Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved

Bowler writes her memoir from the first-person point of view. In memoir writing, the protagonist/writer typically makes themselves vulnerable through disclosure, which may make readers identify with them. Bowler tells the story of how she, a relatively young patient full of vitality, has been diagnosed with a very likely terminal condition. The air of uncertainty builds from the moment of her diagnosis and expands through the end of the narrative.

Though she is a professor, researcher, and disciplined author of historical works, Bowler’s style in the memoir is personal and emotional. She uses humor in numerous passages to satirize foolish, unprofessional, or disengaged individuals. For example, she describes the comments of two doctors who mistakenly diagnose the weakness in her arms as the result of being a woman with large breasts who practices too much yoga. As she leaves the pointless appointment, she hears one of the physicians remark about how many yoga patients they had diagnosed that week. The problem, she notes, is that she scarcely practices yoga and does not have large breasts.

Other satiric elements are more subtle.