Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press and the author for the opportunity to read and review this book!
This is quite a powerful book. Although it features two teenagers and could conceivably be a Young Adult story, it also has some more adult dark humor and subject matter.
Ivan is a 17 year old, severely disabled young man who has spent his entire life in Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children in Belarus. His deformities, as well as most of those in the hospital, came from radiation poisoning from the Chernobyl fallout. Every day is the same for Ivan - he can even use one of the resident's rocking as a clock. He has a gruff exterior, fakes comas so he can eavesdrop on the happenings, likes to play pranks on the nurses.
Besides one elderly caring nurse, no one has ever truly cared for him and the same could be said for him. Until Polina, a teenage girl who comes to the hospital with leukemia. They eventually forge a relationship that could only be described as love, and it changes both of their worlds.
Written in the form of Ivan's diaries, this book has moments of hilarity as well as heartbreak. Certainly puts you in the mind to think about how very, very hard of a life some have - and should make all of us consider that when dealing with others.
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