by Katy Bowser Hutson (Author), Jodi Hays (Illustrator), Tish Harrison Warren (Foreword)

A friend gave me this book after learning I too was facing breast cancer. It is a wonderful, visceral, raw, and very helpful book. Katy Bowser Hutson is a writer and poet. She begins the book with “The Week Before Cancer” when she was enjoying attending a writers’ conference.  And then the proverbial “ax” fell.

This young wife and mom was diagnosed with a very fast growing and deadly form of cancer. Quick and severe action had to be taken, and it was. She writes about the discovery in her breast, meeting her oncologist, and hearing the news, beginning each new section with prose, then with poetry. The word “fatal” stands out to her.

She writes many short poems about the rounds of chemotherapy she endured; how it felt, what it did, her mental, emotional, and physical responses to it. And the nearness of God to her heart.

She writes about before, present, and after mastectomy. There are spots of humor here as well. And then she descends to the horrors of radiation.  Even in this section there are sparks of light, as in the kindness of the technicians.

In the aftermath of that horrible triathlon, she’s told to have her ovaries removed, then she’s put on years of estrogen-blocking medication that wracks her joints with so much pain she can hardly step out of bed in the morning. Her poetry at this point is tremendous and gut-wrenching.

She has an “After Cancer” section that is loving and hopeful. And then a poem titled “You Love Me?”  It’s God asking her that question, and calming her soul.

A hard book to read, but also uplifting and encouraging. I recommend it.

5 stars.