This is the author's debut novel and interestingly, she was born in the city just to the west of us where the company my husband works for is located!
STORY SUMMARY
Maddy is sixteen and lives with her mother Eve. Maddy has a lot of friends, is funny and smart and is very profound. She and Eve are very close. She has never known her father but her mother is partners with a man named Robin and Maddy thinks of him as a stepfather. Her grandparents (Eve's parents) are religious and are very devouted to Maddy. Maddy is somewhat of a typical teen: she has a crush on a boy named Jack with whom she has been friends with for a long time. Her best girl friends are Fiona and Vicky. And...Maddy has cancer. She is forced to grow up fast because life is uncertain.
Eve and Maddy live in Washington, D.C but they also have a lake house where Eve spent her summers as a girl, on Lake Tawasentha in PA. Maddy learns of her father's existence, and his name: Antonio. He is a scientist who lives in London with his wife and 2 sons.
Maddy begins to correspond by email to her father. She is also into art and classical music and gets involved in a campaign about climate change. She is constantly testing the depth and limits of her relationship with her mother while Eve is learning to come to terms with her daughter whom she only partly knows, and with whom she might have to say "good bye" to soon.
Maddy makes an animated film for the climate change march in Washington, D.C.
And it is powerful. Will she live long enough to see the march happen?
MY THOUGHTS
This book is unsettling in some ways. I found it sad, joyful, profound, dramatic and comedic. But it is unsettling to think about someone not being raised with any kind of faith and then to face cancer........
The book is excellent at exploring the relationship between a mother and a daughter.
There are different parts to the book and each part is told in either Eve's voice or Maddy's.
It's a rather intense read but it is fast paced. The subject matter: a teen dealing with cancer that gets progressively worse, is poignant and eye opening.
The character development is very good and I especially enjoyed the conversation between Eve and her new lake neighbor Norma. I also enjoyed the emails back and forth between Maddy and her father.
It is heart breaking yet joyful.
I'd love to read more by this author and I hope she publishes another novel soon.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to mature content).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.
2 comments:
I am picking three books up at the library tonight, and this is one of them. Thanks for the review. :-)
Now this sounds interesting.
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