Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses
by Kristen O’Neal 
1 out of 5 stars and Did Not Finish
Priya has Lyme disease, and wakes up every morning with pain and fatigue. She joins a support group online with other people who have chronic illnesses, and discovers that her best friend might be a werewolf.

In the first 50 pages of this book, nothing happens at all. Well, we get to see some sweet character introductions of Priya and her siblings for about 3 pages. And Priya joins the support group. That’s it. The entire first 50 pages could have been condensed into 5 pages.

And that’s when I got bored and stopped reading. I have a rule that I have to read at least to page 50 before I will let myself DNF a book, knowing that I gave it a fair chance.

I had so much trouble reading through the endless pages of text messages. There would be like 4 pages of prose and then 10 pages of text messages or Tumblr comments. It was just a difficult medium to read, and did not capture my attention. And their dialogue is so boring! They rarely say anything of substance. It’s mostly “Hi, how are you today?” type dialogue.

One thing that I think was well done was the description of Priya’s struggle with her chronic illness. It describes her moving back in with her parents, and how she feels guilty asking them for help. I found this very true to life and emotionally real. My sister has a chronic illness and there are specific situations that Priya describes that exactly mirror what my sister went through when she first began to come to terms with her illness. Too bad the rest of the book didn’t have that kind of thoughtfulness and insight.

I was also disappointed to see some profanity sprinkled around in the text. It was completely unnecessary and did not fit with the mood or tone of the book.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.