★Slice, Jessica & Caroline Cupp. Dateable: Swiping Right, Hooking Up, and Settling Down While Chronically Ill and Disabled. Hachette. Jul. 2024. 288p. ISBN 9780306832734. pap. $19.99. SELF-HELP

Coauthors Slice and Cupp have explored a range of inclusivity-focused topics in their previous books for children. This title for adults aims to share the challenges and joys of navigating online dating as a chronically ill or disabled person. In the book’s introduction, each author shares their own experiences and then frames them with nuanced analyses of what it means to navigate dating in “a society that stigmatizes disabled bodies and minds.” They provide statistics, call out some of the language people use that is well-intentioned yet marginalizing or restigmatizing, and provide insights from interviews with chronically ill and disabled people, all undergirded by the authors’ awareness of the complex nuances of intersectionality and their particular privilege as white cis women. VERDICT With its mix of astute cultural analyses, quippy personal anecdotes, and deeper dives into sociopolitical and theoretical factors, this book does more than show disabled and chronically ill people that they belong. It also serves as a reminder that it matters how one shows up on dating apps and in relationships, in order to counteract the systems that try to render invisible the people whose bodies don’t conform to social norms.