01 February 2015

Say What You Will

Brief Overview (Spoilers): Amy has cerebral palsy which severely limits her mobility and ability to speak. At school she has always had support workers to help her, but she decides that for her last year of high school she wants her parents to hire other students to be her peer helpers. During the course of the book, she becomes friends with and one of these helpers, Matthew who suffers from OCD. As they help each other overcome their obstacles, Amy finds that she has feelings for Matthew. When Amy goes away to college and she discovers she is pregnant (the father is another one of her peer helpers), Matthew remains supportive of her.

Themes: Disabilities, mental illness, overcoming obstacles, friendship, family, love

Impressions: I liked that for once the protagonist of a young adult novel had real physical problems. She was not the popular cool girl, nor was she the slightly odd but beautiful misfit. Amy drools, she cant speak with out the help of a computer and she needs help getting around, but she is bright and independent and optimistic. I also liked that Matthew was not the white knight who fixed all her problems, but instead had problems of his own that they worked on together. At first I worried that Matthew's OCD was being trivialized as it is initially "diagnosed" and "treated" by Amy, but he does eventually seek professional help and I appreciated that the author made that a necessity.
Overall, I liked the book a lot, but found the pace just a little slow in some parts. I also felt like the end of the book lacked some of the closure that I was expecting. 

What to Read Next: The Art of Seeing (Cammie McGovern), The Fault in Our Stars (John Green), Schizo (Nic Sheff)

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