Review: Send Me a Sign by Tiffany Schmidt

Title:  Send Me a Sign
Author:  Tiffany Schmidt
Series:  n/a
Publisher:  Walker Childrens
Publication Date:  October 2, 2012
Source:  from publisher via Netgalley
Purchase:  Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Mia is always looking for signs. A sign that she should get serious with her soccer-captain boyfriend. A sign that she’ll get the grades to make it into an Ivy-league school. One sign she didn’t expect to look for was: “Will I survive cancer?” It’s a question her friends would never understand, prompting Mia to keep her illness a secret. The only one who knows is her lifelong best friend, Gyver, who is poised to be so much more. Mia is determined to survive, but when you have so much going your way, there is so much more to lose.

From debut author Tiffany Schmidt comes a heart-wrenching and ultimately uplifting story of one girl’s search for signs of life in the face of death.

Send Me a Sign was such a cute yet shockingly realistic portrait of what one might go through if diagnosed with cancer at such a tender age.  I expected this novel to read like one of those Lurlene McDaniel books I frequently read when I was twelve, but it's not sappy and overly sad as I had predicted.  Instead, this book takes a tragic situation and makes it a learning experience, a lesson in love and betrayal.

Alienating her friends was probably the worst decision Mia made through this whole battle with cancer, and it truly comes back to haunt her.  When they do finally find out the truth, they feel betrayed, and Mia is left feeling more alone than ever.  She's on the brink of self-destruction, and the one person she would normally turn to isn't there for her.  Mia's pushed even her best friend away with her lies.  This book is nothing, if not brutally honest.  And I loved that.

I was first drawn to this novel by that cover.  I've always loved dandelions...even when my dad was complaining that I was only making more weeds for him to mow down by blowing the feathery tuft of the plant into the air.  But to me, a dandelion was full of possibilities, a hundred unspoken wishes, floating on the wind.

This book is about taking chances, risks, and living life to the fullest with no regrets.  It's about following through and following your heart.  For every sign Mia found, Gyver was there to ground her.  He was her rock throughout her ordeal and he tried to keep her safe and sane when her world threatened to fall apart, even when she took the looking-for-a-sign thing a little too far.

The characters are all very realistic and funny and quirky in their own ways.  I had a good idea how this novel was going to end, but it took a very different path to get there than I expected, which I found delightful, even if it was kind of sad along the way.  I found this novel very enjoyable, but if you need more than my opinion, the awesome Courtney Summers also loved it.  Yeah.  :)

Rating: 



Labels: bloomsbury, contemporary, dac 2012, reviews, send me a sign, tiffany schmidt, tough subject