Deadline.

My uncle is a school librarian, so he reads lots of books. He is responsible for sending Deadline by Chris Crutcher to me.

So far it seems abrupt. I think it was in the first chapter that I found out, with the main character Ben that he has something medically wrong with him. Which is a red flag for me. I feel like that's a thing that happens in lots of books these days. Someone's always getting a big illness in books that I've read, or dying or something. I'm kinda yearning for a different kind of story these days.

Ben, is in his senior year of high school, he's a cross country star, a good student. But when he finds out that he's sick, he decides to join the football team. OH!!!! I remembered why this book is bothering me at the moment. Ben went to the doctor by himself when he found out by himself. His doctor insisted that his parents be there but Ben said it was fine and coerced the doctor into telling him what was wrong. He asked Ben to be sure and tell his parents. Which he hasn't yet!!!! Which is terrible, and the doctor can't do anything because Ben's pulled the whole I'm-18-card, so now that he's legally an adult the doctor isn't allowed to tell his parents because he has his own power of medical attorney. Can you even begin to imagine what it would be like for you to see your son drop dead one day and not know why and then find out that he'd been diagnosed with an illness a LONG time ago? It would kill me. Sure, I think there's something about walking welcomely into death's arms, but gosh... why can't he just tell his parents?

I try hard to trust Crutcher, he's a new author to me. So right now I just don't know. But I've seen his name on a couple of ALA lists, maybe the Georgia Peach something award list, and my uncle thinks it's really good too. So, I guess I'll just have to wait and see.