Published: October 2, 2012 (Walker Children's)
Source: E-ARC from the publisher
Rating: Swoon-worthy
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Connect with the author: Twitter | Website
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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.
My Review
Send Me A Sign is one of those extremely rare books that took me beyond the mere act of reading a story, and actually propelled me into the story itself, until I felt like I was living the events taking place. I clicked immediately with Mia; who of us hasn't searched for a sign to tell us which direction to go, how to make the right decision? My heart went out to Mia as she struggled to understand what having cancer would mean to her, her family, and her friends, and ultimately, decided to keep the truth from those most important to her. Mia was a sympathetic character who made some mistakes throughout Send Me a Sign, but I adored her, as well as this heart-felt, heart-wrenching, poignant story about life, death, and courage.
Author Tiffany Schmidt brings Mia and her family to life with clarity and a wonderfully told story. From Mia's fact-obsessed father to her image-obsessed mother, and the boy next door who cares so unabashedly for her, and the friends who love, but don't understand her, I found something to like in most of the characters. I enjoyed the evolution of Mia's relationships with her parents, and loved watching her become her OWN person. I didn't always understand their reactions and motivations, but what I DID love was the way Mia interacted differently with each of them. She played so many roles, and while most of them were genuine: daughter, friend, girlfriend, the one that stood out most to me was her relationship with Gyver.
Of all the signs Mia searched so ardently for, she missed every single one pointing her to this sweet, steadfast, loyal boy, choosing instead to pursue a relationship with her crush, Ryan. Ryan turned out to be an amazing supporting character, but it was painful, watching his devotion to Mia, and the ramifications of how their relationship was tested by Mia's illness. I kept praying for Mia to make the right decisions in several aspects, but especially when it came to Ryan and Gyver. Both boys had a lot to offer her, and both had a lot to teach her about life, and about how to be truly brave. I won't say how it all turned out, but I WILL say I shed a lot of tears, some sad and some happy!
Send Me a Sign is a spectacular, heart-breaking look at what cancer means and does to people. It's a story about family coming together. It's a story about friendships being broken, and repaired. It's a story about choosing: life over death, hope over fear, love over isolation. It's a story I will never, ever forget.
I lost my amazing Grandma Jean on October 23, 2008. (I lost my Grandpa Tom the previous year.) I miss them both all the time and I think of my grandma when I need to make a hard choice. Her voice is my conscious. If cancer didn't exist, she might still be with me. Cancer research is very important to me.
Finally, I wanted to share the song that I listened to during some of the hardest parts of Send Me a Sign:
Other books by this author:
Bright Before Sunrise (Walker Children's, 2014)
You're sure to fall for:
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
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