I had the immense pleasure of receiving this book from Quirk Books for review, and I genuinely cannot wait to tell you about it!
Priya was a student at Stanford, until she was bitten by a tick and got chronic lyme disease. Online, she finds a community of other chronic illness-havers, including her best online friend Bridge (Brigid). Bridge, Priya, and their newfound friends hit it off; they have weekly chat times to vent about their struggles and successes. Bridge has always been a bit quiet about her issue; she has shared that it is a monthly issue, and everyone is okay with her level of sharing.
But one night, Bridge asks Priya (privately) if she can tell her something. When Priya is able to respond, she doesn’t hear from Bridge for a long time.
Like, longer than usual. The group is active daily, but Brigid and Priya usually check in every couple of hours. Luckily, they were starting to be pen pals, so Priya has her friend’s address. And, because it’s just over an hour away, she drives there.
What she finds is definitely not what she expects.
Instead of Bridge, she finds a huge dog. It looks like a wolf hybrid—it’s bigger than anything Priya has seen. She soon finds out that Bridge and the dog are the same. Her friend’s chronic illness is lycanthropy: once a month Brigid turns into a wolf. She’s a dang werewolf!
The rest of the book follows them as they try to understand Bridge’s illness and work through it. It’s and incredible blend of Teen Wolf and Emergency Contact, and I can’t recommend it enough!
I really can not explain how much I loved reading this. I like almost every Quirk book I read, and I knew this was going to be good—internet friends coming together to work through illness and werewolf lore sounds like it was made for me. But this book hit so well! We got to learn about characters through online friendships, which is something a lot of us have been going through in the past year. It also showed how folx can come together to cope with their struggles and celebrate their successes. As someone who struggles with chronic depression, it made me hopeful to see a group of people talking so openly about a myriad of illnesses. They also discuss some of the things that can be so difficult about chronic illnesses: fighting with insurance, getting properly diagnosed, and having the stigma of an “invisible illness.”
All of that is so important.
Altogether, this book was just such a good read. It comes out April 27th, and I really recommend you check it out. You can read the blurb and preorder a copy here!
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