To the person who was upset I said there was no God and used the F-word in my book:

First off, Year of the Nurse opens with me wanting to die. Did you think I was going to cheerfully come back from that?

Second: on page 3 I warn people about cursing and say you should return it if it offends you, which you apparently didn’t read.

Third: did you honestly think I was going to pull the next ‘feel good!’ novel out of being a nurse last year?

What the fuck rock were you living under, lady?

Did you honestly think there wouldn’t be cursing, after knowing 600,000 people died?

Did you think I was going to find some magical generosity of spirit at being forced to watch those people die personally?

What should my prayers have looked like? “Gee God, thanks for killing all these people but not me, I feel super special.” Or, “Thanks, God, for listening to my prayers for my family, but fuck all my patient’s prayers sideways.” Or, “I sure am glad it’s not my time yet, Lord, but come reap all these other fuckers asap.”

I’m sorry to have interrupted your personal vision of the hospital as being a joyful location that’s one step south of Jesus-land, but even on its best days, it is not — and last year none of the days were good.

By all means, return the book, and tell your friends and others like you not to read it, vociferously. I don’t want anyone to have a bad book experience, or to read things they do not want to.

But please, be honest, and realize that the reason you’re returning it is because you couldn’t read the label, nor the room, nor the year.

— Cassie RN — author of Year of the Nurse: A Covid-19 Pandemic Memoir