Publisher's Synopsis
HOPE is a deeply personal, raw, and resilient memoir chronicling the journey of a young woman navigating life with fourteen complex and often invisible chronic illnesses. From the sudden onset of debilitating pain and rare diagnoses to life-threatening complications, the author lays out bare the physical, emotional, and systemic battles of surviving in a body that seems to break more than it heals.
Structured in five powerful parts - from the initial unraveling of her health, through the isolation and grief of chronic illness, and ultimately toward reinvention, resilience, and purpose - the memoir invites readers into both the science and the soul of survival. With lyrical prose, fierce honesty, and piercing advocacy, she explores themes of medical gaslighting, the myth of "looking fine," what it means to lose the life you planned, and how to find new dreams in the rubble. Through poetry, science, self-advocacy, and a refusal to give up, Phillips reclaims her voice and dares readers to believe in a softer kind of strength - one built not in spite of pain, but within it. This is not just a book about illness. It's a testament to becoming - to living fully, even when your body tells you not to.It's a love letter to everyone who's ever felt unheard in a doctor's office, unseen in a classroom, or unworthy in their own skin. HOPE reminds us that surviving is not passive - it's an act of wild, radical, everyday courage.
