[4] Whitney Dafoe was a photographer and world traveler when at age 23, he was hospitalized on a trip to India, suffering from a stomach ailment.

He was diagnosed with ME/CFS in 2011 but continued to slip until he was confined to a back room at his parents' home, unable to speak or eat without the assistance of a feeding tube.

The Publishers Weekly review said, "The author's keen commitment to capturing Dafoe's illness and Davis's work makes for a story of heartbreak balanced with unexpected beauty.

"[1] In Al Jazeera, Michaela Haas wrote that the book "paints an intimate portrait of Whitney's journey to diagnosis and his father's fight to find a cure.

"[5] In the Library Journal, Kelsy Peterson wrote, “Both tragic and uplifting, this title will be of particular interest to readers seeking more information about ME/CFS and anyone curious about medical mysteries.”[6] In Booklist, Kathleen McBroom said, "White writes with compassion and empathy, capably handling the technical aspects of current virus genome research.