One of my most anticipated releases of 2025, I was sorely disappointed and cancelled my preorder a third of the way into forcing myself to finish reading My Body Is A Doorway by Sophie Strand.
Despite being chronically ill and having the same disorder as the author, I was apparently not the target audience for this book. Who that target audience would be, remains a mystery to me. I can empathize with Strand insofar as the medical gaslighting and lack of awareness, urgent care and outright abuse is horrendous, but there seems to be little perspective, wisdom or humility in these overwrought pages.
Heavy with Jesus name dropping, new age proclivities, and self-congratulatory messages, alongside troubling and problematic views on trauma and illness, My Body Is A Doorway is a wildly convoluted, repetitive and tedious book that could use heavy rewriting and major editing.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Running Press and the Author for access to an eARC. All opinions are my own.

For a memoir on chronic illness, EDS and nature, a much better choice would be Polly Atkin's Some Of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better.