#p. 25

I woke up and soon got into one of those experimental trials that are famous in the Republic of Cancervania for Not Working. The drug was Phalanxifor, this molecule designed to attach itself to cancer cells and slow their growth. It didn’t work in about 70 per cent of people. But it worked in me.

Yet more evidence that this book is visibly emotionally manipulative: I can actually see it’s trying to make me cry. Just thrown into this scene is the sobbing Papa Lancaster, whose only function, it seems, is to sob. While this could be an attempt to subvert the Stoic Father trope, it’s no better if he’s just as one dimensional and the only difference is that he cries on cue. Men, even fathers, aren’t expected to be nurturing or empathetic, and aren’t expected to do the emotional work that makes up a mother’s third shift. However, just being there to cry is a pretty worthless way to try and tell your audience that men are just as nurturing and emotional as women (which they are and should be).