Priya is diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease and this puts her work in premed at Stanford on pause. Suffering and feeling alone even surrounded by her family, she becomes friends with Brigid online and soon they both join a Discord group for others with chronic illnesses. I can't speak about chronic illness or the cultural aspects of the story, but I can say that I did enjoy the writing and the characters. Having spent a considerable amount of time online and in chats myself, it felt really refreshing to see a chat in a book that felt absolutely real. I also really enjoyed the way Priya and Brigid are challenged as friends, and there were definitely parts of the book that made me laugh and smile. Again, I cannot say anything about the accuracy of the depictions of chronic illness but I can say these characters felt real and I really enjoyed that aspect of the book.

Lycanthropy and other Chronic Illnesses is the debut book by Kristen O'Neal, and is a clever blend of paranormal and contemporary. I appreciated seeing characters with a range of chronic illnesses and how the author portrayed the impact of their illness on their lives , and I thought it was handled with sensitivity and honesty. I thought the idea of incorporating lycanthropy with real illnesses added a layer of humour and whimsy to the book which provided a good contrast and some good relief from the struggles experienced by the characters.
I did struggle a bit with the format of the book, large sections were made up of online chats with the full group of characters, and at first it was a little difficult to keep track of who was who, but this was less of an issue as the book went on. I thought the plot was a little weak, I would have liked more of an explanation of where Brigid's lycanthropy came from, and the ending felt a little anti-climactic. Overall I liked the book and thought it was good to see strong representation for those will chronic illness, something that is rare in books.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

What a wonderfully written book. While it’s not all about chronic illnesses it does touch base with them. It was interesting to read about someone with EDS. I know someone whom has this as well and it physically hurts them to do things it doesn’t hurt for people without it to do. Walking up the stairs can be a task to say the least. I liked reading the discord, tweets, and messages. I know several people with Lyme and they all can attest how badly everything hurts some days. Some days everything is fine and others are like getting kicked by a Buffalo.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Tw: body horror, suicidal thoughts, ableism, animal death, infertility, confinement, blood

Priya's dream is to become a doctor, but a diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease during her sophomore year forces her to go back to her overbearing but loving family in New Jersey and leaves her wondering if she'll ever be able to go back to the way things were. Thankfully, she has an online support group and a best friend, Brigid who lives not so far from her. When Brigid suddenly goes offline, Priya decides to steal the family's car and go look for her, but she wasn't prepared for what she found once she got there.

I LOVED all the characters! The online group of friends was so wholesome and it reminded me of my own group of friends! I loved the fact that every one of them had their own arc and personality and weren't just labelled as "the friends". The friendship between Priya and Brigid was so pure and sweet and definitely my favorite part of the story. I appreciated that it was the main point of the book, because platonic relationships are just as important as romantic ones.

The writing was really easy to follow and engaging and I especially loved the chat messages between the different members of the group.

I highly recommend this to anyone who's looking for a fun read about friendship, dealing with chronic illnesses and werewolves.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an early copy.

Thanks netgalley for the ARC

Great potential here!
I liked the diversity of characters within this book - it's not everyday that basically every character in the book has some sort of chronic illness to deal with. Representation matters.

The two main characters Priya and Brigid have a lot to deal with and there is some character development there - it was an interesting idea to make lycanthropy a real thing whilst all the other characters dealt with 'real world' illnesses - it didn't quite gel as well as I would have liked. It was also a bit weird that everyone accepted that lycanthropy was a thing and no one was really fazed that a girl was turning into a werewolf.

The online conversations were a little bit too long and young-teen-like (despite the participants being 17+) but it was nice to see them develop a community to help each other.

This book was the most surprising book I’ve read so far this year! I wasn’t sure what I expected, but this is a fantastic tale about friendship and chronic illness. I’ve never read a book like this, and the bond between Priya and Bridget is awesome!

What do you do when your online bestie turns out to be a werewolf?! Priya was diagnosed with Lyme disease and has to navigate her new life with a chronic illness. She finds support with an online friend group who all have different types of illnesses/disabilities. Bridget being the one she’s closest to. But Bridget has been really vague when she describes her condition. A surprise visit reveals her secret to Priya, and the hijinks that ensue are pretty epic!

Very rarely do I ever refuse to finish a book. Almost all the time, I will put it aside and return to it at a later date when I feel like I’d be more accepting of the content. Sometimes I return to it, sometimes I don’t. But I will always have it on the back burner, waiting to return to it. However, this is not the case with Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses.

When deciding to read an ARC, it is always imperative to do research. After having read Cast in Firelight and realising that the author is white, married to an Indian person and writing the book for her children, I became lax in judging when a white author’s name is on a book featuring a person of colour. So, when the opportunity came to review Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses, I was excited even though the author had a very white name. I chalked it up to having adopted their partner’s name or simply was biracial. I had even naively added it one of my most anticipated reads of the year; it checked all the awesome representation points and promised to be cute and quirky. However, I was very wrong.

I seldom look at reviews before I read a book because I don’t want my judgment to be clouded by other people’s thoughts as well as spoilers. I had already read a little bit of the book and it seemed to be all I had imagined it to be; it was the perfect read to break up my fantasy streak. But for some reason, I was compelled to see what other’s thought of the book seeing as I was neither an Indian and Tamil person and I was not chronically ill. And, Goodreads did not disappoint.

Before I talk a little bit about why this book is so problematic, let me talk about some of the good things about it from the little that I read:

I absolutely loved that the connections and friendships were made over Tumblr. As someone who spent a good deal of their youth and fandom days on Tumblr, this just made me so happy and allowed me to relive a lot of the joy and fun of Tumblr. I am still friends with a couple people I met on the site. It made me miss participating in Tumblr culture so badly

It has a very strong character voice which makes reading it very compelling

It has a charming, youthful humour

That’s pretty much all I got because I didn’t read far enough to even make a dent in the overall plot. As I am neither an Indian and Tamil person and I do not suffer from debilitating chronic illnesses (I do have a chronic illness but my quality of life has not really been affected, so far), I’m going to only talk briefly about why you should not read Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses and direct you to reviewers whose voices matter more.

Many white reviewers will tell you to give the book a chance, and they’re right. Ignoring the overt racism, white supremism and white saviourism, it is not a bad book. It’s well-written and the experiences of the illnesses are, according to other reviewers, handled well. Furthermore, the lycan/wolf character is not Priya. But when your MC is a Tamil-Indian person and you’re a white author, there is something inherently wrong in that dynamic. I knew something was amiss with the book when the action tags said “speak in Tamil” instead of including the actual Tamil words spoken which authors of colour often do. And on this blog, we support characters of colours written by authors of colour. Period!

The author has said that the book was constantly reviewed by her Indian American friend for an accurate portrayal but as someone who had multiple Tamil-Indians classmates and friends, I know that no matter how much they vet my work, it is not authentic. When writing a character of colour, there are nuances and intricacies that no matter how much sensitivity reading occurs, will be impossible for a white author to capture, much less an Chinese like myself. We would not be able to understand or even know their lived experiences!

And based on the tiny bit that I read, being a Tamil-Indian person had absolutely no standing or bearing on the story. She didn’t need to be a person of colour. And clearly, the author (and her whitewashed reasoning of trying to give Indians a voice) tried to score diversity points in the most disgusting, white saviour way possible. People of colour do not need white authors telling their stories, telling our stories.

Indians are not an aesthetic! South Asian culture is not an aesthetic! Culture is not an aesthetic!

With that, I direct you to reviewers and voices who are most suited to speaking on this topic:

Aparna’s Goodreads review
Priyanka Taslim’s Twitter thread

Many thanks to NetGalley, Quirk Books and the author for an advanced copy of Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses in exchange for my honest review.

FIRST IMPRESSION:

I have yet to read a YA book with a chronic illness rep and a werewolf featured in it at the same time. And the main character is of Indian heritage, Priya. This book sounded like an interesting and unique twist on diversity, so I jumped at the chance to grab a copy.

THE STORY:

At the beginning of the story, we meet Priya who was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease and on medical leave from her premed studies at Stanford. This forced her to move back home to New Jersey with her parents, her brother Suresh and her sister Kiki. With her life on hold and her symptoms flaring up and down regularly, Priya is disheartened about her own future and ends up isolating herself from her college life and friends.

Priya befriended Brigid on Tumblr and they have been constantly in contact with each other for a while now. Brigid and Priya join a Discord group of people who are all living with chronic illnesses, aptly named “oof ouch my bones”, and they all make fast friends.

Suddenly, Brigid goes silent online and Priya makes the impulsive decision to drive all the way to Brigid’s place to check on her. What Priya ends up finding is a werewolf smackdab in the middle of Brigid’s house. Priya now has to help her werewolf friend, Brigid, figure out what exactly is going on along with their new friend from animal control, Spencer.

THE GOOD BITS:

Priya and her siblings had a fun and hilarious dynamic. Her younger siblings provided quite a bit of humour as well as some heartfelt moments.

I loved every hilarious moment with Priya, Brigid and Spencer! Spencer is such a cute and funny goofball, Brigid is all tough exterior and impulsivity, and Priya was the brains and the down-to-earth presence. They made such a fun team to follow along with and I laughed aloud at all the funny mishaps they got mixed up in.

I found the chronic illness support group on Discord a great idea! I enjoyed how everyone shared their feelings and experiences with each other online, and how the group became a crutch for them to fall back on when the going gets tough. I was also impressed by how some heavy issues were tackled by the group members!

It was interesting to read about Priya’s perspective on her recovery and how she comes to realise the role her family plays in it. Sometimes all the bad things that happen can really throw a person’s perspective on what is actually happening and how they can navigate it, so I found Priya’s journey through that very insightful.

I loved the relationship between Priya and Spencer! They are so cute and hilarious together! I also liked the inklings of romance that kept popping up; they made me gush at them each time!

Personally, I found the revelations that come out about Brigid’s lycanthropy at the end to be a very interesting way to spin the story. I was surprised by that twist, in a pleasant way.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD BITS:

It took me a looooong time to warm up to Brigid. I feel like that is more of a personal thing rather than a problem with the story, but yeah I had a hard time liking Brigid on her own as a character.

There were a few plot holes that I just could not get over, like how Brigid’s parents left her on her own at home while they are miles away, knowing that their daughter transforms into a werewolf.

I also found Priya’s impulsive decision to visit Brigid that first time to be very off-character. It would have made a lot more sense if she had taken Suresh or someone with her because A) she had no idea if she could make the drive with how her health was and B) she just took off on a one-hour drive without letting anyone know what the heck was happening!

Based on the fact that Priya and her family are from an Indian background, I expected way more South Asian rep here. The most South Asian aspect of Priya’s family were their names and that’s it. I found that very unrealistic and problematic. But then based on the fact that this isn’t an #ownvoices book, I should have expected this, I guess.

Though I liked the idea of the Discord support group, I was not a fan of how the author chose to just leave almost a chapter-long thread of messages for the reader to go through, without adding in much from Priya’s POV during those moments. It made it a bit tedious to keep up with like I am reading the 50+ messages left unread on a WhatsApp group.

FINAL VERDICT:

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses was a fun, hilarious take on being a werewolf and friendships, but does not really manage to really focus on the diversity and chronic illness rep I was hoping for. I loved the author’s style of writing but the execution left me questioning the story at times. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a light, hilarious story about friendships, but not to anyone hoping for more depth with Indian cultural diversity or chronic illness rep.

I was originally excited for this book even though I don't really read YA. The main character has Lyme disease and although I don't, one of my main disabilities is M.E which is also a neuroimmune condition and being the same age as the mc (19) I was looking forward to seeing myself on the page for once.

Which I did in a way. One thing this book has going for it is how it absolutely nails the feelings that come with being chronically ill/disabled in your teens: the childhood it robs you of, the experiences you miss out on that leave you feeling like you're falling behind in life, which comes with an inability to relate to other people your age. Not to mention the constant struggle of trying to grapple with the ongoing grief that comes with it and the frustration of not knowing how you're supposed to grieve something that you never even had in the first place.

I want to read stories featuring disabled characters from all walks of life.
As someone who's both white & disabled, it's important to recognise and understand the privilege my skin grants me. This is not to say I don't experience challenges in a world built with the able-bodied in mind but POC have a vastly different experience with disability than I do.
There are quite a few disabled South Asian readers who have brought up the fact that yes while the author herself is chronically ill (although not with Lyme), she's also white and our main character Priya is Tamil.
Racial bias is something that's so dangerously ingrained in the medical system and it plays a huge part in treatment, diagnosis etc and yet in a story centred on a South Asian character navigating a new chronically ill life none of this comes up or is even touched on.
This at times leaves the story feeling a little... maybe inauthentic is the right word to use? At times it comes across as merely diversity for diversity's sake.

The pacing and tone were also a little strange. A lot of the text comes in the form of chat logs as Priya, shortly after being diagnosed, joins a group chat on Tumblr at the start of the book to find friends who are also sick. It gets pretty cheesy at times in my opinion, with constant very heavy-handed gen z references (and I'm saying that as a 19-year-old) that I don't think will age well and could be confusing for older readers.
There were times when the main plot ramped up the tension only to suddenly cut back to the group chats. It's almost like the book couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a sweet lighthearted read or a darker one that explores heavier subjects like medical trauma, lack of body autonomy and suicidal ideation. And the constant back and forth in tone was a little jarring. I think that's a big reason why I found I didn't reach for it often. Once I'd started reading it it was fine but after I put it down there wasn't a lot drawing me in to pick it back up again.

That being said, it was really heartwarming at times and made me long for a group of chronically ill friends of my own! I can see how a kid or teen newly diagnosed with a life-changing illness would find a lot of comfort in this book.

So yeah, I lot of mixed feelings about this one. I'd encourage you to seek out more reviews by disabled folk specifically disabled Tamils & South Asians.
Overall I think it was a really interesting premise, the idea of taking the trope of lycanthropy as an illness and maybe using it as an allegory for how society treats the disabled is brilliant but execution wise for me it fell flat.

I know this book was on the spotlight for some issues on representation, but to be fair, I also loved how this is not your usual YA book. I talks about feelings and emotions but sprinkling with a little bit of turns and twists.

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal is a young adult novel. 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.

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses is a book that started slow for me, but quickly hooked me into caring about all the members of the chronic illness support group. That was what kept me reading, and I am very glad I did. I like the honest and well researched way the illness and the character's experiences with them- and other people's reactions to them- were described. It was all very real and honest, which I appreciated. So often we do not see some of the hardest aspects of being chronically ill, the emotional and mental components. I loved the character and relationship development, and find myself wondering how the future goes for the characters. I have a feeling these characters will stick with me for quite a while. Everything felt real, and honestly if there are werewolves this is pretty much what I think they might be.

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses is a read that will draw readers in, foster understanding, and leave readers wanting more.

Whew, this book was a bit of a ride! We start off following Priya, who is learning to live with the chronic pain, brain fog, and other symptoms brought on by Lyme disease. She finds solace and support in an online community of others with chronic illnesses, invited by her online BFF. When Brigid goes dark online for several days, Priya finally gets worried enough that she drives across state lines to check on her...and discovers not her friend, but a giant wolf.

Yep, that's right. Brigid's chronic illness is lycanthropy. I was curious how O'Neal would blend this fantasy thread into the real world, and she does a great job. There were a few moments that require a little suspension of disbelief, but overall I thought it was fantastic. What really sells it is the friendships - Priya and Brigid primarily, but also between the other members of "oof ouch my bones," the animal control employee they meet along the way, and honorary mention goes to Priya's siblings, who melted my heart. Also, it's just wonderful to read a book where a bunch of people with chronic illnesses are able to talk frankly about their experiences and commiserate with others who understand what they're dealing with, without the ableism and garbage that pops up on Twitter and other social spaces. I look forward to reading many more books with such awesome disabled representation in the future!

As a chronic illness sufferer myself - I was really excited to read this book.
However it was a real disappointment. I really struggled with the writing style - with the endless online conversations. I found this incredibly dull, and repetitive - there was just far too many of them to sustain my interest. The plot was very slow which is unusual for a YA book - where the pacing is usually so rapid!

Looking at the other reviews I can see a lot of people not happy with the fact the author is not a person of colour or a person with a chronic illness. I can't speak for person of colour representation as a white woman myself - however it doesn't bother me that the author doesn't suffer from chronic illness. Its easy to think that you personally need to experience or suffer with something in order to be a better story-teller on that topic. Of course it's good to 'write what you know' - but I think anyone could and should be able to tell any story providing they have done the research necessarily to make it believable and true to those that are actually dealing with that topic.
This book isn't a great representation of someone with chronic illness, but I don't hold it against O'Neal herself.

Overall it wasn't a great read, and not the relatable chronic illness story I was hoping for.

I don’t hate this book but I didn’t really like it as much as I was expecting to. I got really curious after reading the book description and I was excited to read this one. I think my reading experience played a big part on me not enjoying the book that much. I don’t know if it’s only on my part but the ebook was super hard to read because the texts have different font sizes and some were dark while some were lighter? (I read on a kindle) I thought, at first, the changes in font size/opacity were to separate the narration to the tumblr chat conversations but it’s not really the reason.

Although I didn’t enjoy it, I really liked how educational this one is! I’ve heard of chronic illnesses but I never really dug deep and researched about it. Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses educates you. The book made me curious and now I want to know more about it and how I could help spread more awareness!

I would love to give this another read once I get my hands on a finished copy! Just to check if I’ll end up liking it.

I absolutely loved this debut from Kristen O’neal. It tells the story of a college student named Priya who must return to her parents’ home after a bout of lyme disease knocks her down. She and her online friends form a discord support group to talk about their chronic illnesses, but when her best friend misses their weekly check-in, Priya drives to her house and finds a werewolf.
One of the author’s major strengths is the one-two-punch of blending the humorous and the bizarre with the gut-wrenching. One minute I was laughing out loud, the next I was tearing up.
Another delightful aspect of the book is the discord conversation logs. They feel incredibly true to life and perfectly capture the chaos of a group chat between a bunch of very-online young people and the bonds that form between friends who have chosen each other over great distances, not out of convenience, but because there is nothing sweeter than finding someone who understands you, who likes the same weird stuff you like, who honors your feelings and accepts who you are.
I can’t recommend this enough.

Such an interesting take on chronic illnesses! Also, I just love anything that involves werewolves, and aahhhhh! It was so fun, and I can’t wait to see more from this author!

Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses Kristen O'Neal is an adorable fun book about a makeshift group of new adults coming together and bonding over their respective diseases. It might not sound uplifting but the characters are truly likable and relatable. The writing is very smooth and you will read the story in no time, chuckling and enjoying the soft banter and friendliness of each.

I have seen many people question the cover design for this title, largely due to the comparison between a dark skinned girl and a werewolf and, while I understand that the character of the werewolf is not dark skinned, these criticisms do seem valid.

The story itself is enjoyable enough - as per the title, it is rather obvious what Brigid’s secret is but it is still a fun and easy read.

Two of my personal criticisms would be that Priya's family seem to be filled with lazy stereotypes, coming across as more of a tick box for diversity than fully fleshed out characters. In addition to this, the inclusion of the group chat texts, while largely fun to read the group dynamic, were written in such a way that at times the voices seemed incredibly authentic yet at others it appeared as though the other had simply googled ‘teen buzzwords’ and included all of them.

The story isn’t all that memorable but it is something different to what it is available at the moment and it is a nice blend of fantasy and contemporary. I personally enjoyed Brigid’s ‘turning’ scenes and thought they were well written and the character of Spencer is fun and his reactions comical. A stand out of the novel.

THE WORLD:
The world of this book is twofold. Firstly, there is the real world that Priya is learning to navigate again after being diagnosed with a chronic illness. It was interesting to see Priya navigating a world she thought she understood and knew before, but with the new hardships that her chronic illness brings.

The second aspect to the world is the online world. I really loved this part of the story. The chats and text messages that showed a complex online community that is incredibly reminiscent of a lot of online communities people find themselves a part of today.

THE CHARACTERS:
Priya:
Priya was a really interesting main character. She is complex and conflicted: unsure of how to deal with life now that it has changed, while also desperately wishing to ‘get better’. What I loved about Priya the most in this story was how much she grew and changed and learned to love herself again, no matter her diagnosis.

Brigid:
Brigid is hilarious and fun and consumes so much space in this book in the best way possible. She has such a huge personality from page one and, even though she is hiding a big secret and struggles just as the other characters do with the limitations of chronic illness, never failed to make me smile. She really is the heart of this story in my opinion.

The ‘oof ouch my bones’ Support Group:
I had so many laugh out loud moments while reading the sections of this book that include this support group. Although we never meet the characters in this support group face to face, there was no doubt that every one of the characters in this group felt real and three dimensional and individual.

THE PLOT:
This book was a great mixture between a contemporary novel and learning to live with a chronic illness and an urban fantasy with werewolves. I loved how this story centred around a character who had only recently been diagnosed with a chronic illness so wasn’t quite sure what her life was going to be like. The werewolf aspect isn’t hugely prominent throughout the story, but it adds to the complexity of the discussion around what constitutes a chronic illness and how to live with one. I really loved that the plot was mostly about Priya learning to live with her illness, learning to love herself again and finding others like her to give her support and to be friends with.

As somebody who has chronic illness running in her family, lives with aspects of those chronic illnesses herself and also lives with people who have chronic illnesses, it was really great to see the accuracy in terms of how a chronic illness very much changes someone’s life and how the most important thing is learning to live around it.

WHY IT WAS A FOUR-STAR READ FOR ME:
For me, this book fell down in two aspects. Firstly, Priya’s family felt quite stereotypically overbearing. I’ve read quite a lot of books with varying kinds of illnesses where the families become overprotective because of the main character’s sudden illness, but that isn’t always the case in real life. Secondly, the details of the chronic illnesses themselves. Sometimes these details felt a bit brushed over or not completely accurate. I just wish there was more detail on some of the chronic illnesses mentioned so that readers who don’t know about some of these illnesses would be given enough information to understand what the character’s are facing as they go through the book.

Overall, however, I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, and dealt with a really hard topic in a really interesting way.

"Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses" is the debut YA novel of the year. It's a beautifully written, realistic representation of living with chronic illness. It's also a love letter to friendship and found family. Also, there's werewolves! This book will hit you with all the feels and you'll never want to put it down.