be too much work to get a longer post.

In a Discord support for chronic illnesses, a group of people from around the world from a variety of age groups, come together to share struggles common to people with a variety of ailments and disorders. A couple of them realize they live nearby and strike up a friendship. Eventually, one of them disappears from contact for too long, so the other takes it upon herself to go try to find her friend IRL.

It turns out that this friend's chronic illness is a case of lycanthrophy—things get strange and heartwarming from there.

A lot of this is told in modern-epistolary: texts, emails, Discord chats, tumblr posts, etc., etc. I loved the jumble of methods used to tell the story. It really captures the feel for these characters and their lives.

If you look at places like Goodreads, you'll see a lot of controversy about elements of this book. I didn't know about any of it until I'd read the book. 96% of what I saw doesn't reflect the book, and seems to stem from one or two people who hadn't read the book. Ignore it all.

This was a fun, earnest story that addresses serious things like living with chronic disease and finding your place in the world along with silly things like Lycanthropy and excessive binge-watching with friends. A nice break from reality that maybe helps you think about some things.

Pretty relatable characters for anyone who's got lots of online friends that are close at heart but you haven't managed to meet face to face yet. I appreciate platonic soulmates that are strong, and the tumblr/discord chat format was done pretty well and realistically. And the lycanthropy metaphor for chronic illness, and discussion of common chronic illness experiences/frustrations, was interesting.

The main character being a POC, from a white author, did feel pretty weird and like that was chosen just for more surface appeal - it had no story impact at all, like it could have been a last-minute choice to appeal to a different market. And the first half had so much understandable emphasis on the frustrations of Priya and the others never knowing how she'll feel in a given day - then mostly ignored that with chasing Brigid around. I mean, sure, wanting to help a friend can mean ignoring some pain but that won't stop your body from demanding rest, from what I've seen from friends who have chronic illnesses.