The good thing about having to move across the country from
Colorado to Massachusetts is being able to start again. Quinn can’t do much about the alopecia which
has caused her to lose all of her hair, but with a good quality wig, she may be
able to hide the condition from the kids at her new school. But new schools don’t necessarily give you a
chance to start again and with a little brother with autism, Quinn is still
going to have a rough time fitting in.
Still, it's not the issues that you expect that challenge you. The girls at her new school turn out to be surprisingly nice even when her secrets are inevitably revealed. Harder is her developing relationship with Nick. Nick, whose promising football career was cut short in an accident
that led to the amputation of both of his legs, proves more challenging. At first, she finds him to be someone who
understands her anger and frustration at being defined (and found lacking)
through physical conditions she cannot control, but the relationship grows complex.
A very busy story (one wonders if we really needed all of the
health and developmental issues in a single story) but they do all gel together in the common theme
of making the best of physical challenges and continuing to “roll” with them. The characters were mostly charming
and it was great to see some nice kids interacting (including especially nice girls), when so much children'sliterature focuses on bullying.
I could
have done without Friend’s half-hearted effort to give the locals an Eastern
Mass accent (which she does mostly be changing “-er” to “-ah” and tossing in a few
random “wickeds”). It didn’t really add much,
was inconsistently applied, and ultimately just became distracting. Another issue is the targeting of the story. The subject matter seemed more pitched at
middle readers, but some of the sexual scenes might be more appropriate for older readers
– perhaps a later tween or early teen? I'll class it as YA, but I think the subject matter may seem babyish.
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