LYCANTHROPY AND OTHER CHRONIC ILLNESSES

RELEASED 27 APRIL 384 pages | Hardback/ebook

Author Kristen O’neal

Publisher Quirk Books

It would suck to be a werewolf. The pain of changing form; the inconvenience of having to lock yourself up; the cats you’d eat if you escaped. And so debut author Kristen O’neal has done something rather logical: comparing the furry shitshow of having to turn into a wolf once a month to a selection of real-life chronic illnesses.

Her narrator is Priya, a wannabe doctor forced to leave university after contracting Lyme disease. In need of support, she joins an online group for other poorly folk around the world – not realising that one of them, Brigid, who’s evasive about the source of her illness, is actually a werewolf. Accompanied by some incredibly entertaining online discussions (all rendered perfectly on the page), she sets out to help Brigid using her fledgling medical knowledge… all while trying to come to terms with the way her own illness will change her life.

It’s hard to bring freshness to the hackneyed werewolf mythos but this book manages to be effortlessly original, funny and heartfelt. Best of all, it’s believable – set in the modern world, using technology we use daily, starring people we feel we already know. When the final page arrives you’ll be sad to leave this friendly little community. Jayne Nelson