Blog Tour: Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

Say What You Will

by Cammie McGovern

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Release Date: June 3, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Source: ARC given by the publisher (Thank you, HC!)
Links: Goodreads | Author's Blog

SYNOPSIS

John Green's The Fault in Our Stars meets Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor & Park in this beautifully written, incredibly honest, and emotionally poignant novel. Cammie McGovern's insightful young adult debut is a heartfelt and heartbreaking story about how we can all feel lost until we find someone who loves us because of our faults, not in spite of them.

Born with cerebral palsy, Amy can't walk without a walker, talk without a voice box, or even fully control her facial expressions. Plagued by obsessive-compulsive disorder, Matthew is consumed with repeated thoughts, neurotic rituals, and crippling fear. Both in desperate need of someone to help them reach out to the world, Amy and Matthew are more alike than either ever realized.

When Amy decides to hire student aides to help her in her senior year at Coral Hills High School, these two teens are thrust into each other's lives. As they begin to spend time with each other, what started as a blossoming friendship eventually grows into something neither expected.

REVIEW

Say What You Will is a story described to be John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars meets Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park, but is so more than that.

Born with cerebral palsy, Amy has always been treated by people as fragile. People never tell her the truth, but that changed when Matthew suddenly told her what reality is like for her. All of a sudden, she realizes that maybe she needed someone like him in her life.

Matthew is afraid of hurting people. He believes that every action of his can hurt others, but the thing is, he’s in denial—he doesn’t believe he has OCD, but that changed when Amy honestly told him that he has. Soon, he finds himself doing these things to overcome OCD and realizing that maybe he needed someone like her after all.

I really enjoyed reading this book.  The story is skillfully written. There are a few twist and turns that I never would’ve expected for this book to take. The characters are very enthralling. They’re funny, quirky, and most importantly, they’re real. I really liked Amy. Despite that she’s disabled, she doesn’t let that weigh her down. In fact, she tries her best to overcome her limitations. On the other hand, Matthew isn’t as overcoming as Amy is when it comes to his own quirks, but nonetheless, I still liked him too. His difficulty just shows how really difficult it is for people to overcome OCD.

The only problem I had this book was the writing. It’s not that I didn’t like it. The prose in this book is really good, but I feel like it could’ve been better if it were written from a first person’s point of view since reading from a third person’s point of view makes it more difficult to connect to the characters.

Overall, I really recommend Say What You Will. Seeing Amy and Matthew overcome their own obstacle is an experience you surely won’t want to miss.

RATING