Book Review: Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern

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Say What You Will
Author: Cammie McGovern
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Released: June 3rd 2014
Review Source: HarperTeen

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

Say What You Will was an outright beautiful story. From the beginning I was very attached to the main characters, Matthew and Amy. This wasn’t your typical love story because nothing about these teens was typical. First we have Amy who is incredibly smart and beautiful who lives with Cerebral Palsy, she can’t speak without a voice box and she does not have complete control of her body. Then there’s Matthew who had developed OCD after his parents separated.

We start their story when Amy decides for senior year she wants peer aides instead of adults so she can become more social and make friends, also to secretly get to know Matthew. Matthew agrees to the job as a peer volunteer for Amy but doesn’t know how he’ll do it since he is always counting things and obsessed with washing his hands. Through their journey over senior year Matthew and Amy grow close and begin to really know each other and help each other in ways they never imagined.

I extremely enjoyed this entire book, from the very beginning was I hooked. I loved having Amy bring in peers to be her aide, with everyone that was chosen for the job helped add something very special to this book. It also wasn’t just Amy’s story or just Matthew’s it was both theirs, and they both needed each other’s help more than they’ll ever know. This was like nothing I have ever read before, so unique, from every angle, Matthew’s OCD, Amy’s CP, Amy’s mothers’ obsession with her daughter, and the small stuff that you truly see in high school coming from her peer aides. It was truly beautiful to watch all the small puzzle pieces begin to set in place while the story unfolds to a beautiful tale about two teens that aren’t quite normal, or some may call “freaks” find their way in life.

This book was so beautiful and beautifully written that I think everyone should pick it up. Amy and Matthew were both incredibly moving characters and I look up to that kind of strength that they had to gain throughout life to be where they are now.