They don't die in this one.
A Young Adult romance novel by Hannah Moskowitz about two teenagers, Isabel and Sasha, who meet in the hospital while receiving out-patient treatment for their chronic illnesses (rheumatoid arthritis and Gaucher's disease, respectively). In an interesting twist on the "sick-lit" genre, the book really explores how ableism, including internalized ableism, affects the characters, while avoiding inspiration porn. And, of course, nobody dies.
Contains examples of:
- Advice Backfire: When Isabel is trying to decide whether she should officially date Sasha, one of her friends advises against it... but the way she does so does not really help her case.
- Big Applesauce: Isabel and Sasha live in New York, and their dates occasionally take them to landmarks such as the Red Steps in Times Square.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Isabel gets some diagnostics back, but her doctors can't find anything wrong. Everyone acts as if this is good news; only Sasha immediately realizes how frustrating this must be, as this means she is no closer to figuring out where her new symptoms are coming from or how they can be treated.
- Non Sequitur: Sasha's contributions to the advice column can come off like this, but he sometimes gets around to a point by the end.
- Not a Date: Due to Isabel's self-imposed no-dating rule, she and Sasha do this for a bit.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: A sort of meta example, in that the entire book is something of a call-out to books that perpetuate damaging representation of disabled people. The tagline highlights this.
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Write What You Know: The main characters are chronically ill and Jewish, as is the author.
