Well Read Book Review: Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month

Welcome back to Well Read Book Review! The month of April is Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month, so here are three books with MCs that are amputees.

#1 – “The Running Dream” – Wendelin Van Draanen

Jessica believes her life is over after she loses her leg coming home from a track meet. Track is her whole life, and while she’s going to get a prosthetic leg, she won’t be able to run again with it. Jessica feels like she’s both in the spotlight and completely invisible. She feels like people can’t see her, and she realizes she’s done the same thing to a girl with cerebral palsy named Rosa. With the help of her friends, family and community, Jessica may have a chance at running again, but that’s not enough. Jessica doesn’t just want to cross finish lines by herself, she wants to take Rosa with her.

4.29 Average Stars on Goodreads – I easily read this book in a couple days. It was addicting. The story starts right after Jessica loses her leg in a car accident, and the story goes on from there, documenting her recovery. Jessica goes through a lot while recovering, and a lot of those things she goes through are things you wouldn’t think would be too hard to manage, but are. I loved Jessica’s relationships with everyone in her life, every relationship was clearly planned out very well. I specifically loved Jessica’s relationship with Rosa. They had never talked before Jessica’s accident, but after starting out helping each other with math, they became good friends, and running with Rosa was a big motivation for Jessica when things got hard. It was amazing. There’s not much to say about negatives in this book, 5 stars.

Can be found in the Freedom library

Tags – Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Sports, Contemporary, Disability, Teen, Middle Grade

#2 – “Sixteen Souls” – Rosie Talbot

Charlie Frith has a lot of problems, a lot of problems that others can’t see. First, his crush is dating someone else, then his sisters glitter-bombed his prosthetics. Plus, he’s a seer in York, the most haunted city in England. Charlie avoids the ghosts in York as much as he can, only talking to about three ghosts, his closest friends. But things start to get weird when ghosts start disappearing, and a boy named Sam tracks Charlie down. Charlie wants to stay out of everything, but Sam insists he’s responsible for figuring out what’s going on. When one of Charlie’s ghost friends disappears, he has no choice but to face the ghosts. And Sam. Despite Charlie noticing his growing feelings for Sam, time is running out, and afterlives are at stake.

4.04 Average Stars on Goodreads – Oh my. While Charlie has lost both his legs, it’s not the main part of the story, and unlike most “romantasy” books, the romance isn’t the main part of the story either, just a small motivator. Charlie’s main goal throughout the story is getting his ghost friend back after she goes missing, but throughout the story it often mentions Charlie’s prosthetics, or has him in a wheelchair, as well as incorporates reasonable difficulties Charlie would face while wearing his prosthetics in more action filled moments, and even just while walking in them for too long. I loved the story so much. Charlie can see, talk and touch ghosts, and he goes through many struggles, including ghosts attempting to eat him, gain him as a servant, and even use his body as a host for the ghosts to “come back to life.” But Charlie has plenty of friends who are ghosts, and it’s very interesting seeing how they interact, and care for Charlie, and how he in turn cares for them. The only downside of this book is sometimes it’s a little hard to tell where Charlie is, as he changes locations a lot, and sometimes gets brought into visions of ghosts’ deaths, which is hard to keep track of sometimes, but overall this wasn’t too much of an issue. I read this book in about two-ish days, 4 stars!

Cannot be found in the Freedom library

Tags – Fantasy, Young Adult, Horror, Romance, Ghosts, Queer, Paranormal, Disability

#3 – “The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly” – Stephanie Oakes

The Kevinian cult took everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow Bly. Her family, her trust, 12 years of her life, and worst of all, her hands. She rebelled, and they took her hands. After the cults Prophet is murdered and their camp is set aflame, Minnow stays in a juvenile detention center, and it’s clear she knows something. Minnow won’t talk. Minnow is struggling to unlearn everything she’s been taught to believe, and adjusting to life behind bars isn’t helping much with the predicament. Finally, when an FBI agent comes to Minnow hoping to make a deal, Minnow can finally see the freedom she’s dreamed of, but only if she’s willing to part with the secrets of her past.

3.95 Average Stars on Goodreads – This book took me a while to read, but it was entirely worth it. Minnow Bly is in juvie for almost beating a boy to death after leaving the Kevinian cult. Almost her whole life, she had been told not to sin, not to go against the Prophet, but now he’s dead, and she has to learn the world herself. The book had me hooked from the first page, starting with action, and continuing to have action throughout the whole book. While the book’s content was great, sometimes it’s confusing figuring out whether we’re reading about the past of the present. Another thing that I wasn’t fond of was the many different conflicts. One of the characters, Jude, had lived in the woods with his mom and dad his whole life, not in the Kevinian cult, but as an outsider. During the time he lives in the woods, his mother passes, (small spoiler warning) and while we’re originally told his mother died to cancer, the FBI reveals that she was likely killed, and Minnow knew this all along. For most of the story, you go along, finding things out as Minnow learns, but sometimes it switches up, where you’re learning things from Minnow when say the police or FBI learns about it, which is a bit odd to me. There were many different conflicts throughout the story, including figuring out what happened to Jude’s mother, finding out how the Prophet died, learning about who burned down the cult, and even looking into the FBI agent that Minnow has been talking to. While it’s interesting to learn about these things, some things probably could’ve been revealed a little earlier. Focusing on Minnow’s loss of her hands, the story is really interesting. As the story goes on, she struggles less, and learns to adapt without her hands, which is interesting to see when you really look into it. It’s also very intriguing to learn about how Minnow lost her hands, and how she and others were punished within the cult. The last thing that bugged me just a bit, is not finding out what happens to Minnow, and we don’t find out anything about her future. The story ends on the day she has her parole hearing, and we don’t get any vision into that. The story ends with what Minnow plans to do in her future, but we never know if she actually achieves the things she dreams about. Overall, 3.5 stars.

Can be found in the Freedom library

Tags – Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Realistic Fiction, Horror, Cults, Retellings