Not being able to stand the Anthropocene reviewed, I went into this trepidatiously, plus I’d seen the movie some time ago too, so there were no surprises. But I actually liked this quite a bit, for what it is. It’s prescriptive and one of those sentimental, overly orchestrated emotionally manipulative type books, like Irving or Haig.

That actually suits YA pretty well though, since this fiction is preoccupied with developing minds choosing who and what they are going to believe in. And this adds up to, well, maybe we should treat sick people with the same dignity as everybody else. With a message like that, I don’t mind the prescriptive elements. It’s cheesy and I don’t think most teenagers that age would behave the way these two do, but they are pretty expressly characters with a capital C, and the book is intentional about infusing them with some qualities you wouldn’t usually see—which is why they are characters and not concerned with verisimilitude (on that front).

I went in disliking the author and thinking I wasn’t going to like it, so I have to give it props. The deck was stacked against it and It still won. Though, more than some of it may be down to the absolutely stellar narration too.