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All These Fish: A Memoir
The price of curing childhood cancer — and one psychologist’s long way back to whole.
Lisa Riggs was diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma in 1978, at age seven. The treatment that cured her was, by today’s standards, staggering — and no one studied what it left behind, because almost no one had survived long enough to ask.
Thirty years later she was a clinical psychologist with a full practice when a survivorship clinic finally read her body’s history back to her. The chronic pain, the fatigue, the symptoms dismissed for decades as anxiety — all of it real, all of it the late effects of childhood cancer treatment. Being believed was the beginning.
All These Fish is a memoir of what healing actually trauma therapy and EMDR, a theology remade, a body slowly re-inhabited — four selves, the psychologist, the adult patient, the child on the ward, and the woman she wanted to be, learning to live as one.
Written from both sides of the couch, it is a book for adult survivors of childhood cancer; for those living with chronic pain who have spent years being told it is something else; for trauma therapists and clinicians who want to know what healing feels like from the inside; for readers whose lives have carried them outside the theology they were raised with; and for anyone who has been told their pain is in their head.
It is, in the end, a book about coming home.
Lisa Riggs was diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma in 1978, at age seven. The treatment that cured her was, by today’s standards, staggering — and no one studied what it left behind, because almost no one had survived long enough to ask.
Thirty years later she was a clinical psychologist with a full practice when a survivorship clinic finally read her body’s history back to her. The chronic pain, the fatigue, the symptoms dismissed for decades as anxiety — all of it real, all of it the late effects of childhood cancer treatment. Being believed was the beginning.
All These Fish is a memoir of what healing actually trauma therapy and EMDR, a theology remade, a body slowly re-inhabited — four selves, the psychologist, the adult patient, the child on the ward, and the woman she wanted to be, learning to live as one.
Written from both sides of the couch, it is a book for adult survivors of childhood cancer; for those living with chronic pain who have spent years being told it is something else; for trauma therapists and clinicians who want to know what healing feels like from the inside; for readers whose lives have carried them outside the theology they were raised with; and for anyone who has been told their pain is in their head.
It is, in the end, a book about coming home.
180 pages, Paperback
Published August 28, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 18, 2026
Having been diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare childhood cancer in 1978 aged 7, All These Fish is a memoir written by Lisa Riggs, documenting her journey and the impact on her life thereafter. Getting to the point of remission was the easier fight: the consequences and destruction that treatment left behind and followed her into adulthood was devastating. Lisa had no-one to ask questions of and no studies to refer to for answers, as very, very few had survived long enough to share their story.
Thirty years on, Lisa is still dealing with the devastation that cancer and the brutal treatment left behind, all of which had been dismissed for years as anxiety. Until now. Chronic pain and exhaustion - the price paid for survival. It was all real, not just imagination, and now begins the journey of healing through EMDR and trauma therapy; an evidence-based psychotherapy that allows your brain to move on from being stuck in fight or flight mode, and the memory loses its emotional charge - replacing negative emotions and beliefs with positive ones.
As someone with chronic illnesses, I found Lisa's story incredibly hard to read. The reality for so many of us is a lifetime of misunderstood pain and associated symptoms, until the root cause is discovered and we are believed. Every word is deliberately chosen, and contributes to the powerful account of healing all versions of herself - the child patient, the adult patient, the psychologist and the woman she wants to be, allowing them to co-exist as one.
Lisa has been so vulnerable by sharing her account of childhood cancer and the lasting impact on her mental and physical wellbeing. For anyone who wants to understand the journey of healing, from the professionals who support them to those who have been told their pain is in their head, this book is for you.
Thirty years on, Lisa is still dealing with the devastation that cancer and the brutal treatment left behind, all of which had been dismissed for years as anxiety. Until now. Chronic pain and exhaustion - the price paid for survival. It was all real, not just imagination, and now begins the journey of healing through EMDR and trauma therapy; an evidence-based psychotherapy that allows your brain to move on from being stuck in fight or flight mode, and the memory loses its emotional charge - replacing negative emotions and beliefs with positive ones.
As someone with chronic illnesses, I found Lisa's story incredibly hard to read. The reality for so many of us is a lifetime of misunderstood pain and associated symptoms, until the root cause is discovered and we are believed. Every word is deliberately chosen, and contributes to the powerful account of healing all versions of herself - the child patient, the adult patient, the psychologist and the woman she wants to be, allowing them to co-exist as one.
Lisa has been so vulnerable by sharing her account of childhood cancer and the lasting impact on her mental and physical wellbeing. For anyone who wants to understand the journey of healing, from the professionals who support them to those who have been told their pain is in their head, this book is for you.
September 4, 2026
All These Fish: A Memoir by Lisa Riggs details the harrowing medical ordeal she had to endure to survive childhood cancer. It deals very frankly with the implications and consequences of the very aggressive treatment protocol on her life in all aspects: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Because of my own experience with disability and chronic illness (including cancer), this book was a very difficult but necessary and important read. I had to take a lot of breaks when things hit too close to home, but it was ultimately a very validating experience. For this reason, All These Fish should be required reading for any medical professional interacting with patients in pain.
The author makes clear in her introductory note that this not a memoir for someone who is currently going through cancer treatment and that warning should be heeded. She does not flinch away from describing the absolutely brutal effects that the treatments she had to endure more than 40 years ago have had on her. I really appreciate that she was so candid and detailed because now I have passages I can point to to prove that mine is not a unique experience. I think this is the biggest strength of this memoir.
I also appreciated that the chapters were labelled with dates. This is not a linear memoir and the dates really helped to keep things organized in my head as to the timeline. Otherwise, there would have been much more confusion. Also, in some places this book felt like it was written by two different people. That was explained in the note at the end where it established that this memoir took ten years to write. I'm glad that the author had the persistence and fortitude and frankly the willingness to be this vulnerable to be able to finish this memoir.
As noted, this memoir will not be for everyone. Those who it is for will find a lot of value in it. Thank you very much to the author for allowing me to read and review an early copy via BookSirens. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own. All These Fish was published on September 1, 2026.
Because of my own experience with disability and chronic illness (including cancer), this book was a very difficult but necessary and important read. I had to take a lot of breaks when things hit too close to home, but it was ultimately a very validating experience. For this reason, All These Fish should be required reading for any medical professional interacting with patients in pain.
The author makes clear in her introductory note that this not a memoir for someone who is currently going through cancer treatment and that warning should be heeded. She does not flinch away from describing the absolutely brutal effects that the treatments she had to endure more than 40 years ago have had on her. I really appreciate that she was so candid and detailed because now I have passages I can point to to prove that mine is not a unique experience. I think this is the biggest strength of this memoir.
I also appreciated that the chapters were labelled with dates. This is not a linear memoir and the dates really helped to keep things organized in my head as to the timeline. Otherwise, there would have been much more confusion. Also, in some places this book felt like it was written by two different people. That was explained in the note at the end where it established that this memoir took ten years to write. I'm glad that the author had the persistence and fortitude and frankly the willingness to be this vulnerable to be able to finish this memoir.
As noted, this memoir will not be for everyone. Those who it is for will find a lot of value in it. Thank you very much to the author for allowing me to read and review an early copy via BookSirens. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own. All These Fish was published on September 1, 2026.
September 27, 2026
This book took me only few days to finish reading. I was very interested to see where the journey would end up. I thought the content was very hard to get through because we are talking about someone who survived child cancer in the 70s when chemotherapy had just been discovered and dosages, treatment plans etc were more similar to a guessing game than real science. I found the way she spoke about everything very real and raw, but at the same time very lucid. It took Lisa 10 years to finish writing this book and I think it really paid off. A gem of a memoir: hard, honest, important.
Thank you to the author and BookSiren for allowing to read this advance review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Thank you to the author and BookSiren for allowing to read this advance review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews