The Quick Cut: A ballerina's life is shattered when she's given the devastating news of her diagnosis with bone cancer. In the process of treatment, she becomes increadibly close to a guy volunteering at the clinic she receives chemo at - a boy who was cured of his cancer a year ago. As their lives get complicated, they lean on each other for help.
A Real Review:
Thank you to Flux for providing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I would like to preface this review with the fact that I have never had cancer, so I cannot say i have any clue what its like. I've watched an aunt die of brain cancer, family friends, but that's the closest its touched my life. So when this book came across my desk, I was intrigued by the premise knowing that the subject would touch many lives along with having the opportunity to better see what its like being in a cancer kid's shoes.
Cason was born to be a ballerina. With a mother as her artistic director and her natural talent, there is nothing that can stop her from reaching her dreams of working for the American Ballet Theater. However, when a pain in her left leg turns into something far more serious - a hidden strain suddenly becomes bone cancer and her life becomes changed forever. All her ballet dreams are permanently ripped away as all those skills that made her better than anyone are taken from her body piece by piece. Even her own mom Natalie is in total denial of the truth in the beginning, refusing to admit just how sick her daughter truly is.
Davis survived cancer, but he barely survived the aftermath. Becoming a drug addict in the aftermath - he struggles everyday to keep clean and repair the life he's let fall apart. This is made even harder by the ex-girlfriend who continues to harass him for her next high that he got her hooked on and the dealer that continues to attempt to get him addicted once again. Everything is a balancing act that seems to be a struggle well known until he meets a new cancer patient named Cason.
Cason and Davis from the outside don't make sense, but once you're a cancer patient things change. Although everyone wants to see you as special, the book makes a point of stating you're really nothing more than fighting for your next day of living. These two fighting for their next day learn to fight together and depend on each other as their separate, fragile worlds fall apart and they cannot handle it on their own. Cason learns to let others in when she has been so used to only living in her ballerina world while Davis finally sees that he isn't the one to blame for every terrible thing and through action, learns to move forward.
Although the thing that brings these characters together is cancer, the story is about so much more than that. It is about how they adapt to their changing situations and learn to dream after what they used to live for is gone. When the world sees you as a diagnosis, how you do see yourself as anything but that? They may be talking about cancer survivors and the scars they carry for their lives, but this is a life lesson that can be applied to many areas beyond it. My only minor complaint is the ending - although its pretty, its not very satisfying to me. I was hoping for something a little more poignant and lasting. This felt more like the end of a chapter than the end of the book.
FYI - The author lets you know at the end of the book in a note that her story is very much our heroine's story Cason's. She also had the same bone cancer as a kind and just like Cason - she grew close to a boy and ended up at a cancer camp that saved her life. This book was touching on its own but reading that note and knowing just how personal this story is to her? It adds another layer to the tale that hits you right in the heart. She also adds links and organizations for childhood cancer if you want to know more or would like to help. Its a phenomenal touch which provides resources for anyone looking for a lifeline in the same shoes she was once in or for anyone looking to donate to the cause.
A book about two kids learning to embrace life as it changes drastically around them, this story will leave you smiling and wishing there was more in a hopeful tale about cancer.
My rating: 4 out of 5