Wanted to like this book. As a cancer survivor myself, it felt like I would 'connect' with it... Sadly, I didn't. There was something a little glib about it all, a hovering that never went deep enough into anything (treatment, relationship, parents, origins - what was it really about?)
Just did not get along with this story, unfortunately

I absolutely adored this memoir which took me through a whole range of emotions but ultimately brought me hope and joy. The first part of the memoir begins with the author's diagnosis of and treatment for leukemia and moves on with her going into remission and taking a road trip. The memoir reflects on how we can begin to live again after a life threatening illness and how we can live in the moment and begin to thrive. As someone living with a chronic illness I found this particularly poignant and it brought up many strong emotions for me. An inspirational and honest read that I would recommend.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.

In Between Two Kingdoms, Saleika Jaouad traces her journey from her diagnosis of a rare form of leukaemia at a young age to remission and beyond. This deeply moving book is dark, raw and honest. The first half follows her experiences of the cancer treatments and how these affected her own identity, as well as her relationships with loved ones. The second half follows her fluctuating emotions as she shifted from being a cancer patient to being a cancer survivor with a ‘new normal’ way of living. After doctors told her she was ‘cured’, she took a road trip across the country with just her dog at her side, meeting strangers who had written to her in hospital offering their support. Saleika Jaouad is an exceptional storyteller and her book is beautifully written – I could feel the pain, anger, fear and passion behind her words as she learnt how to find meaning in life again. It’s a book about survival and support, hope and healing – not always an easy read but well worth the journey.

Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad is a memoir about experiencing serious illness and what is lost and gained along the way.

I'm the kind of person who gets to the end of a film with a 'happy ending' and then says "Yes, but". Consequently, Suleika Jaouad's memoir 'Between Two Kingdoms' really resonated for me. I'm another cancer 'survivor' (though a much less dangerous form than hers) and so I completely recognise the sense of now knowing who you are when the cancer's gone.

The book starts out with Sulleika living a great life, moving to Paris, setting up home with boyfriend Will and, aside from an odd annoying rash, all's well. Suddenly all's NOT well, she's rushed back to the USA and diagnosed with an advanced form of leukemia - all in her early 20s.

The first half, slightly more, of the book is about discovering she has leukemia and being treated. The rest of the book is about life after. At first I found myself thinking "I'm 55% of the way through, she's out of treatment, where's this going?" The truth is, it was going somewhere dark for a while and then somewhere wonderful for a bit more.

I love a good road trip and this is such a trip. Suleika sets off in a borrowed car with her dog and a driving license so new that the ink probably hadn't fully dried, to do a 100 day journey of self-awareness and rebalancing. She didn't call it that; that's how I'd characterise it.

The world is full of books about having cancer - cancerographies, I call them. Relatively few give as much time to life after as they do to before and during treatment but a survivor-guilt cum PTSD cum "Is this all there is?" affect is really common after cancer treatment. It's like a form of grief that other people don't understand. A loss of who you used to be. In the author's case, she's mourning a career with great potential,, a relationship that couldn't quite hack it, a bunch of friends who weren't so lucky, and the loss of who she used to be.

I don't recommend this for people who have leukemia or other cancers which require stem cell transplants unless somebody who knows them well reads it first to check for triggers. There's one particular scene where she coughs up the lining of her oesophagus and more vomiting and collapsing than anybody really needs. If you're being treated, you might not relate well to reading that somebody got out the other side and wasn't as thrilled as she might have been expected to be. Please save it for people who've completed treatment.and may be wondering about why life's not how they expected it to be.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the author and her publisher. And may I wish Suleika a long and happy life after cancer.