The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness by Sarah Ramey was really a mess on a lot of levels. I was very interested in the book as someone who had/has a mysterious illness myself but the unacknowledged privilege, the transphobia, the strange, circular, repetitive way she wrote, weird views on the source of racism (it’s really misogyny apparently?), forays into mythology she never really nails, the odd way she addressed the reader, the internalized ableism was just too much.

She also made at least a couple dozen references to Harry Potter which I also found strange. I haven’t read Harry Potter but I wouldn’t have expected to need to read a children’s book about child wizards in order to get the references in a book about an adult woman’s battle with the medical system.

I feel for her but where was the editor?

Why was the book described as being “darkly funny”? This was not a funny woman or a funny tale.