Review: Don't Kill The Birthday Girl

Greetings fellow memoir devotees!  I am still waiting to hear from several publishers that currently have partials of my memoir manuscript.  I was able to at least format a Web page and interestingly also set up an email account for when my own memoir does get published.  In the midst of taking care of business as a writer I read the memoir Don't Kill The Birthday Girl by Sandra Beasley.  I found the cover art for this book interesting because it contains a yummy cupcake with a toothpick skeleton figurine protruding from the icing.  I had no idea a person with allergies to food could live in such complete fear and anxiety.  In this particular book, the author as allergies to several foods, not just one.  She recounts what it was like growing up with severe food allergies.  She constantly carries an inhaler, multiple Benadryl, and an epipen wherever she goes.  Occasionally she  has to report to a hospital emergency room while recovering from an allergic reaction to a food she ate.  I had to take a friend to the emergency room for migraines while in high school, but I didn't grow up having friends or knowing anyone with food allergies so this book was highly enlightening for me.


In this memoir you will see the challenges a person with multiple food allergies faces from childhood through adulthood.  You will also see how a mom copes with having a child who must be vigilant about avoiding foods that could cause all sorts of reactions.  I found it fascinating that the narrator carries her inhaler, multiple Benadryl, and an epipen everywhere she goes.  It's almost like the medications I must carry wherever I go for vertigo from Meniere's Disease.  I had never looked upon going out to eat as a simple act that might cause a death reaction until I read this book.  A person with food allergies is challenged when dining out:  Will there be anything on the menu I can eat?  Will the chef accomodate a special food preparation request?  Will a waiter take your allergy information seriously?  Traveling engenders its own problems as are well documented in this book.  Also, the author reflects on how she might mother a child of her own who has food allergies.  On the whole this is a book that functions like a medical journal, history book, and memoir all wound together.  The reader gets lessons in the history/recognition of food allergies, the challenges faced by those living with multiple food allergies, and even the latest information from the worlds of science regarding potential new ways to treat food allergy reactions.  What A Read!
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