“With The Velvet Bow as much a manifesto as a memoir, Peri Finkelstein has delivered a narrative of endurance and triumph with wit and honesty, a clear argument for those living life with even the most dramatic and exhaustive disabilities to be seen as the people they are. This is a blunt but welcoming story, inviting readers not to pity or gloss the physical realities of disability, but to instead engage in a coming-of-age tale for a young woman finding confidence and purpose. 
 
‘I may not have control over what my body does,’ writes Finkelstein, ‘but I do have control over how I show up.’ Indeed, she proves as much with every chapter.  Finkelstein's autobiography arrives as a gift to everyone from medical professionals and caregivers now struggling in the battle for accessibility, to ordinary walk-past-it people who haven’t thought twice about the importance of inclusion. The Velvet Bow brings the argument to all of us with charm and spirit.”