Get Your Curve on with These Books about Scoliosis

A stunning memoir and two young adult novels

Hi, friend.

Welcome to another edition of Crooked Reads, a monthly(ish) collection of bite-sized reviews about books on a theme.

Part of the research for my memoir is to read every book about scoliosis I can get my hands on. At first, it was just to get an idea of how other people write about this thing that has ruled more than half of my life. But it quickly morphed into something else, where reading about other people’s experiences—both real and fictional—awaken memories my brain has carefully hidden deep in the cobwebs. I’d forgotten about certain sensations and experiences I’d had until I read a similar bit in a book and had the feelings come rushing back.

Scoliosis is a sideways curve of the spine that most often appears around puberty and more commonly in girls. Sometimes it’s minor and treatable with a back brace. Other cases require a spinal fusion surgery, where a surgeon straightens the spine with titanium rods and screws locking the vertebrae in place. I’ve had two such surgeries—one to merely lock the curve in place and keep it from progressing, another about a decade of pain later to fully straighten my spine. I grew 2 inches!

Here are three of the best books I’ve read about scoliosis so far.

The books

Broken Places and Outer Spaces: Finding Creativity in the Unexpected by Nnedi Okorafor

The inimitable science fiction writer Nnedi Okorafor, then a college track star studying to be an entomologist, expected her spinal fusion surgery to be a simple procedure. But when she woke up, she was paralyzed from the waist down. It’s a known and rare complication, and luckily in Okorafor’s case, she eventually regained feeling and learned to walk again. During her months confined to a hospital bed, she hallucinated and dreamed of bugs and mystical worlds around her, which she began writing down. The surgery made her lose her faith in science and pivot her career into writing. Because when something breaks, something greater can be born. Broken Places and Outer Spaces is an incredible short memoir about Okorafor’s experience and the joy she found in writing.

Many thanks to

Elizabeth Marro

, who sent me this from my wishlist!

Fix by J. Albert Mann

I have never read anything that so viscerally matched my experience with scoliosis and surgery. The waking up cold and in pain. The inability to jump out of bed or bend over to tie your shoes. The need for someone else to wash your hair as you painfully, precariously hold your head over the side of the tub. Fix is a heavy, beautiful, heartbreaking, powerful book. It’s about a girl and her spine, and her subsequent addiction to painkillers, but it’s also a story about friends, learning who you are, and finding what you really need.

Braced by Alyson Gerber

Rachel just started seventh grade and has to wear a back brace. As she figures out how to function with an awkward turtle shell, she also deals with normal teenager things like friends and boys and soccer and dances. And bullying. The brace makes common things more difficult, but it also helps her deal with her problems head-on. She stands up for herself and kicks ass on the soccer field. Braced brought back so many memories I didn’t know were still locked away in my brain about my time as a 13-year-old with new metal in her spine and a plaster brace to keep her safe. It’s the perfect portrayal of this twisty-turny time so many teenage girls go through.

The link

• I maintain a list of books about scoliosis on my Bookshop, regularly updated as I read more, if you’re into that sort of thing.

The nightstand

Follow me on Instagram for more hand-holding-a-book pictures!

I’m listening to Housewife: Why Women Still Do It All and What to Do Instead by Lisa Selin Davis, a fascinating history of the housewife (and lobotomies???) and feminism and I am loving it.

The backlist

In case you missed ’em, or want to peep the archives:

Funny Mental Health Memoirs

Strange Science Books about Animals

Embrace Life with These Books about Death Positivity

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

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