Main character is a teenage girl with terminal cancer who feels trapped between life and death, between childhood and adulthood? Check. Completely perfect in every way male character whose name starts with an "A"? Check. Organization that grants a wish to terminal cancer patients? Check. Weird, girly best friend with boyfriend issues? Check. Cars that have names? Check.
Moving on....
This book is, in a word fabulous. In two words, fabulously heartbreaking.
As previously mentioned, the main character (Cam) is a teenage girl who has terminal cancer. Her father died from cancer, and her mother had a one night stand resulting in Cam's half sister (who is also her polar opposite) They all live in Disney World and work as Samoan dancers.
Her mother and sister believe in miracles, and they completely believe that Cam (who, for the third time now, has terminal cancer) will get better. They move for the summer to a little town named Promise in Maine, where miracles supposedly happen. Along the way they learn new things that will change their lives forever!
Examples of miracles: Flamingos in Maine. Sunsets that last foreverish. Unicorns. Glow in the dark seawater. Canaries that come back.
I'm now going to use the completely cliched hill metaphor.
This book has a slow, somewhat confusing beginning, but climbs a steepening hill to greatness. The beautifully witty writing, hilarious dialogue, everything builds this book towards a cliched, predictable, but satisfying ending involving Harvard, Boston College, remission, and perfection in the shape of a human boy.
WHY COULDN'T YOU SETTLE FOR THE PREDICTABLE ENDING, WENDY WUNDER? WHY???
Instead, right as our Sled of Readerhood (yes, I added a sled to the metaphor) is teetering on the summit of warm and fuzzy perfection, Wendy Wunder detonates the dynamite that she has artfully buried into the cliffs of the mountain-novel (DAMN YOU WENDY WUNDER!) shattering all predictability, and leaving the fragments of the Sled of Readerhood in tears.
