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Book Summary and Reviews of Chronically Dolores by Maya Van Wagenen

Chronically Dolores by Maya Van Wagenen

Chronically Dolores

by Maya Van Wagenen

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Published:
  • Mar 2024, 320 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Making her fiction debut, Maya Van Wagenen, bestselling author of Popular, tells Dolores's story with humor, heartache, and an occasional bit of telenovela flair.

Dolores Mendoza is not thriving. She was recently diagnosed with a chronic bladder condition called interstitial cystitis. The painful disease isn't life threatening, but it is threatening to ruin her life.

Just when things seem hopeless, Dolores meets someone poised to change her fate. Terpsichore Berkenbosch-Jones is glamorous, autistic, and homeschooled against her will by her overprotective mother. After a rocky start, the girls form a tentative partnership. Beautiful, talented Terpsichore will help Dolores win back her ex-best friend, Shae. And Dolores will convince Terpsichore's mom that her daughter has the social skills to survive public school. It seems like a foolproof plan, but Dolores isn't always a reliable narrator, and her choices may put her in danger of committing an unforgivable betrayal.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Compassionate prose conveys the protagonists' experiences with care and thoughtful, complex characterizations approachably highlight life's ambiguity." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"An insightful, funny, and realistic coming-of-age story." —Kirkus Reviews

This information about Chronically Dolores was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Maya Van Wagenen

Maya Van Wagenen lives in Georgia with her partner and their many pets. Her second book and first novel, Chronically Dolores, is inspired by her experiences as a teenager with an incurable bladder condition. She is passionate about bringing visibility to youth with chronic illness and validating the questions, fears, and absurdities that accompany a lifelong diagnosis in childhood.

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