All's Well

All’s Well critiques a social and medical landscape in which female suffering is routinely disbelieved or ignored. The novel portrays the gendered dismissal of the protagonist’s chronic pain as a form of gaslighting that isolates and destabilizes her. Through Miranda’s descent into her quest for supernatural vengeance, Awad explores how her desperate need for acknowledgment pushes her beyond the boundaries of conventional morality.

Miranda’s chronic pain, which began when she fell from the stage during a performance, is consistently dismissed by male authority figures in the medical establishment who claim that her physical symptoms have psychological bases. Her physical therapist, Mark, pretends to be sympathetic to her pain but ultimately tries to convince her that her pain is psychosomatic, trivializing her suffering by sending her a cartoon video that explains that “pain lives in the brain” (49). Similarly, the surgeon Dr. Rainier refuses to operate on her, claiming there is “nothing to cut” and attributing her condition to unresolved grief over her “dead mother, [her] divorce, [and her] failed aspirations for the stage” (32). This dismissal from supposed experts reflects medical misogyny, where women’s symptoms are disproportionately psychologized, misdiagnosed, or undertreated. It leaves Miranda feeling isolated and powerless, and she feels trapped since her reality is constantly questioned by the very people meant to heal her.