This article looks at two texts from award-winning French writer Delphine de Vigan, namely Rien ne s'oppose à la nuit (2011) and Jours sans faim (2001). This piece offers an original analysis that goes beyond the family novel and autofiction readings that have previously been made of the narratives by showing show how family, transgression, trauma, illness and writing are intrinsically linked in Vigan's writing and how both text should instead be read as pathographies.