2.5 Stars: A Good Read
Hardcover: 284 Pages
Publication: October 2, 2012 by Walker Books for Young Readers
Mia is always looking for signs. A sign that she should get serious with her soccer-captain boyfriend. A sign that she’ll get the grades to make it into an Ivy-league school. One sign she didn’t expect to look for was: “Will I survive cancer?” It’s a question her friends would never understand, prompting Mia to keep her illness a secret. The only one who knows is her lifelong best friend, Gyver, who is poised to be so much more. Mia is determined to survive, but when you have so much going your way, there is so much more to lose. From debut author Tiffany Schmidt comes a heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting story of one girl’s search for signs of life in the face of death.
Mia’s a popular, pretty, smart girl with everything, and then her life begins spiralling downward when she’s diagnosed with leukemia. Mia could have kept her friends and much of her normal life if she’d admit the truth to everyone, but her mom convinces her to fake at normalcy–and that begins her life. Pretending that she’s okay and denying everything else. Having been perfect all her life, Mia doesn’t know what to do when she’s not the golden girl anymore.
Mia makes a lot of wrong decisions. She hides her cancer from her friends. She falls into the wrong arms out of loneliness. She wants everyone else to make the important decisions for her. I can understand that Mia would be scared and rely on signs to tell her what to do, but she’s too busy worrying about herself to see how much she’s hurting the people close to her. Her mom doesn’t help at all. Mia’s mom is overly involved in Mia’s life and presses all of her expectations on Mia. While Mia is trying to figure out her life with cancer in it, her mom is busy trying to pretend that everything is okay to notice Mia’s pain and need to clue in people on what’s happening in her life. To choose the right boy instead of the one her mom wants for her.
The gems in this story are Ryan and Gyver. At first, I thought that Ryan was with Mia because he wanted to get into her pants, but he turns out to be really supportive and caring. In fact, I felt sorry for him because of how Mia was stringing him along, wanting to find solace in his kisses without committing to a relationship. The same goes for Gyver, except that I liked him all along. These two guys are Mia’s rocks in her confusion, and the nice guys that they are they didn’t deserve to be used like they were.
I love sad stories, and this sounded like it would be for me with Mia dealing with the big C. In ways, it is. I appreciate Mia’s struggles coming to terms with her life after cancer. Her character growth has its ups and downs, but she does figure things out in the end. At the same time, it takes too long for her to realize what was really important to her, and she lashes out at the world in the process before realizing her mistakes. I would have also liked to see more of the medical sides to leukemia and how it impacts Mia. Mostly, this book is centered on the characters and their development, which would have worked if I was able to like Mia more. Unfortunately, between Mia’s mom and Mia herself, there was too much drama for me. As much as I liked much of this book, it ended up not being for me. However, for those who are able to sympathize more with Mia, I’m sure they’ll find a gem in this book.
An ARC was provided by Macmillan for review.
Author: Crystal
A story girl at heart, Crystal is a bibliophile who can easily spend the day immersed in a good read. She writes under the name Kristy Wang. You can follow her writing adventures on X and Instagram @_kristywang.
Sunny Duvall says
Disappointing. I really wanted to read this and I had an inkling that Mia would get on my nerves, but I was hoping. Your review was GREAT so I'm glad I read it beforehand 🙂 I'll still probably have to read it for the guys, but I think I'll be frustrated the whole time…
Diana Grace says
I have been planning to read this book for some time now.. I'm not much of a reader of books filled with drama though, so I'm not sure if I'll be reading this anytime soon, Thanks for the review! 🙂
MåїÐ»-(¯`v´¯)-» says
I was looking forward to this one too! D: I thought the story was kind of fun and intriguing, but too bad it didn't work out. I will keep an open mind however, and maybe I can come to like it after reading it!
Thanks for the honest review! 🙂
~ Maida
Crystal says
It did seem fun. Superstition and cancer? I'm glad to hear that you'll be giving this a try. Hopefully, you'll find some parts that you enjoy!
Lili says
It bums me out that you onlt gave this 2.5 stars. I was looking forward to this one a lot!
Crystal says
I was really looking forward to this too. And really, most of the stars are for the guys. Plotwise, this book wasn't engaging and fell flat for the most part.
Vivien says
This was a tough one for me. I've enjoyed books like this in the past, but this one just didn't work for me. I never connected.
Crystal says
Yeah. I really wanted to like this book. However, I just couldn't connect with Mia.
Eva says
I have had this in my TBR pile for awhile but your review gives me pause — I hate love triangles and wasn't expecting that from this book. Thanks for the honest review
Crystal says
I don't like love triangles either, but I did like the two guys in this one. What I didn't like was how Mia treated the two of them. If you do end up reading this book, I hope you like the guys as well 🙂
Bookworm1858 says
I wish I had liked Mia more as well-the guys were fine and when Mia didn't wimp out on making good decisions, I liked her as well. But she did so many stupid things that I kind of disliked her by the end, never a good feeling to have toward the MC.
Crystal says
Yeah, it's not good to dislike the MC. It makes it all the harder to read a book. I really wish Mia didn't wimp out so much. Maybe if I could have related to her I might have thought differently, but the guys are so wonderful and she doesn't treat them right….