*No. of pages: 352
*Average Rating on Goodreads: 3.87/5
*My Rating on Goodreads: 4/5
SYNOPSIS via Goodreads:
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.
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Review:
This book debut of Cammie McGovern really does meet John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars and Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park. It could have been just another tooth achingly sweet chic-flick story about two misfits wanting to be together but there are complications at hand, but Cammie turned that complication like the ones in The Fault In Our Stars: complications caused by sickness.
Amy never got to really feel how to live a normal life. And there was a point in her life wherein she thought she was the luckiest teenage girl in the world for being limited unlike everyone else who worries about who to go to prom with or if the guy they have their eyes set on likes them back… Amy thought she’s blessed until Matthew pointed out that she really doesn’t feel that way and deep inside, she wants just to be like everyone else.
Matthew used to have a life… He used to kiss girls and hangout with the guys back in middle school, but it all changed when his OCD attacked, disrupting his everyday life.
Matthew was the only one who has been honest to Amy, he was the only one who didn’t sugarcoat things. Amy was ready to be there for Matthew, she was the only one who would try to make him better when no one else cares. And now that Matthew is assigned to be one of Amy’s peer helpers, they become each other’s best friend who accept each other flaws and fixes one another.
Can a friendship really turn into something more than anyone could expect despite all of the odds?
So…
I read this book because of the title, Say What You Will. It was a title with a message to everyone: say what you must while you have the chance. That really took my attention!
Okay, when I started reading this and got to at least the first five chapters, I was annoyed… This was yet another story wherein the girl’s life is all upside down and the “guy” sweeps into action and changes her life for the better. It’s so mainstream and then someone seemed to knock on the door of my brain, telling me that there is a big complication in this story! I really think that without Amy having cerebral palsy and without Matthew having OCD, this would be just a story like any other. Removing the complications would mean that Cammie McGovern’s book debut would be raw, and I’m so happy it didn’t turn out that way!
However, no matter how sweet and challenging the whole “we would help each other with our flaws and we’d fall in love because of it” thing, I don’t just don’t approve. The main characters being sick cannot be used an excuse anymore that this book should be given a second thought on its being mainstream.
Guys, I really just want to remind you that you just CAN’T love someone yet when you’re still insecure of who you are and if you’re still struggling to find the person that you are meant to be. You have to feel, if not whole, then at least contented. Know what you want and know the course of your life’s journey before devoting to another. And falling in love with another person because you think you can fix them is just a big no. Yes, we all have flaws and the right person should see and then accept that. But being in love while you’re still broken and empty is absurd. That’s what annoys me the whole time I’m reading this book.
Fortunately, Cammie McGovern somehow brought some justice into that aspect, that’s why I gave this book a rating of 4 on Goodreads instead of only 3.
Another weak point of Say What You Will is how halfway through the book, I kept asking, “Where is this going again?” or “What was the point of this and that?”. There were a lot of unnecessary parts that bored me out because I really think the author could have done a lot of ways to make everything seem more exciting and meaningful because the main characters were really interesting. Thank goodness there was a great and unexpected twist in the events or else I would’ve really given this a rating of 3.
On the other hand, there was just something about Amy that I didn’t like. It gets pretty hard for me too see where she’s coming from because there were just a lot of scenes wherein I wanted to slap the hell out of her… sorry but it’s true! Although, maybe that’s what actually makes her different from some of the books I read. She’s realistic. She’s this girl who has a lot of obstacles in her life and the usual protagonist in books are such a saint or determined or optimists despite everything. Amy is not like that. She’s lost, confused, pessimist and insecure; she was real. True emotions were conveyed in her and not some heroine everyone expects.
I suggest everyone to read this book debut of Cammie McGovern simply because there are a lot of morals in this story. Like,
- You don’t need a lover to help you find who you are. Sometimes all you need is a true friend.
- Find who you are and discover what you truly want before committing yourself to another.
- Being a person with desires and dreams can be the beginning of a journey that’ll definitely be worth taking.
- There are circumstances where you have to give up colossal things; you have to be ready for that.
- Face your insecurities, deal with your fears and let everyone see that being different is good because everyone else is taken.
- Yes, you always have to say what you really want before you lose the chance. But always know if the moment is really right or if it really is the right thing to say.
- Don’t let your faults and flaws be the judge of you.
That’s all everyone, thanks a lot for reading my book review! Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern is available wherever books are sold!
Any thoughts? Comments? Requests? Suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment! You can ask me on twitter too: @fdzcsln
If you feel up to it, you can always email me on fedz.0726@gmail.com 🙂
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