Reviews

It's hard to nail the experience of chronic illness or the dynamic of tumblr friendships, but this book manages to be pitch-perfect on both counts. Love the relationship between the characters too.

izzys_internet_bookshelf's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

4/5

I need more Lycanthrope books. I haven’t read any in the romance category because Twilight but this book was amazing. It touched on chronic illnesses (hence the title) as well as throwing in paranormal elements and one of my favorite characters to get thrown into a book, Spencer. The humor was right up my alley. The only reason why I gave it 4 and not five was because I found it slow in the beginning and the book wasn’t very fast paced, until I reached the middle of the book. Loved how they chat via tumblr.

jaynemae's review against another edition

Go to review page

Didn't flow for me. Don't know if it would have been better if I was reading it with my eyes instead of listening to it, but I just couldn't get into it.

disabledbookdragon's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

nothingforpomegranted's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This was fun and enjoyable, but also pretty stupid, and I felt like the majority of the tension happened and was resolved in the first thirty percent of the book.

Priya is a sophomore at Stanford on medical leave from her premed degree after being diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease. Lonely and frustrated by her condition and by her status as a young adult stuck in her childhood home, Priya relies on Tumblr to develop a new sense of community, and she befriends Brigid, who introduces her to a group of other users who decide to create a support group for the chronically ill. The story is told in a mix of first-person narrative and chat exchanges, and it is impressive how much personality O’Neal manages to communicate in just a few lines of typed dialogue for the most of the characters in the novel.

When Brigid goes offline and out of touch after posting a dramatic entry about how sick of everything she is, Priya gets worried and, Lyme be damned, decides to drive to Pennsylvania from New Jersey to check in on her friend. Turns out, the chronic illness Brigid has been so cagey about is lycanthropy—Brigid is a werewolf. Priya finds her in her wolffish state and manages to feed her and calm her until Spencer from Animal Control arrives, and they both discover Brigid the girl groggy on the bathroom floor.

The rest of the story proceeds with the development of Priya, Spencer, and Brigid’s friendship, especially as they run around town trying to keep Brigid’s identity under wraps as she turns more and more frequently, creating local lore all based on sightings of the creature. This part became pretty repetitive, and, though I enjoyed the development of Priya and Spencer’s friendship and banter, as well as the bricks of the people in the chat group, I think the book definitely could have been about fifty percent shorter.

thecatfather's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

gabalodon's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

This was SO cute and SO funny and SO sweet and so full of heart!!! FRIENDSHIP!!!!!

More...