The Quick Cut: A high school girl deals with the changes in her life as she graduates and her twin brother pulls away from her after two fights with Leukemia. A Real Review: Cancer is one of few conditions that leaves you in horrified suspense. While many other health conditions are devastating, cancer has a way of making you wonder what could happen next. Sometimes you recover and other times it just seems to ruin you. How does that battle with cancer change your family? These are the struggles for Parker and her family. Parker is the epitome of the perfect child. She's valedictorian of her high school class, already has an internship, and is on her way to getting her medical degree from Harvard. Except when she graduates and prepares to spend her last summer before college doing everything she can for her future, she finds her brother pulling away even more than before. He won his second battle with cancer and see to have dedicated himself to risking his life more than before. Can she stay on the path to success while trying to repair her relationship with her brother? Or will her plans fall apart instead? What this book does really well is clearly indicate how cancer can impact the entire family. One member may have it, but it's devastation can ripple to all the others. In this case, Parker feels the need to be the exceptional child. The parents feel the need to pretend that the cancer hasn't changed their family. It's hard to read how each member is pulling away from the others in their own way. While Parker's brother deals with who he is post-cancer, Parker struggles with her bright future. I love how this story wonderfully illustrates how you can't live for anyone but yourself. Parker tries to take on too much and her body fights back via panic attacks. I've had them before in the past and the way the author described hers felt very realistic. I wanted to see Parker find her own way in life. There were a few slow points in the plot, but overall it's a solid story. The friends in Europe felt unnecessary to the overall story, but maybe that's just me. I kept finding myself forgetting they were brought up before. A solid story on the impact of cancer. My rating: 4.5 out of 5