Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses - Kristen O'Neal

⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

Priya has newly acquired Lyme Disease and is stuck at her parents' home dealing with chronic pain while mourning her life as a premed student. But she joins an online chronic illness support group and connects with some new friends, except when she gets worried about her unresponsive best friend and goes to her house to see if she's okay. There, she's confronted with the fact her friend might have an unexpected illness that makes her furry and grow long teeth...

It's hard to know how to classify this book, since it's generally a contemporary YA novel about dealing with chronic illness, except one character happens to have lycanthropy. So there are definite elements of speculative fiction and even horror here and there. Priya and her friend Brigid are mostly trying to figure out how Brigid became a werewolf and how to keep from turning randomly, but they're also just trying to navigate life when their bodies are fighting against them. It was weird and funny, with lots of queer side characters and online jokes and humour for millennials. I loved that for once it wasn't the main character whom everything interesting was happening to, and instead our main character and only POV is the friend trying to be supportive