I'm convinced this book is a written account of my high school experience. I'm suing for royalties.
Will you like this book? Almost surely not. To enjoy this you have to be two things - a type 1 diabetic and have been a goth for an extended period of your adolescence. Enter teenage Katie.
This is such a fantastic representation of life with diabetes. The main character thinks about it coooonstantly, which is very realistic to my own experience. But, while she tries so hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle, she is constantly beaten down by the disease. There are times when she stares at the blood sugar monitor and simply walks away because she doesn't want to know. She doesn't want a machine to tell her she's been bad. I can relate so strongly to that.
The way she stomachs the mental strain of diabetes is by curating this elaborate conspiracy of vampires being originally stemmed from undiagnosed diabetes. And when I tell you I fell whole-heartedly down that rabbit hole. This isn't a matter of 'Oh, yeah, I can see that'. This is 'Omg, this is fact. Excuse me while I tell everyone I've ever met what the true origin of vampires is!'.
Again, this is a NICHE book. But I adored it and am so happy that it exists....more
Y'alllllllll! Ali Hazelwood did THAT with the Type 1 Diabetes rep in this book.
You know that scene in 'Purple Hearts' where her blood sugar is so low that she collapses and the love interest picks her up, carries her to the couch and feeds her glucose gel? That is this whole book and I ate up every second. ...more
'Diabetes Noir' is not only my life's genre but also my new favorite trope. I need MORE. Not only did RothchiReview/Vlog: https://youtu.be/ONtCTarlJKs
'Diabetes Noir' is not only my life's genre but also my new favorite trope. I need MORE. Not only did Rothchild do what so few have attempted by representing a chronic illness but she did it with compassion and experience. I have type 1 diabetes and I can tell you that she NAILED it. I can't begin to thank her enough for putting this content into the world.
The story itself is good but not great. The writing in the beginning was very livejournal/gloomy tumblr post. But it got better quickly.
This isn't a mystery/thriller. It's a character study of a woman who takes the opportunity presented to her to dispel the world of people she deems to be a menace. It's an interesting look at the difference of premeditated-murder and 'welp, they're already drowning; why don't I just help God along and hold them down to make sure it takes?'.
One of my favorite parts of this book was the relationship between Roman and Ruby. It's asexual without losing its intensity or depth. I love how Rothchild wrote a platonic relationship as the heart of the story and it wasn't over shadowed by sex or romance. Even after many difficulties, the love remained and I really appreciated that.
Here are some of the diabetes related quotes that really stood out to me.
"It's a constant balancing act. Every flight of stairs, every common cold, every extra bite of mashed potatoes has to be accounted for to keep a type 1's blood sugar at a healthy level."
"I realized, with a bit of sadness for Jason, that being a healthy type 1 diabetic took the same willpower, control, and maintenance as being a professional athlete does, but just to be average."
"He said, 'Let me start by offering my condolences. My grandpa had type 2 diabetes. He had his foot amputated toward the end.' I had heard a variation of this dozens of times. People often tried to connect in the most misguided ways."...more
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