Through the Shadowlands

April 1, 2017

Science journalist Rehmeyer, contributing editor at Discover magazine, takes readers on a journey through her struggle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), an illness for which the medical establishment had no cure. Once a strong individual who ran marathons and performed search-and-rescue operations, the author sometimes felt so weak that she couldn't even move in bed. After an exhaustive course of visiting doctors, being tested repeatedly, and even being labeled with a psychosomatic disorder, she took matters into her own hands and headed out into the desert, heeding advice from Internet strangers about a possible link between her illness and mold. Rehmeyer became her own doctor and found herself contradicting earlier findings of the scientific community, with the results being a better understanding of the processes her body had gone through. Like Sarah Myhill's Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalitis, this book encourages readers to consider causations and natural treatments that mainstream science has not delved into. VERDICT This personal account will appeal to CFS patients who are looking beyond the usual diagnoses and prognoses. The writer's reputation as a scientist will be of interest to researchers and medical professionals.--Bonnie Parker, Southern Crescent Technical Coll., Thomaston, GA

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 19, 2016
Science journalist Rehmeyer’s deeply personal illness memoir stands out for the lucidity of her self-analysis and pragmatism about managing a life turned upside down by chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). She emerges as simultaneously a science journalist frustrated with established medicine’s dismissiveness, a patient open to the pseudoscientific approaches of non-traditional practitioners, and a desperate woman reaching out to suffering peers on the Internet for support and advice. This last avenue ultimately leads her to an extreme removal of mold from her environment, starting with a body-resetting solo expedition to Death Valley. Exploring ideas of dependence and self-sufficiency, Rehmeyer shows her illness through the lens of her personal relationships—with her strange and abusive mother, mentally ill first husband, mostly distant siblings, and two successive partners, the second of whom is supportive where the first one is not. In this way, she explores her illness’s psychological aspects while never giving up the idea that CFS has a real and profound physiological component. Rehmeyer’s frustrated but cautiously optimistic story will resonate with readers who value an intelligent, scientific approach to life but wonder what to do when there aren’t any good answers. Agent: David Doerrer, Abrams Artists Agency.

April 1, 2017
Most of us know what it feels like to be bone-weary exhausted. But a good night's rest usually allows us to wake up the next day feeling refreshed. But not Rehmeyer. A mathematician and science journalist, she reveals what it is like to live with chronic fatigue syndrome, a mysterious illness that still bewilders doctors. She describes feeling so tired that she could barely walk, never mind work, because of overwhelming lethargy. After seeing doctor after doctor who failed to help her, she decided to head for the desert, fully expecting to die. But instead, she slowly learned how to manage her illness. She worked when she could; she socialized when she felt up to it. She experimented with her diet. She met with an immunologist. She researched the possible causes of her condition, looking into the effects of mold and trauma on the human body, and she studied the positive effects of physic healing. I'm doing really well, she concludes, but I'm also not cured. A hopeful memoir laced with ample doses of reality.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)