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Life's a Mess
What happens when your entire life explodes… and you still have to figure out how to live inside the wreckage?
In this raw and deeply personal memoir, Izzy White tells the story of surviving cancer as a young woman while trying to hold onto her identity, relationships, humor, and humanity through the chaos of treatment, loss, fear, and the strange reality of becoming “the sick girl” online.
This is not a polished story about staying positive.
It’s about ports and panic attacks. Steroids and stretch marks. Losing pieces of yourself while desperately trying to recognize the person in the mirror. It’s about grief that starts long before death. The silence of people you thought would stay. The exhaustion of living scan to scan, where “good news” simply means things didn’t get worse.
But it’s also about love. Marriage. Dark humor. Small moments of joy. Internet strangers who became lifelines. And Mojo, the grey French bulldog who somehow became part emotional support system, part comic relief, and part symbol of surviving messy lives.
Written in the honest, intimate voice that built Mojo & The Mess, this memoir is for anyone who has ever had life split into a “before” and “after.” Whether you’re facing illness, loving someone who is, or simply trying to survive your own version of broken, this book offers companionship in the middle of the mess.
Not inspirational.
Not sugarcoated.
Just real.
Because sometimes courage doesn’t look heroic.
Sometimes it looks like waking up and doing it again anyway.
In this raw and deeply personal memoir, Izzy White tells the story of surviving cancer as a young woman while trying to hold onto her identity, relationships, humor, and humanity through the chaos of treatment, loss, fear, and the strange reality of becoming “the sick girl” online.
This is not a polished story about staying positive.
It’s about ports and panic attacks. Steroids and stretch marks. Losing pieces of yourself while desperately trying to recognize the person in the mirror. It’s about grief that starts long before death. The silence of people you thought would stay. The exhaustion of living scan to scan, where “good news” simply means things didn’t get worse.
But it’s also about love. Marriage. Dark humor. Small moments of joy. Internet strangers who became lifelines. And Mojo, the grey French bulldog who somehow became part emotional support system, part comic relief, and part symbol of surviving messy lives.
Written in the honest, intimate voice that built Mojo & The Mess, this memoir is for anyone who has ever had life split into a “before” and “after.” Whether you’re facing illness, loving someone who is, or simply trying to survive your own version of broken, this book offers companionship in the middle of the mess.
Not inspirational.
Not sugarcoated.
Just real.
Because sometimes courage doesn’t look heroic.
Sometimes it looks like waking up and doing it again anyway.
162 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 17, 2026
I came across Isabel White through a Facebook Cancer group and started reading her blog. It was like nothing else out there and exactly what I needed in a time where COVID made in person groups hardly exist. I didn't feel I had a place because most groups were for breast cancer but not stage 4 terminal breast cancer. I had just had my recurrence and was in need of people who understood what it meant to be facing mortality at a young age.
Needless to say, I devoured her blog because she was saying exactly what my brain was thinking... And that was a huge comfort. I felt acknowledged, especially when she wrote about how lonely it can feel and how those we love (but who don't 'get it' respond in ways that can make you feel even more alone).
Getting to the book, I went into it expecting to read a lot of what I've already read. I'm pleasantly surprised to say that it was the opposite. It was a lot of the same sentiment but coming from a different view and not written in the same way. She has such a gift for writing, and I'm not even sure she realizes it! It seems to be a passion, and it definitely shows. To be honest, I want to read more. It's so refreshing and honest and will be one of the first books I'll recommend to anyone going through stage 4.
She doesn't shy from the nitty gritty and I love that, it's something I needed. I'm overwhelmed by people all day and night spouting positivity (and I don't blame them, it's what I'd likely be doing in their place). But man, hearing it all day long is exhausting. Hearing someone else say that, made me breathe a sigh of relief. It's not me, there isn't something wrong with me. I started thinking that I wasn't trying hard enough to be positive (and I'm a glass half full kind of gal).
To be honest, this is going to be the book I'll be giving my loved ones to read. Maybe hearing it from someone else will make them understand. If they don't, that's okay too. I now know this is something we just go through and I'm not alone. Isabel White may never know or understand the depth of how she has given me comfort during the worst of times. How reading her blog and now her book has given me exactly what I was lacking. How she has been this friend (not to sound creepy in a 'i don't know her' way) that had me nodding and yelling "yes" every time I read something I've experienced but nobody else would "get".
You should read this.
Read this if you know someone going through stage 4 cancer and really want to know what it's like. This will give you the exact picture of how it is. Sure, you won't be finding lots of spirited "fight, fight, fight" chants in this book... But you'll hear the real struggle and also the real strength (not the facade we all put on to show you we are "all good").
Definitely, Read this if you are experiencing stage 4 cancer and haven't felt "heard".
Read this if you have cancer and you are sick of all the positivity being thrown at you (in loving and well intentioned ways).
Just read it. She is an excellent writer and worth a read by anyone really!
Needless to say, I devoured her blog because she was saying exactly what my brain was thinking... And that was a huge comfort. I felt acknowledged, especially when she wrote about how lonely it can feel and how those we love (but who don't 'get it' respond in ways that can make you feel even more alone).
Getting to the book, I went into it expecting to read a lot of what I've already read. I'm pleasantly surprised to say that it was the opposite. It was a lot of the same sentiment but coming from a different view and not written in the same way. She has such a gift for writing, and I'm not even sure she realizes it! It seems to be a passion, and it definitely shows. To be honest, I want to read more. It's so refreshing and honest and will be one of the first books I'll recommend to anyone going through stage 4.
She doesn't shy from the nitty gritty and I love that, it's something I needed. I'm overwhelmed by people all day and night spouting positivity (and I don't blame them, it's what I'd likely be doing in their place). But man, hearing it all day long is exhausting. Hearing someone else say that, made me breathe a sigh of relief. It's not me, there isn't something wrong with me. I started thinking that I wasn't trying hard enough to be positive (and I'm a glass half full kind of gal).
To be honest, this is going to be the book I'll be giving my loved ones to read. Maybe hearing it from someone else will make them understand. If they don't, that's okay too. I now know this is something we just go through and I'm not alone. Isabel White may never know or understand the depth of how she has given me comfort during the worst of times. How reading her blog and now her book has given me exactly what I was lacking. How she has been this friend (not to sound creepy in a 'i don't know her' way) that had me nodding and yelling "yes" every time I read something I've experienced but nobody else would "get".
You should read this.
Read this if you know someone going through stage 4 cancer and really want to know what it's like. This will give you the exact picture of how it is. Sure, you won't be finding lots of spirited "fight, fight, fight" chants in this book... But you'll hear the real struggle and also the real strength (not the facade we all put on to show you we are "all good").
Definitely, Read this if you are experiencing stage 4 cancer and haven't felt "heard".
Read this if you have cancer and you are sick of all the positivity being thrown at you (in loving and well intentioned ways).
Just read it. She is an excellent writer and worth a read by anyone really!
Displaying 1 of 1 review