Saturday, October 13, 2012

Send Me a Sign

Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt
4/5 stars
Walker and Company, 2012
374 pages
YA Contemporary Cancer

Source: Won from Bananas for Books

I saw this book appear on a couple of Waiting on Wednesdays posts and made a mental note to check it out as I adore contemporaries and had a good experience with another cancer story earlier this year, which made me less nervous about reading something so dark. Then I was lucky enough to win a giveaway for a copy and I have finally had a chance to dig into it. I end conflicted with my feelings.

First I want to say that this book was very readable. It can serve as one of the reasons why I love to read contemporary as I easily found myself pulled along. The world was familiar: the way people live, attending high school, what a hospital is like. Although cancer is an element, there is a lot of romance, relationship drama, and even some lightness (there is also an unrelated absolutely devastating event in the book; Mom-do not highlight to read this spoiler! Mia has to put her cat to sleep).

I also really loved the start introducing Mia as one of the Calendar Girls with her three best friends-she is Summer and this is supposed to be her fun time before they start their senior year. Instead Mia ends up in the hospital, urged on by her mother to keep her cancer a secret. The only peer who knows is Mia's long-time best friend and next-door neighbor Gyver (short for MacGyver-the unlikely name chosen by his very sensible parents. I really hate that name). Of course the stress of keeping the secret weighs on Mia in addition to fighting the battle for her life. But I was okay with this conflict.

I was less okay with the romance aspect. Pre-cancer diagnosis, Mia had been sort of flirting with/hooking up with popular Ryan, easy-going, hot, fun to be with. When she returns to school, he still pursues her and is among the first to find out about cancer. He really steps up to the plate and tries to be supportive and commit to her despite her own lukewarm feelings. Because there is also Gyver, who was obviously in love with Mia; she was so freaking dense in regards to that. Her waffling over her feelings for the guys drove me crazy. Initially I felt bad about this because she did have cancer and was dealing with a lot but then I reminded myself that she was a fictional character so whatever. I can't hurt her feelings because she's not real.

Overall: Surprisingly fun to read and difficult to put down but some elements that left me frustrated.

Cover: Love the blue although I wish the flower was one where the petals could be pulled off as that happened several times over the course of the book.

 

2 comments:

  1. I will admit, cancer is a good excuse for having trouble deciding over guys. You have something more important to worry about. (Actually, I'd like a lot of love triangles better if the girl was like, "Gee, flirting is fun, and I'm too busy going to school to actually have a serious relationship right now, so I'm not gonna worry about it."

    ReplyDelete
  2. I try to avoid cancer books because I prefer happy books. lol But this one doesn't sound too bad. The romance would drive me nuts as well. I hate indecisive characters. Yes it takes a little while to figure yourself out especially if you are busy dealing with cancer but I don't like when it is dragged out forever.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for commenting-I love to read your thoughts! Feel free to leave a link to your latest post so I can stop by!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...