Hi all, I'm interested in books with a protagonist (who also narrates, ideally) who is disabled, chronically ill, or even dealing with a long term but not permanent condition.
I became disabled last year and started reading a lot as one of the only hobbies I could physically maintain. The first book I read with a disabled protag/narrator was The Mad Wife by Meagan Church. (spoiler, but vague) This book was meaningful to me because the character's experience of yet-unexplained symptoms became part of the horror of the story, and seriously resonated with me as someone with a similar condition that, at my time of reading, had not been diagnosed. (/spoiler)
Many of the books I've chosen to read in the past year unexpectedly had a protag/narrator with a disability. Even when that wasn't made clear in the synopsis I'd read before the book. It's like the books have been coming to me when I needed them most. I really enjoy reading a disabled person's internal thoughts and feelings about their condition and how it affects how they do things -- especially if these things are really intense or kind of crazy (e.g. escaping the KGB when you've been poisoned by radiation, moving a body bc you're an elderly serial killer, etc etc etc). So clearly the character doesn't need to be "good" and the book doesn't have to center on their disability or be a certain genre. Thanks.