Cure

by Katherine Brabon

‘a gloriously distinctive brava, brava!’— Michelle de Kretser, Miles Franklin award-winning author of The Life to Come and Theory & Practice

‘Cure lures you in with mesmeric prose then startles with profound insights on pain, faith, motherhood and, above all, love.’—Diana Reid, bestselling author of Love & Virtue and Signs of Damage

‘An utterly joyful reading experience. I inhaled it.’—Jessie Tu, bestelling author of A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing and The Honeyeater

Her body hurts her all the time now. It is separate, a thing apart. In her mind it has become a person or an object that is not quite her, that she doesn’t know.

Vera and Thea are mother and daughter. Vera writes for the she constructs identities and scenarios for brands to cater to the ideal consumer. Yet she also consumes the offerings of the online world the addictive pursuit of a cure, the narratives she craves in which mother and daughter find a way out of the shared experience of chronic illness. She becomes preoccupied with a blog written by a woman named Claudia, a mother whose daughter also has a chronic illness.

While on holiday in Italy, Thea writes in her journal. She is also constructing a an image of herself as she grapples with having the same illness as her mother, Vera. But gradually another person emerges in her journal, through her imaginings of her mother in the same house, the same city, at the same age. They have come to Italy to see where Vera’s family originates, but also to chase a promised cure in the form of a man said to be able to heal Thea’s illness.

As they both grapple with their own narratives about their bodies and their wellness, all may not be as it seems.Perhaps a story does not necessarily need to be true for us to believe in it?

PRAISE FOR CURE:

‘Brabon’s elegant, poetic prose is transporting; she probes our human vulnerabilities with deep insight, empathy, and restraint. Cure is timely and entirely compelling.’—Sarah Holland-Batt, Stella Prize-winning author of The Jaguar

‘an eerie dream of a book.’—Madeleine Watts, author of The Inland Sea and Elegy, Southwest

‘A tender, delicately woven story that explores the boundaries between a mother and daughter who both live with chronic illness. Sharply intelligent and deeply felt, Cure has much to say about the unreliability of the body, the alienating nature of pain, and the cacophony of voices – scientific, religious, online – offering comfort, promising relief. An intimate and imaginative novel about family, faith, and the healing power of human connection.’—Kylie Needham, author of Girl in a Pink Dress

‘Accomplished, gentle and illuminating.’—Alice Bishop, author of A Constant Hum

‘Cure is a timely look at our preoccupation with wellness. Brabon's poetics around the body and female constructions of self and identity and myth are breathtaking.

Genres: Audiobook, Literary Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published July 1, 2025

About the author

Katherine Brabon was born in Melbourne in 1987 and grew up in Woodend, Victoria. The Memory Artist is her first novel and won the 2016 Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award.

Reviews

[Suz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A profoundly impactful dive into chronic illness and the desire to heal propelled by love. While seeped in deep and serious tones, it was a very well written fictional account of a mother and daughter’s experience, and the particular doggedness the mother approaches bettering their lives due to combined chronic illnesses.

Being swept along with invisible online sources and the pervasive need for connection by the mother, the younger one has to show the willingness to try the potions, whatever is thrown her way. One day it will be valid, on a whim the next deemed by the mother to be useless.

𝒯𝒽𝑒𝒶 𝑔𝑒𝓉𝓈 𝒶 𝒷𝒾𝓉 𝒿𝑒𝒶𝓁𝑜𝓊𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓊𝓉𝑒𝓇, 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒𝓈 𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓂𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝒽𝑒𝓇.

She doesn’t want this, but seems to allow her mother the right to try and help and in essence show her love. Travelling overseas the younger of the duo tries out her freedoms for the first time, meeting a boy and staying out late, grasping on to the feeling of being alive.

𝒮𝒽𝑒 𝓇𝑒𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓃𝓈 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝒹, 𝑔𝑜𝑒𝓈 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝓁𝑒𝑒𝓅. 𝒮𝒾𝓍𝓉𝑒𝑒𝓃, 𝒶 𝓈𝒾𝒸𝓀 𝒷𝑒𝒹, 𝒮𝒶𝓃 𝒱𝒾𝓉𝓉𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝒪𝓁𝑜𝓃𝒶 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒫𝓇𝑜𝓋𝒾𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝑀𝒾𝓁𝒶𝓃.

These simple things conveyed to the reader with rich prose and a deep haunting telling. My first experience of this author, so very deeply felt with a closeness to a subject that feels completely genuine. I don’t know what it is like to suffer from a chronic illness, but I now feel a more intune with this world, and the suffering body in regards to autoimmune pain. An utterly clever and sincere rendering, I highly recommend.

Thank you, Ultimo!

[nina.reads.books · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've now read three books by Katherine Brabon and I really enjoy her writing style. Brabon's last book Body Friend was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and a theme of chronic illness was present. This theme has been continued in her latest release Cure.

Vera and Thea are mother and daughter and both share the same chronic illness. At age sixteen Thea's symptoms are becoming more pronounced and her father wants her to start the strong medication that Vera always struggled to reconcile taking for herself. Vera and Thea have travelled to Italy with Vera's father to see family. Here Thea writes a journal where she tries to construct a version of herself separate from her mother. While in Italy there is talk of Thea seeing a famed healer who supposedly can cure any illness.

There was such a dreamy quality to the writing in Cure. Stream of consciousness is too strong but yet that is the impression I got from reading it. The women's voices alternate in chapters with both recounting their feelings and experiences with their illness and their relationships. The chapters are short which gives the effect of movement back and forth. The chapters also blur one after the other. Is it Vera's story or Thea's? Have their lives and illnesses blended? How can their illnesses be separated from them? And what does it mean to seek to be well?

Ultimately this is a story without much of a plot and without much of a resolution. I liked how while the characters and story were totally different to Body Friend the similar theme of chronic illness and pain made it feel like the two books were in conversation. In Cure the unnamed chronic illness which both mother and daughter share hangs heavy over the story. Living with a family member with a chronic condition cuts close to home for me and I resonated with this storyline. I now know that Brabon can write this so well because she lives with rheumatoid arthritis herself.

This is definitely a book worth picking up if you are looking for a quiet, contemplative read. I really enjoyed this.

Thank you to @ultimopress for my #gifted copy.

[Raquel Gazzola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inhaled this! Beautifully written - like a swimming in a lake, this story glides so gracefully with a refreshing take on dealing with illness and a mother/daughter connection. Felt like I was transported to Italy in a dream-like state.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katherine Brabon's fourth novel, Cure, is a book that will resonate differently among readers of varying ages.

One of the tiresome aspects of growing older, is that a life of comparatively good health begins to take on the burdens of chronic conditions.  Some of these are merely irritating, others involve lifestyle changes that are annoying, and some are ones that compromise long-anticipated retirement activities.  All of them involve seeing more of the medical profession than one would like, but adapting to these changes in the body is usually manageable in maturity.  It goes with the territory of ageing.  We know it, and we accept it, and we may even be grateful that so far, a terminal condition is not on the horizon.

This is an entirely different situation to being diagnosed with a chronic condition in adolescence, as depicted in Cure.  The initial disbelief, the growing realisation that things are not going to improve, and the lifestyle compromises that must be made are bad enough at any time, but Thea, the sixteen-year-old protagonist of Cure isn't even able to make decisions about her treatment independently.  Her parents are in disagreement about medication which exacerbates her confusion about what must be done.  Her father is a doctor, with a science-based understanding of the situation, while her mother Vera, who has the same condition, craves a cure and goes searching for it online.

Brabon casts a discerning eye on the online landscape that Vera inhabits.  Vera is not only a consumer of wellness blogs, she is a writer and she's made a living by constructing identities and scenarios for brands to cater to the ideal consumer.  So she's an insider herself, with an understanding of how algorithms manipulate the online content that we see, and yet her own lack of confidence in herself (and her husband's advice) makes her even more vulnerable when she is pregnant with Thea:

And so, when she fell pregnant, Vera was returned to the ineffable reassurance that such a person [from a blog she'd previously followed] — and the internet — could offer.  The blogs were still active, though many now had transformed into video blogs on YouTube or pages on Facebook or, later, accounts on Instagram.  Vera's pregnancy coincided with the ubiquity of social media accounts, particularly those associated with food or health or the more sweeping and nonspecific lifestyle theme.  The posts in these formats were more intimate, the details more minute.  She could not believe how much of their life some people were willing to share with strangers.  A life laid bare, almost a diary with accompanying photos or videos.

She read and watched posts by young mothers, mothers to be, experts in infancy or toddlerhood or childhood, specialists in gut health and nutrition, sleep consultants, behavioural scientists and even qualified doctors who had branched out into online advice.  (p.51)

I am so grateful that none of that existed when I was a young mother!

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2025/08/01/c...

[Daniella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked the interplay between this and Body Friend - exploring the relationship between a mother and daughter with the same chronic illness, and how their lives reflect each other.

Vera grew up to immigrant parents who meant well but didn't really understand her experience, so she found solace in online communities sharing stories on cures, wellness and pregnancy. When she had Thea, who developed the same illness, it brought her back to the same place in her life both literally and figuratively - a trip to Italy overshadowed by the prospect of a healing man in the mountains.

I liked the discussion of how isolating chronic illness can be, and the Internet both as a way to find support and feel less alone, but also a breeding ground for alternative medicine and disinformation. Also the lack of control felt by Vera when it is no longer her own body she is trying to read the signs of - and the responsibility she feels for passing this condition to her daughter. Their stories made a great pair, as they reach out to each other without really doing so openly.

And the ending - coming to the realisation that maybe a cure isn't all it's cracked up to be, and spending your life searching for one won't make you any happier. I really do think this is best read as a pair with Body Friend, which looks at the idea of a cure through more external forces. Brabon clearly writes from experience and has put a lot of thought into her work, and I think both books are really beautiful works showing how chronic illness not only impacts your relationship with your own body and health, but every aspect of your life including your relationships and your perceptions of the world around you.

[Ashleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Ultimo Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Cure follows a mother and daughter with a shared chronic illness without a cure or neat definition. They travel together to Italy to seek a healer, a physical journey also becomes an introspective one.

Katherine Brabon's prose is compelling and drew me in immediately. This book has a slow pace but it did not feel self-indulgent because the writing is beautiful. As the book continues it unravels into several different streams of thought, a mother trying to grasp for control of her increasingly independent thinking daughter, alternative wellness and medicine. This book contains complex and sometimes unreliable narration, sometimes I felt my interest waning because of this. At times I felt like I couldn’t see the overall puzzle but perhaps I was never meant to.

Some beautiful mediations on chronic illness and imperfect familial relations within these pages. I feel like a lot of people will connect with this story even if it was not entirely for me.

[Callan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Katherine Brabon writes with an understated knowing. I did NOT expect this book to take me like it did!!

A meditation on chronic illness. Thea and Vera feel very real, and quite topical in a post pandemic world saturated with wellness influencers (ehem Belle Gibson comes to mind). I’m loathe to expand on themes explored in the book as I think you just need to read it. The way Brabon constructed the narrative is extremely impressive.

I HATE rereading books and rarely feel I want to — but upon finishing I immediately felt I wanted to read it again.

Sally Rooney fans: read this.

Will be reading Body Friend soon.

[Chanel Chapters]

Chronic illness meets mother daughter mirroring in Italy.

3.25⭐️

[Larissa Larin · Rating 3 out of 5]

really impressed with myself that i called a few things from the beginning.
well written book looking into the complications of chronic illnesses within generation lines.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Brabon's previous novel Body Friend and in many ways this is a companion piece to that work. Mother and daughter, Vera and Thea, both live with the same unnamed chronic illness and while that is the root of this novel there is so much more to explore. The mother daughter relationship, not just between Vera and Thea but also between Vera and her mother. The inter-generational and cultural influences on seeking a cure. The role of writing. The role of the internet, modern medicine, spiritual healing and so much more.
Beautifully written and structured I particularly loved what I can only describe as the mirroring that occurs across the novel and between the characters.
Highly recommended.

[Theresa Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cure by Katherine Brabon is out in the world now, and I finished *devoured* this one over two evenings. In Cure, Katherine Brabon explores chronic illness and the search for wellness through a mother and daughter who have a shared illness. It’s set in Italy, where they have travelled to, on a pilgrimage of sorts to seek a cure that doesn’t exist for an illness that has no true definition.

‘In truth, she is starting to doubt her mother’s orders, her cures.’

The narrative unfolds from both perspectives and in several forms. Some sections have an omniscient narration, and these sections are presented in italics. For Vera, who is the mother in this story, her sections have a disclosure aspect to them, recounting her own illness journey and then her entrance into motherhood and subsequent focus onto her daughter, who eventually begins to show signs of the same chronic illness. Thea, the daughter, is initially telling her story in the present, but as the novel unspools, her sections begin to resemble a fictionalised diary account where she layers her mother’s identity and experiences at sixteen in Italy, over her own. Sometimes dreamy, sometimes factual, the novel is, above all, engrossing.

‘Thea would struggle and fail to write this later: the moment she walked past her mother, the moment in which she failed to stop and ask her mother if she was okay – she kept walking, registering a feeling of frustration, of not again, of being tired of this, both of them sick, always one of them or the other, fainting or nauseous, limping or aching. She walked past her mother.’

Katherine Brabon writes about living with chronic illness so well, I have already noted this in my review of her previous novel, Body Friend. But this one is also concerned with the quest for wellness and the lengths a person will go to in their quest for this. The money spent, the supplements consumed, the beliefs believed, the isolation, the secrets kept about the extent of this reaching for a cure.

‘Vera considers now that she has been play-acting with this cure narrative, this myth of wellness and the illusion – or delusion – of control.’

The setting comes off as its own character within this novel. There was such a strong sense of place, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I like the honesty of Katherine’s writing, the revealed inner dialogue of her characters, and the exposure of their frailties. This was quite a highly anticipated read for me, and it’s definitely delivered. Highly recommended to those who love their fiction as a quietly unfolding literary experience.

Thanks to @ultimopress for the review copy.

[Niamh · Rating 2 out of 5]

it feels like this book started out as a thesis about the tensions between medicine and the wellness industry. the story and characters used to explore that idea are, to put it bluntly, very boring.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have many feelings about the 'wellness' industry (which I touched on here and here, but to save you reading, the theme is 'skeptical'), so I pounced on Katherine Brabon's latest novel, Cure .

The story focuses on a mother and daughter, Vera and Thea. Vera has suffered an unnamed chronic illness since she was a teenager and, as she watches her daughter's health follow a similar path, Vera becomes increasingly preoccupied with a blog written by a woman named Claudia, a mother whose daughter also has a chronic disease.

Vera and Thea travel to Italy, to see where Vera’s family originates, and to chase a promised cure to heal Thea’s illness. During the trip, Thea writes in her journal, dwelling on the parallels between her and her mother's life. Through her writing, Thea grapples with questions about control, loyalty, and identity.

And because her mother's illness is older even than Thea, she doesn't question its existence. She doesn't question how her mother feels about it, as though to do this would be to ask about some fundamental, fixed aspect of her person - as if to ask why her hair is brown, why her hands are shaped the way they are.

The story shifts easily between Vera and Thea's perspective, and also moves back-and-forth in time between the present, Vera's childhood, and her pregnancy with Thea. The sections from Vera's past provided context for her experience of caring and being cared for, and for family attitudes to illness.

Brabon has added some interesting complexities - Vera is married to a doctor (who obviously has faith in his profession), and she is a writer, creating identities and scenarios for brands to cater to the 'ideal consumer'. In less skilled hands, these plot elements may have seemed too convenient, however, Brabon uses them lightly, allowing the reader to make their own assumptions. I could easily imagine the tension between Vera and her husband when she chooses the vitamin supplements and bone broth over what her doctor prescribed.

He says that he didn't study for ten years to have Vera believe one anecdote held the miraculous answer.

Equally, despite Vera being a part of creating the online illusion of the 'ideal', she has an obvious blind-spot about wellness information and wellness influencers, and is in fact the 'ideal' consumer herself.

With her constant presence online, there was a kind of knowing, almost welcome flagellation at play. She could stop any time, she didn't want to stop. She could see the manipulation, the curation; she wouldn't be fooled. 

I understand people turning to wellness influencers for health information as a presentation of anxiety - when you become desperate for a cure, any option seems viable. Pain and desperation are powerful blinkers, and it's the fact that the industry thrives on vulnerability and anxiety that I find difficult.

She was an educated woman, she believed in science, she valued rationality. Yet there was a question of how strong those qualities really were when squared up against one's desperations and desires. She did not always know why she believed some things and discredited others, and why certain people held particular sway over her beliefs.

Brabon also builds in subtle contradictions. For example, at the beginning of Vera's pregnancy -

She doubted her body's capacity. This caused Vera to live in perpetual awareness of the body's primacy in matters of fate, and of how difficult it was to actually make a difference by force of effort or will.

Ah yes, let's overlook the fact that 'water fasts' or 'juice cleanses' is 'effort' and 'will', and in doing these things you are expecting a change in your body!

Likewise, is Thea's confused understanding of her mother's love - although Thea is questioning Vera's cures, she also allows them, respecting her mother's authority. It highlights the difficulty in actions that may be done with the best intention, but are nonetheless harmful. Is this showing love?

When Thea says to her, 'Why do I have to take all this stuff?' and Vera replies, 'Because it will help you', she does not want to think that she is complicit in a lie, or at least something she can't prove to be true, proponent of a belief she does not have full confidence in. If anything, it is essential to strengthen her resolve and her faith in what she demands of her daughter.

I haven't said much about Thea's preoccupation with Claudia, however a line toward the end stood out, as it had me thinking about the online vs. the offline lives of all bloggers/ content creators/ influencers and their audience -

...the internet draws this side out of us: the spy, the copycat, the aspirant, the quiet liar.

I really enjoyed this book - it's as strong as her last novel, Body Friend , but also reminded my of Deborah Levy's Hot Milk .

3.5/5

[Amy Margaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

.....📚 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 📚.....

Cure by Katherine Brabon is a mesmerising portrayal of chronic illness and familial patterns. This is such a unique and gentle narrative that felt almost dream-like in its prose.

Her body hurts her all the time now. It is separate, a thing apart. In her mind, it has become a person or an object that is not quite her, that she doesn’t know.

Vera and Thea are mother and daughter. Vera writes for the internet, she constructs identities and scenarios for brands to cater to the ideal consumer. Yet she also consumes the offerings of the online world for herself and her daughter: the addictive pursuit of a cure, the narratives she craves in which mother and daughter find a way out of the shared experience of chronic illness. She becomes preoccupied with a blog written by a woman whose daughter also has a chronic illness.

While on holiday in Italy, Thea writes in her journal. She is also constructing a character: an image of herself as she grapples with having the same illness as her mother, Vera. But gradually, another person emerges in her journal, through her imaginings of her mother in the same house, the same city, at the same age. They have come to Italy to see where Vera’s family originates, but also to chase a promised cure in the form of a man said to be able to heal Thea’s illness.
As they both grapple with their own narratives about their bodies and their wellness, all may not be as it seems.

This book is not fast paced, nor structured in a usual narrative. For some people this may not work, but I found myself drifting through this book in a good way. It was immersive, and the dream like quality to the writing was sublime. As a mother (and daughter) with a chronic illness, I understood the search for relief and the frustration and feelings surrounding your body betraying you. The connection between mother and daughter in this book, and the mirrored experiences was so beautifully crafted.
I have not read this author before, but I think I'll be looking for her other books now.
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Thank you to @ultimopress for my copy in exchange for my honest review

[Imogen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 gorgeous. vibes of staying by a lake in Italy and journaling each day but also with such profound reflections on mother/daughter relationships and chronic illness.

[Brenda Rosser · Rating 3 out of 5]

from my Kindle wish list

[Morgan Danger · Rating 4 out of 5]

'What feels initially like a sturdy surface on which to walk through the water, can soon make the ground vanish as you slip and fall.'

I read Katherine Brabon's third book 'Body Friend' last year and loved it, so when I saw that her new book 'Cure' delved into themes of wellness, connection, family and belief - all while being set in the Northern Lakes of Italy - I couldn't wait to get stuck into it.

Brabon has an incredible ability to transport and immerse readers into a specific moment in time, writing scenes that although sometimes jump around between time and location weave together seamlessly in Brabon’s signature poetic style.

This book is a great read if you have ever been on the fringes of the online wellness world, in particular the mid 2010s in Australia. It speaks to living a life where your body is betraying you daily and finding connection and understanding in online spaces. It feels particularly familiar if you followed early bloggers and watched the rise of parasocial relationships that have now become the norm with online influencers in 2025.

'Cure' also asks the question 'when are we separated from our mother's bodies?', linking the unseen connection between mothers and daughters through memories and mirrored behaviours, as they unknowingly walk in the same footsteps through life.

I really enjoyed this read - not just for Brabon's writing, but also for how it deeply resonated with the way we seek connection and control in an unpredictable world. I look forward to working my way through the rest of Katherine's back catalogue.

[Declan Fry]

Thea is 16 and holidaying in Italy with her mother, who hopes to cure her daughter's chronic illness by visiting a renowned healer living in the Umbrian countryside. Sheltered and unworldly, Thea connects her physical condition to her actions, looking for things she can control. She is making sense of herself and her experience, feeling her way toward the contours of adulthood.

Her mother, Vera, has also lived with chronic pain for most of her life. Wellness bloggers and health influencers offer Vera solace where doctors and rationalist thinking fail to. Vera knows force of will alone cannot change the body, but the possibility remains tantalising; the idea of release can be dreamt so often it begins to feel real.

Is pain singular, isolating, or is it something that can be shared? Playing with ideas of subjectivity and identity, Katherine Brabon moves between Vera, Thea, and a third authorial voice, one that both addresses the reader in the second person and doubles as the characters' own self-address. Brabon is examining how people change in relation to each other — after marriage, after becoming parents — and the nature of the stories we project upon ourselves and others.

Read on: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-3...

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cure by Katherine Brabon captures the beautiful malaise of teenagehood in ways that are stunning, gentle, introspective and meditative. Through her evocative writing, I was both daughter and mother: I felt transported back to times as a teenager where I observed and performed and stretched and grew, and existed on the cusp of something. But I also am living the experience of motherhood: the link and the bonds formed, as both daughter and now mother. The author explores the tenderness and the connections which can be embedded so deeply it feels cellular. I also loved her exploration of the shades of near enmity that exists within this dynamic, at times, due to emotional proximity, rebellion and independence seeking.  


Beyond the mother daughter relationship, the novel also explores faith and belief and different approaches to seeking cures, the potency of connection in shared and diverged experiences, chronic pain and the havoc it can wreak, as well as generational gaps and echoes. I feel certain this book will allow readers to soak in its beauty whilst also reflecting on the precious and fragile tissue paper layers of such things.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brabon writes so beautifully about the emotional and embodied experience of chronic pain, and the way illness interacts with identity. I didn’t love this book as much as Body Friend, which meditates on similar topics - how do we live a good life with illness, the tug of war between different beliefs about how best to heal, how “the sick role” impacts our closest relationships - but it still has much to recommend it. Some of the differences for me might just be personal preference, as Cure focuses on a parent-child relationship, which isn’t my favourite subject. There’s also a feeling of distance in the narrative style that I didn’t gel with, I guess. That said, Brabon has a thoughtful and compassionate take on the ways mothers and daughters identify with each other and imagine one another’s lives, and the way a mother might get stuck trying to “fix” the difficulties of her own life on what she sees as the second go around (saving her daughter from the same struggles) by being controlling. Which is a phenomenon not limited to illness, of course, or to mothers!

[Natasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am really disappointed in myself for flying through this so quickly, because now it’s over! I absolutely loved Katherine’s writing style. Despite the fact that I have fortunately never experienced chronic illness, I found the characters easy to connect with and empathise with. The modern elements of the influence of online information, especially in the wellness industry, were very relevant and interesting. I really enjoyed reading Cure and I look forward to reading Body Friend soon.

[Gavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting contemplative novel. Love the writing style - quite austere and simple, yet deep and meaningful. Packs a lot in: chronic illness, mother/daughter relations, family dynamics, conspiracy theories, over-sharing and the role of influencers on social media. I felt the middle dragged on a little and parts were a little confusing as both mother and daughter visited Italy at 16 (although suspect this was intentionally confusing?). Worth reading.

[Amy :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A swift and dynamic framing of the relationship of a mother and daughter both pained from chronic illness.

Brabon's 2023 novel, Body Friend, was one of my favourites as of late - 'Cure' following as one of its predecessors. I can imagine this living in the same universe, the tender and nurturing relationships parallel to the comradery we see in the mother's earlier years.

Beautiful, I can't wait to read more by Brabon, in time becoming one of my favourite Authors :)

[Jayden Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can’t fault the writing but I found this one tough to get through, maybe as someone who has never struggled with illness it just wasn’t going to hit for me? There was a constant current of malaise that I found exhausting but maybe that was the point? Regardless, I felt mired alongside the characters and smothered by Vera

[Alaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gorgeous writing. I appreciated Brabon’s thoughtful handling of the complexities of living with chronic illness and the musings on how we find an outlet online. I did find some of the mother/daughter, past/present and truth/fiction distortions a little too confusing by the end. But perhaps that was the point. I enjoyed it overall.

[Sue Gould · Rating 3 out of 5]

An insightful and gentle meditation on chronic illness and on mother/daughter relationships. The parallel stories felt a little too contrived, and while a slow pace was appropriate….it was very slow and somewhat repetitive.

[Natalie Gilbey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this book had a bit more determination to explore the wellness and alternative healing storyline. The characters motives never felt fully developed. However the writing was beautiful and and the setting was dreamy.

[Nikki H · Rating 5 out of 5]

dream-like, tender, melancholic depiction of a mother daughter relationship that also weaves in commentary on chronic illness very well - set against landscape of Italy’s lakes

[Cassie]

3.5

[Steph Conroy · Rating 3 out of 5]

beautiful. repetitive.