A searching, galvanizing memoir about blood and love: how learning more about her period, PMS, PMDD, and the effects of hormones on moods transformed her relationships—to a new partner, to family, to non-blood kin, and to her own body—from the beloved essayist and author of Women Chloe Caldwell’s period has often felt inconvenient, uncomfortable, or even painful. It’s only once she’s in her thirties, as she’s falling in love with Tony, a musician and single dad, that its effects on her mood start to dominate her life. Spurred by the intensity and seriousness of her new relationship, it strikes her: her outbursts of anxiety and rage match her hormonal cycle. Compelled to understand the truth of what’s happening to her, Chloe documents attitudes toward menstruation among her peers and family, reads Reddit threads about PMS, attends a conference called Break the Cycle, and learns about premenstrual dysphoric disorder, PMDD, which helps her name what she’s been going through. For Chloe, healing isn’t about finding a single cure. It means reflecting on underlying patterns in her life: her feelings about her queer identity and writing persona in the context of a heterosexual relationship; how her parents’ divorce contributed to her issues with trust; and what it means to blend a family. The Red Zone is a candid, revelatory memoir for anyone grappling with controversial medical diagnoses and labels of all kinds. It’s about coming to terms with the fact that—along with proper treatment—self-acceptance, self-compassion, and transcending shame are the ultimate keys to relief. It’s also about love: how challenging it can be, how it reveals your weaknesses and wounds, and how, if you allow it, it will push you to grow and change. Named a Most Anticipated Book by BuzzFeed , Glamour , NYLON , and Bustle A W Magazine Essential Feminist Read "In her memoir The Red Zone: A Love Story , Caldwell grapples with the realities of her 30s . . . Caldwell is grown now. Strange visitors are at her door—PMDD, or premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and a prospective life partner who happens to be a divorced man with a daughter. Here, our heroine is on a different journey: to establish a peace accord with her own period, whose cyclical hormonal fluctuations wreak havoc on her body and relationships . . . To find relief, she harnesses her episodes for semi-scientific investigation and emotional revelations that do, ultimately, serve to connect Caldwell with Tony, his daughter and a network of women obsessed with finding out why they cycle through rage and agony. These women have suffered excruciating, often emotionally shattering episodes that are alternately undisclosed, unrecognized or dismissed . . . I found myself texting images of certain pages to a friend I suspect may have PMDD." —Kristen Millares Young, The Washington Post "Read it with a hot-water bottle on your abdomen and chocolate close at hand, then lend it to all your menstruating friends." —Jenny Singer, A Glamour Best Book of the Year "Caldwell’s cathartic The Red Zone will be a comfort and a revelation to those suffering." —Laura Waddell, The Scotsman "Periods are often shrouded in mystery and shame. But in Chloé Caldwell’s new memoir, The Red Zone: A Love Story , she brings the period front and center by making the rhythm of a menstrual cycle the rhythm of a life . . . It’s humorous and genuine . . . a story about the things we so often fear society will render illegitimate through its judgmental gaze—periods, being a stepparent, bisexuality, divorce. But it shows us that the only gaze required to render our experiences as legitimate is our own, searing and red-hot, and always fiercely authentic." —Nylah Burton, Shondaland "Characteristically affecting, sharp, and funny." —Katie Heaney, The Cut "Caldwell poetically captures the complexities of living (and loving) with PMDD . . . Flip through The Red Zone , and you'll find many things: Reddit threads and diaristic lists; romantic excursions and heated text messages; questions and (sometimes) answers. But whatever shape its content takes, one thing is clear: The Red Zone is an homage to love . . . Perhaps that's why I was able to see my own first pivotal period experience in a new light after reading." —Rachel Schwartzmann, Byrdie “A mix of memoir, medical investigation, and group therapy, Caldwell’s latest is a red-hot probe into the biology, ramifications, and politics of menstruation. Using her personal struggles with premenstrual dysphoric disorder as a vehicle to explore the way that other women experience their periods, Caldwell takes us from Reddit threads to the halls of her own marriage with the candidness and bravery that has made her a standout memoirist and teacher.” —Courtney Maum, Literary Hub "I first read the novella Women by Chloe Caldwell when I was heartbroken over my first queer relationship, and it became my go-to recommendation for people to understand