In this captivating memoir, debut author Walela Nehanda writes about their experiences being diagnosed with leukemia in 2017 as a 23-year-old Black, disabled, nonbinary person.
Nehanda, now a cancer survivor, activist, and mental health advocate, begins their memoir warning readers that "this here ain't a john green novel" and that they "will plan to fail" any inspirational and ghoulish expectations that the reader might have of them. The author, "fat and disabled/ and trans and queer/ and Black," recounts the trauma caused by their parents ("abuse is their idea of parenting") and "by different doctors," "fatphobic oncologists," and "racist hospital staff." They explain their late diagnosis with straightforward honesty: "I didn't go to a doctor for years/.../ believing anything,/ including a grave,/ was better than medical debt."
Nehanda crafts a gritty collection of poems and short essays that speak to the emotional, financial, physical, and social circumstances of illness and medical racism in America. They candidly talk about heavy topics readers may find emotionally demanding, such as living with leukemia, self-harm, racism, abuse, and struggling with the concept of death. Nehanda's writing is clear-eyed and lucid as it relates their numerous struggles and considers their own self-realization and determination to survive. --Natasha Harris, freelance reviewer