The Sweetness Between Us

by Soph Myers-Kelley

The Sweetness Between Us is a book I wish I’d had when my disabilities, as well as my queer and trans identity journeys, started gearing up in my early 20’s. In the first dialogue between characters, we see how queerness is embedded in the world of this book—not as a plot point and not something to be questioned, either. Perley (a junior high student) greets his tutor, whose name is Mx. Bythesea. The use of Mx. honorifics is just one example of the integration of multiple identities in The Sweetness Between Us. Similarly, diversity in gender, size, culture, race, religion, and ability are all embedded in this world searle creates for us in Wohoa, Maine. This is one of the most natural feeling graphic medicine novels I’ve found—perhaps there is something to be said about fiction pieces addressing medical themes and elements well.

In this high school romance graphic novel, Perley and Amandine are juniors who meet in their tutor’s office, which they both need due to health-related issues resulting in extended time out of school. Perley, after a hospital scare, is diagnosed with type I diabetes (known by some as juvenile diabetes). He is still getting used to the test strips, additional financial cost to the family, and maintenance that comes with having a disability (he also has dyscalculia, a disability not often represented in literature). Dyscalculia is a learning disorder that can affect one’s ability to understand math and other number-heavy information. His family is Jewish, and they live together on a farm which includes a variety of animals, from donkeys to rabbits to alpacas, which the family doesn’t raise for meat. Amandine, a goth/jock student, comes from a long lineage of Black vampires. Due to an unfortunate (and fatal) car accident and to prevent her death, Amandine is turned into a vampire at a much younger age than she or the family anticipated. Veganism is very important to her, and due to her turning as well as her understandable commitment to her vegan diet, she begins experiencing symptoms that a reader might find very similar to disability or chronic illness. Suddenly, Amandine is nocturnal in a world that is largely diurnal, too fatigued to participate in the sports she loves, needing school sanctioned naps, and wearing protective clothing in the sun. Her vampire community warns her of eventually losing her hair, developing food intolerances perhaps 10-20 years from now, and the stigma of not only being a vampire, but being a Black vampire. She’s also drinking juices all the time to support her energy levels. Her family has been around Wohoa at least since the 17^th century when it was a French colony. Her family has Wabanaki first nation lineage as well.

Through Amandine and Perley’s time together catching up with school, Amandine realizes she can utilize a new skill she has from her vampirism (reading blood sugar content by tasting something) to save Perley some much needed money (as alternative to blood glucose test strips). As can happen with intimacy and shared experiences, a teenage romance blooms. However, things move quickly, and the two need to grapple with their differences as well as evaluate whether this money saving, coping strategy is working as intended, and whether their new bond can survive their fears and stigmas.

There is so much richness here, I’d like to highlight some of the parts that made me especially happy to recommend this book to you.

Perley googles how to save on diabetes-related medical costs, clearly trying to take on what he knows is a financial burden for his parents. While not his primary objective, he knows he saves money on test strips by asking his vampire girlfriend to test his blood glucose levels. At a youth diabetes support group, a friend of his says, “if crowdfunding to buy insulin was already dystopian, dating a vampire to subsidize your health-care costs is next-level” (167). Similarly in the peer group, another member shares how her parents used to go strictly by her health professional’s medical advice, but she didn’t get a grip on her diabetes until finding a peer group. As a chronically ill person, I found the importance of peer groups quite relatable. Near the end of the book, Perley looks up how to reduce his insulin strip use to make his supply last longer. When his parents talk about getting an automatic pump for him, he goes into a spiral and thinks about how to get another job or make up for it financially. Again, this is a very relatable moment where I saw myself and my experience with the financial stress of managing a chronic illness.

Side characters are not written as throw aways—there are trans background characters, characters who are vampires or werewolves, and disabled characters. One example that stood out to me was when the high school student leader of a hockey team shares how they have a bunch of allergies, and as a result it took a lot of time to figure out how to get enough protein in their diet to adequately perform and have energy for sports. I didn’t notice that character again (besides perhaps being in the background) and it made me happy that so many characters, no matter how often or little they were highlighted, had full, messy, distinctive lives and identities.

I appreciate the lore and care taken into writing about Amandine and her family’s Blackness, vampirism, and the impacts of racism on healthcare. During a scene where an aunt of hers, who is a mentor regarding being a vampire, shares about their family’s history, their connection to vampire cousins living in the South (in Louisiana), and the importance of vampires passing down humanity’s history through oral traditions (109). Her aunt discusses her deep desire to protect Amandine from people who might want to take advantage of her vampire identity and her ability to “turn” others. Perley learns that turning into a vampire or a wolf can make some chronic conditions easier, and this becomes an interesting conflict point for Perley and Amandine (no spoilers!).

Discussions on racism don’t only occur while the main character is present—it’s discussed in the diabetes support group as well. One high schooler discusses their grandmother being diagnosed with type II diabetes, “It took her doctor forever to bother testing for it, I just… it was so frustrating seeing her unwell for so long. I’d read about how underdiagnosed Black folks are, but Wohoa is supposed to be this progressive oasis, right? I’d hoped they’d do better” (152).

This is SUCH a fantastic book; I cannot rave about it enough! If fiction is appropriate in your collection, RUN to the store to purchase this for your personal or otherwise library!

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Soph Myers-Kelley is a medical librarian, herbalist, and activist living in North Carolina. They can be contacted at https://www.smyerskelley.com/ and followed at https://www.instagram.com/thesofakingofficial/