What is the author's tone in the nonfiction book, This Is Going to Hurt?

For the majority of the novel, Kay employs a sarcastic and comedic tone. Though Kay's tone is sarcastic, however, he uses this technique in order to get across important arguments to his reader. In other words, Kay employs humor in his writing in order to make light of extremely difficult situations and advance arguments against the NHS. Comedy is thus a literary tactic to draw in readers. Rather than write a merely political book about the inequities of the NHS, Kay instead opts to utilize his humorous diary entries in order to both provide a firsthand perspective and also attract a larger audience, making difficult bureaucratic and political arguments more readable. By doing so, Kay captivates the reader while also relaying important, and at some points controversial, information about the medical system.