Review: Dreams in Which I'm Almost Human - Hannah Soyer

Genre: Memoir, Disability Essays Published: Red Hen Press, June 2026

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars

"I’m not sure which inheritance has shaped me more— that of the women in my family who came before me, or that of my non-blood community, my Crip siblings and ancestors. I am someone with stories written on my body because of how my body is made, how it looks , how it inhabits the world— I need people to help me in order to live, a need that is painted as beautiful by some and horrible by others. I need care, and I have been raised by women who take care of others."

Disability, queer identity, intersectionality, fairytale motifs, language, and the every-day magic that can be within nature and daily life, all coalesce within this collection essays by Hannah Soyer. With Dreams in Which I’m Almost Human, she creates a powerful memoir that can be classified as “disability memoir”, but also transcends the bounds of the genre in its scope.

What I loved:

If I had to sum up this book in 3 words, they would be “insightful, intersectional and magical".

Insightful, for the way that Soyer manages to give words to her own experiences as a disabled, queer person, fueled and shaped by the stories she grew up around. Her observations were relatable to me in the best way; reflecting feelings and thoughts that I’ve had myself, but didn’t know how to articulate.

Intersectional, for the way it integrates different identities, topics and styles. Every one of the many themes mentioned in the synopsis is covered, and interwoven in some way or other. Soyer is also clearly very aware of her place in the landscape of disability writing, as she links and references many other works by fellow authors and scholars alike. Plenty of my personal favourites (Rebekah Taussig, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Harriet McBryde Johnson and more) are referenced and credited here. These references make this book a powerful compendium and starting-place for readers just starting out in their discovery of these topics.

Finally, beautiful, for its fantastic prose, images and the metaphors of magic and fairytales used to explore its themes. The mermaid as a metaphor for disabled bodies is an old, tried-and-true one, and Soyer employs and cross-references it a lot in this collection. Since this happens to be one of my own personal metaphors, its integration here spoke to me a lot.

What I didn’t love:

There are two points of criticism that took off half a star from my final rating. First is the double-edged sword of the plentiful references to other works published within the disability-space. Although this makes it a good starting-point, it also takes away page time from the author to explore her unique thoughts and experiences. To me, as someone who’s read a lot op this subject, many of the quotes and references were already familiar; a repetition of someone else’s thought, instead of a unique insight of the author themselves. Although that doesn’t make the statements any less powerful, it does reduce the credits I can give to Soyer for formulating them.

Second, at times the structure – a series of collected essays that could be read as individual pieces as well – felt a little disjointed to me. Although the essays are linked by a series of shared themes, they didn’t always flow naturally from one into another, which took me out of the book at times.

Overall, I’m a huge advocate for disability fiction and own-voice memoirs on disability (justice), and am always happy to find a new quality work to add to my list of recommendations. Dreams in Which I’m Almost Human, is a welcome addition to this list. Valuable insights, beautifully described, and a great starting-place for anyone new to the genre, thanks to its many links to other published works.

Many thanks to Red Hen Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.