Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses: A Novel

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A smart and witty debut young adult novel with a paranormal twist about two college-aged internet friends who become IRL BFFs as they bond over pop culture and chronic illness--one has Lyme and the other is a werewolf! "Emotional, thoughtful, and a true testament to the power of friendship"-Locus Magazine Teen Wolf meets Emergency Contact in this sharply observed, hilarious, and heartwarmingdebut young adult novel about friendship, chronic illness, and . . . werewolves. Priya worked hard to pursue her premed dreams at Stanford, but the fallout from undiagnosed Lyme disease sends her back to her childhood home in New Jersey during her sophomore year-and leaves her wondering if she'll ever be able to return to the way things were. Thankfully she has her online pen pal, Brigid, and the rest of the members of "oof ouch my bones," a virtual support group that meets on Discord to crack jokes and vent about their own chronic illnesses. When Brigid suddenly goes offline, Priya does something out of character- she steals the family car and drives to Pennsylvania to check on Brigid. Priya isn't sure what to expect, but it isn't the horrifying creature that's shut in the basement. With Brigid nowhere to be found, Priya begins to puzzle together an impossible but obvious truth- the creature might be a werewolf-and the werewolf might be Brigid. As Brigid's unique condition worsens, their friendship will be deepened and challenged in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with their own ideas of what it means to be normal.

Reviews

One of POPSUGAR's Best YA Books of April
Kids Indie Next List Pick
A SIBA Read This Next Selection for Spring 2021
A 2022-2023South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominee

Emotional, thoughtful, and a true testament to the power of friendship, Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses is a werewolf novel that will make you look at navigating illness, supernatural or not, in a whole new way.ONeal breaks new ground with this book and accomplishes something truly wonderful.Locus Magazine

Your next favorite horror-comedy.Syfy

ONeal persuasively pulls from her own experience with chronic illness to inform her depiction of the topic, using interactions between support group members to layer comedic banter and vulnerability that specifically addresses aspects of disability experiences.Publishers Weekly

A heartwarming, quirky take on chronic illness in all its hairy detail.Kirkus Reviews

A fresh and original twist on the werewolf legend.Booklist

A must-read for anyone with a chronic illness or who loves someone with a chronic illness.School Library Journal

Clever, original, entertaining, and all the more impressive when considering that Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses is author Kristen O'Neal's debut as a novelist.Midwest Book Review

An electric tour de force of hilarity and humanity. Oof, ouch, my heart! It bleeds for this book.Preston Norton, author of Where I End and You Begin

Author Bio

Kristen O'Neal is a freelance writer who has written for sites like Buzzfeed Reader, Christianity Today, Birth.Movies.Death, LitHub, and Electric Literature. She lives on the internet. You can find her at kristenoneal on Tumblr. Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses is her first novel.