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stephxsu's review
1.0
I approached SEND ME A SIGN with the knowledge that many readers had high expectations for this book, though I didn’t really have any myself. What I got out of my reading experience was that this debut novel squandered a good opportunity to discuss cancer in eye-opening ways and opted instead to be a perfectly, irritatingly run-of-the-mill YA contemporary novel about high school relationship drama.
SEND ME A SIGN could’ve used Mia’s cancer diagnosis as an opportunity to reflect on people’s belief in superstitions: What is the significance of signs to people? Why do people often look for signs in the course of their life, and how is the significance they place in signs affected in light of a life-changing event? Instead, Mia’s superstitions are a mere gimmick that fails to mask the truth about this book: that it is a totally average, totally unoriginal “cancer tale” featuring a hopelessly selfish heroine who never realizes the extent of her privilege and concocts wildly immature justifications for the predicaments she gets herself into with her own narrow thinking.
This book wants us to sympathize or empathize with Mia, the popular, she’s-got-it-all cheerleader whose life unravels from something out of her control—but Mia is no Sam from Lauren Oliver’s [b:Before I Fall|6482837|Before I Fall|Lauren Oliver|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1347331552s/6482837.jpg|6674135] or Parker from Courtney Summers’ [b:Cracked Up to Be|3521484|Cracked Up to Be|Courtney Summers|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316728526s/3521484.jpg|3563198]. Sam and Parker’s are bitchy and self-centered, but we readers could see their flaws and see how they can become better people.
Mia, however, is—oh, how can I put this delicately—inexcusably, horrifically, disappointingly f*****g selfish. I could see the series of decisions she made to end up the way she did, but I wasn’t sympathetic at all to her self-imposed plight, and I didn’t believe at any point in the novel that Mia’s character was redeemable.
Actually, part of me sees this as a problem with the form of the fiction novel. The very fact that Mia refused to give up the appearance of perfection even when inside she was falling apart was easy for her friends and us readers to see: Mia succeeded much less than she thought she did at fooling her friends, and of course, with this book being written in first-person POV, we weren’t fooled at all. This premature understanding on our part of Mia’s Tragic Flaw, however, meant that the majority of this overly long novel was just a cycle of the same events and situations over and over again: Mia has an opportunity to tell the truth, something prevents her from doing so, and she gets into even deeper shit. It’s painfully repetitive with no point and adds nothing to the story’s character or plot development. Most of the story’s major conflicts were set early on, in the first few chapters, and then the characters don’t arrive at any sort of growth until the last few chapters! Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t need to read nearly 400 pages for the MC to learn something I already knew she had to learn by Chapter 3.
SEND ME A SIGN suffers from a naïve belief that its “deep and sensitive” subject—cancer—will automatically evoke readers’ sympathies and keep readers invested in the story. Uh, no. That’s Fiction Writing 101: even the most intriguing premise can be made into a cure for insomnia by shoddy storytelling. What SEND ME A SIGN really is is a basic high school friendship/love triangle tale with “I’m different because I’m about cancer!” written on its figurative forehead. There is a maybe-maybe-not jock love interest; a group of cheerleaders who try and fail to be more than just an easily forgotten group of privileged white teenage girls; and oh, yes, apparently there is some dude named Gyver who’s supposedly the love interest but kind of just flits in and out of the pages and conveniently forgives Mia for her appallingly selfish behavior because he’s been in love with her his whole life. Like we haven’t read that before. Honestly, if Gyver were half the guy this story wants him to be, he would have never put up with so much of Mia’s crap. It’s pure wish fulfillment, is Gyver. And that is how this book’s romance failed for me as well, adding yet another black mark against it: if you didn’t do the cancer storyline well, couldn’t you at least have done the romance a little better?
The following quote, which appears at 77% in my e-galley, kind of sums up all of what’s wrong with this book for me:
No, Mia, your cancer didn’t ruin your life. Your self-centered personality did. And this book isn’t a cancer book: it’s about the relationship drama of a protagonist who—by the way—has cancer. You get no pity from me.
SEND ME A SIGN could’ve used Mia’s cancer diagnosis as an opportunity to reflect on people’s belief in superstitions: What is the significance of signs to people? Why do people often look for signs in the course of their life, and how is the significance they place in signs affected in light of a life-changing event? Instead, Mia’s superstitions are a mere gimmick that fails to mask the truth about this book: that it is a totally average, totally unoriginal “cancer tale” featuring a hopelessly selfish heroine who never realizes the extent of her privilege and concocts wildly immature justifications for the predicaments she gets herself into with her own narrow thinking.
This book wants us to sympathize or empathize with Mia, the popular, she’s-got-it-all cheerleader whose life unravels from something out of her control—but Mia is no Sam from Lauren Oliver’s [b:Before I Fall|6482837|Before I Fall|Lauren Oliver|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1347331552s/6482837.jpg|6674135] or Parker from Courtney Summers’ [b:Cracked Up to Be|3521484|Cracked Up to Be|Courtney Summers|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1316728526s/3521484.jpg|3563198]. Sam and Parker’s are bitchy and self-centered, but we readers could see their flaws and see how they can become better people.
Mia, however, is—oh, how can I put this delicately—inexcusably, horrifically, disappointingly f*****g selfish. I could see the series of decisions she made to end up the way she did, but I wasn’t sympathetic at all to her self-imposed plight, and I didn’t believe at any point in the novel that Mia’s character was redeemable.
Actually, part of me sees this as a problem with the form of the fiction novel. The very fact that Mia refused to give up the appearance of perfection even when inside she was falling apart was easy for her friends and us readers to see: Mia succeeded much less than she thought she did at fooling her friends, and of course, with this book being written in first-person POV, we weren’t fooled at all. This premature understanding on our part of Mia’s Tragic Flaw, however, meant that the majority of this overly long novel was just a cycle of the same events and situations over and over again: Mia has an opportunity to tell the truth, something prevents her from doing so, and she gets into even deeper shit. It’s painfully repetitive with no point and adds nothing to the story’s character or plot development. Most of the story’s major conflicts were set early on, in the first few chapters, and then the characters don’t arrive at any sort of growth until the last few chapters! Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t need to read nearly 400 pages for the MC to learn something I already knew she had to learn by Chapter 3.
SEND ME A SIGN suffers from a naïve belief that its “deep and sensitive” subject—cancer—will automatically evoke readers’ sympathies and keep readers invested in the story. Uh, no. That’s Fiction Writing 101: even the most intriguing premise can be made into a cure for insomnia by shoddy storytelling. What SEND ME A SIGN really is is a basic high school friendship/love triangle tale with “I’m different because I’m about cancer!” written on its figurative forehead. There is a maybe-maybe-not jock love interest; a group of cheerleaders who try and fail to be more than just an easily forgotten group of privileged white teenage girls; and oh, yes, apparently there is some dude named Gyver who’s supposedly the love interest but kind of just flits in and out of the pages and conveniently forgives Mia for her appallingly selfish behavior because he’s been in love with her his whole life. Like we haven’t read that before. Honestly, if Gyver were half the guy this story wants him to be, he would have never put up with so much of Mia’s crap. It’s pure wish fulfillment, is Gyver. And that is how this book’s romance failed for me as well, adding yet another black mark against it: if you didn’t do the cancer storyline well, couldn’t you at least have done the romance a little better?
The following quote, which appears at 77% in my e-galley, kind of sums up all of what’s wrong with this book for me:
Cancer had cost so much: friendships, grades, cheerleading, my whole sense of who I was. I needed to know: would I beat this and have time to fix things?
No, Mia, your cancer didn’t ruin your life. Your self-centered personality did. And this book isn’t a cancer book: it’s about the relationship drama of a protagonist who—by the way—has cancer. You get no pity from me.
kt0914's review
3.0
I give this three stars only because of the beginning half or so. The storyline was extremely promising - a perfect, popular high school girl, Mia, gets cancer and decides she'll hide it from her friends and kind-of boyfriend Ryan. The only person she does tell is the best-friend-since-forever boy-next-door Gyver who stays by her side in the hospital over the summer while the lies she tells her friends mounts. There's a lot of dramatic tension, lies and secrets, and an interesting dynamic between Mia and her parents. Again, very promising, but then the author takes it too far. Every page is filled to the brim with drama and over-complication, and Mia's character develops into someone I wanted to strangle the entire book instead of sympathize with along her journey. I continued to read to the end just to find out what happened, but it was what could've happened 100 pages earlier without a problem. Page to page, it wasn't poorly written, but the events that happen throughout are frustrating and endless to the reader.
caffeineaddict980's review
5.0
-SPOILERS INCLUDED-
I would rate this book 5 stars!
Send me a sign follows popular girl Mia, who is pretty much highest achiever in everything, including her school work and cheerleading.
But then something terrible happens.
Mia is diagnosed with Leukemia and can't bring herself to tell her friends that she'll be spending most of her time in general in and out of hospital.
Gyver, her best friend, is her rock throughout all of this and supports her in a lot of different ways. He is the first one aside from her family that she has chosen to confide in about her illness. Gyver is the person that is around majority of the time to help her deal with rough patches and general bad days throughout her treatment onwards.
Mia begins to develop feelings for Gyver after a while and her family are getting increasingly worried about her leukemia.
When out of hospital, Mia keeps up a facade that everything is fine and normal while continuing to lie about her illness.
Ryan is the first friend aside from Gyver to find out, he was shocked at first but was soon keen to find out more and along with it, asks her to be his girlfriend.
(To be honest, I prefer Gyver and Mia together, works better.)
Eventually everyone finds out about Mia's Leukemia and some take it different ways in comparision to others, including her group of friends.
A relationship begins with Ryan and becomes official, even though Mia isn't sure if she is completely in love with Ryan.
(Props to Ryan, as soon as he found out he stayed with her and helped her through when others didn't.)
But soon Mia realises that it's not Ryan she wants, but Gyver, who has been in love with her since they were childhood friends at the age of ten.
This whole book was hard-hitting and emotional, but it's also warm and inspiring at the same time.
Buying for my bookshelf!!
I would rate this book 5 stars!
Send me a sign follows popular girl Mia, who is pretty much highest achiever in everything, including her school work and cheerleading.
But then something terrible happens.
Mia is diagnosed with Leukemia and can't bring herself to tell her friends that she'll be spending most of her time in general in and out of hospital.
Gyver, her best friend, is her rock throughout all of this and supports her in a lot of different ways. He is the first one aside from her family that she has chosen to confide in about her illness. Gyver is the person that is around majority of the time to help her deal with rough patches and general bad days throughout her treatment onwards.
Mia begins to develop feelings for Gyver after a while and her family are getting increasingly worried about her leukemia.
When out of hospital, Mia keeps up a facade that everything is fine and normal while continuing to lie about her illness.
Ryan is the first friend aside from Gyver to find out, he was shocked at first but was soon keen to find out more and along with it, asks her to be his girlfriend.
(To be honest, I prefer Gyver and Mia together, works better.)
Eventually everyone finds out about Mia's Leukemia and some take it different ways in comparision to others, including her group of friends.
A relationship begins with Ryan and becomes official, even though Mia isn't sure if she is completely in love with Ryan.
(Props to Ryan, as soon as he found out he stayed with her and helped her through when others didn't.)
But soon Mia realises that it's not Ryan she wants, but Gyver, who has been in love with her since they were childhood friends at the age of ten.
This whole book was hard-hitting and emotional, but it's also warm and inspiring at the same time.
Buying for my bookshelf!!
cathiedalziel's review
3.0
3.5 stars. This was a good read. Same story genre as [b:The Fault in Our Stars|11870085|The Fault in Our Stars|John Green|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1358276480s/11870085.jpg|16827462] but not quite as punchy, or bold as that storyline, and without the same level of character humor and wit.
Send Me A Sign kept me reading long past the point when my eyelids were wanting to close. Any book that I don't want to put down and requires me to read more is a good book in my opinion. This one would have probably gotten a lot more attention if it hadn't been released in the same year as the other mentioned book in this review.
My favorite quote from this book:
I smiled and leaned still closer, fitting myself into the space between his arms, the space that felt like sanctuary. pg. 373
Send Me A Sign kept me reading long past the point when my eyelids were wanting to close. Any book that I don't want to put down and requires me to read more is a good book in my opinion. This one would have probably gotten a lot more attention if it hadn't been released in the same year as the other mentioned book in this review.
My favorite quote from this book:
I smiled and leaned still closer, fitting myself into the space between his arms, the space that felt like sanctuary. pg. 373
albers485's review
4.0
This was a good, easy read. I liked the story and the development of the characters. That being said, I felt like the story line dragged a little overall. It seemed to take longer than needed for plots to fully develop, even though as the reader you could see where the story was going. This is a great book if your looking for an easy, fast read on a lazy summer day or a cold winter day.
suzycruel's review
3.0
It's an okay book. Not the best, not the worst it's just... Okay. It will probably sit on my bookshelf collecting dust...
zoraidasolo's review
5.0
The entire book I kept thinking, "what if that were me?" But that's what a good book makes us wonder, right? What if that were me?
Mia is right in all the reasons she takes the actions she does and I think it makes her all the braver. Her decision to make herself a GIRL first and a VICTIM second is what I admire and what's most believable. I was tearing up by chapter 3, and streaming by the end.
Mia is right in all the reasons she takes the actions she does and I think it makes her all the braver. Her decision to make herself a GIRL first and a VICTIM second is what I admire and what's most believable. I was tearing up by chapter 3, and streaming by the end.
maggiemaggio's review
3.0
3.75 stars
Honestly I don’t know quite what appealed to me about this cancer book that made me give it a try, but I’m happy I did. Mia, who’s a pretty, popular cheerleader isn’t the kind of character I’m usually drawn to, but she was also a straight-A student and a normal teenager, things I really like. Those things combined together and made me pretty much immediately like her. Who I didn’t like were Mia’s friends. The story starts with her and her three best girlfriends hanging out by the pool during summer vacation. Mia seemed nice, but her friends seemed high maintenance and catty and my opinion remained the same throughout the book.
Mia has had these mysterious bruises popping up for a while so her mother takes her to the doctor where, after a lot of blood work, she’s diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. Since it’s the summer Mia doesn’t really have to tell anyone. I’m sure a lot of people find this decision to be really strange, to lie to her friends about going to visit her grandparents and going through chemo alone, but it made sense to me. Mia didn’t want to be the victim, she didn’t want people’s opinions of her to change, and she didn’t want to have to deal with other people’s emotions around her illness. I understood it because my reaction would probably have been similar. The part of it that drove me a little batty was Mia’s mother encouraging Mia not to tell anyone. Mia’s mom is well intentioned, but she’s one of those mothers who’s living her life through her daughter. After Mia is diagnosed with cancer her mother doesn’t really let Mia deal with it because she doesn’t want Mia to change from the perfect girl and I hated Mia’s mother for this.
Luckily Mia has a great best friend, Gyver, and his family, who lives next door to Mia, is really supportive (he’s the only one she tells). Gyver and Mia have been BFFs since they were kids and both of them maybe want more, but neither of them really knows how to proceed. When Mia gets sick she’s been hooking up with Ryan, the handsome, popular jock and even though Mia doesn’t really feel anything for Ryan she doesn’t want to give him up. I didn’t expect this book to have a love triangle, but it did. Mia and Ryan stay together, and actually get closer, while Mia and Gyver just pine for each other from a distance. I don’t love a love triangle so I wasn’t a huge fan of this, but I also came to really like Ryan, he was so much more than he seemed at the beginning, so Mia kind of stringing him along started to wear on me after a while. But I also get why she did it and obviously no decision was easy for her when she was so sick.
A big part of the story is supposed to be Mia’s superstitious nature. I’m a big believer in signs or the universe providing or not providing what I need as an excuse to do or not so something so this part of the story seemed kind of normal to me. I think if you didn’t think like that Mia’s search for and reliance on signs could be annoying or over the top, but I liked it. The whole signs thing is balanced out by Gyver, who constantly makes fun of Mia for it and tells her to stop doing it.
Bottom Line: Send Me a Sign isn’t my typical kind of book but I’m happy I gave it a chance. I really liked Mia and Tiffany Schmidt’s writing really made me feel the struggle Mia was going thorough and the physical and emotional pain she was in. Some of the supporting characters drove me crazy, but never did they feel fake or wrong for the story. Reading this one has only made me more excited to read Bright Before Sunrise in 2014.
This review first appeared on my blog.
Honestly I don’t know quite what appealed to me about this cancer book that made me give it a try, but I’m happy I did. Mia, who’s a pretty, popular cheerleader isn’t the kind of character I’m usually drawn to, but she was also a straight-A student and a normal teenager, things I really like. Those things combined together and made me pretty much immediately like her. Who I didn’t like were Mia’s friends. The story starts with her and her three best girlfriends hanging out by the pool during summer vacation. Mia seemed nice, but her friends seemed high maintenance and catty and my opinion remained the same throughout the book.
Mia has had these mysterious bruises popping up for a while so her mother takes her to the doctor where, after a lot of blood work, she’s diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. Since it’s the summer Mia doesn’t really have to tell anyone. I’m sure a lot of people find this decision to be really strange, to lie to her friends about going to visit her grandparents and going through chemo alone, but it made sense to me. Mia didn’t want to be the victim, she didn’t want people’s opinions of her to change, and she didn’t want to have to deal with other people’s emotions around her illness. I understood it because my reaction would probably have been similar. The part of it that drove me a little batty was Mia’s mother encouraging Mia not to tell anyone. Mia’s mom is well intentioned, but she’s one of those mothers who’s living her life through her daughter. After Mia is diagnosed with cancer her mother doesn’t really let Mia deal with it because she doesn’t want Mia to change from the perfect girl and I hated Mia’s mother for this.
Luckily Mia has a great best friend, Gyver, and his family, who lives next door to Mia, is really supportive (he’s the only one she tells). Gyver and Mia have been BFFs since they were kids and both of them maybe want more, but neither of them really knows how to proceed. When Mia gets sick she’s been hooking up with Ryan, the handsome, popular jock and even though Mia doesn’t really feel anything for Ryan she doesn’t want to give him up. I didn’t expect this book to have a love triangle, but it did. Mia and Ryan stay together, and actually get closer, while Mia and Gyver just pine for each other from a distance. I don’t love a love triangle so I wasn’t a huge fan of this, but I also came to really like Ryan, he was so much more than he seemed at the beginning, so Mia kind of stringing him along started to wear on me after a while. But I also get why she did it and obviously no decision was easy for her when she was so sick.
A big part of the story is supposed to be Mia’s superstitious nature. I’m a big believer in signs or the universe providing or not providing what I need as an excuse to do or not so something so this part of the story seemed kind of normal to me. I think if you didn’t think like that Mia’s search for and reliance on signs could be annoying or over the top, but I liked it. The whole signs thing is balanced out by Gyver, who constantly makes fun of Mia for it and tells her to stop doing it.
Bottom Line: Send Me a Sign isn’t my typical kind of book but I’m happy I gave it a chance. I really liked Mia and Tiffany Schmidt’s writing really made me feel the struggle Mia was going thorough and the physical and emotional pain she was in. Some of the supporting characters drove me crazy, but never did they feel fake or wrong for the story. Reading this one has only made me more excited to read Bright Before Sunrise in 2014.
This review first appeared on my blog.
jessicaharleee's review
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
- I hate that it immediately jumps into her having cancer. There is no build up.
- Mia’s mom is one of the most awful characters ever written, holy shit.
- Gyver is so good to Mia!
- Mia’s other friends all suck. They all seem shallow and even when they find out about her cancer, they don’t treat it the way it deserves.
- Mia’s cat Jinx dying is one of the most heartbreaking scenes I’ve ever had to read. I sobbed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Cancer
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Toxic friendship
somarostam's review
4.0
I have heard a LOT about this book and the way it brings out raw emotions. This book was moving, in a beautiful way, but it did bring me to tears. Which not a lot of books can make me do that. I am a weeper, but never for books. So, I am glad that this one did.
Mia Moore has the ultimate teenage life. All full of normalcy. Until the day she finds out that she has blood cancer. Now, nothing seems clear. The world is full of choices. Should she tell her best friends or not? Should she take it a step farther with Ryan or nor? Should she trust her best friend Gyver or not? She was looking for signs everywhere, but now, she doesn't believe in their efficiency anymore?
I loved Mia. I could connect with her all the time. She was insecure, sweet, and adorable. The two love interests were like different sides of a coin. So different yet perfect together. I just couldn't choose between Gyver and Ryan. Even in the end, I was sad to let go of one of them.
Tiffany Schimdt makes you go through many emotions in this book. She had me crying many times, she also had me grinning. She made me fall in love with her characters. They make you think about the true value of life. I didn't want to finish this book, I wanted to savor every moment of reading it. I loved this book and would come back for more from the author. She is on my auto-read list, for sure.
Mia Moore has the ultimate teenage life. All full of normalcy. Until the day she finds out that she has blood cancer. Now, nothing seems clear. The world is full of choices. Should she tell her best friends or not? Should she take it a step farther with Ryan or nor? Should she trust her best friend Gyver or not? She was looking for signs everywhere, but now, she doesn't believe in their efficiency anymore?
I loved Mia. I could connect with her all the time. She was insecure, sweet, and adorable. The two love interests were like different sides of a coin. So different yet perfect together. I just couldn't choose between Gyver and Ryan. Even in the end, I was sad to let go of one of them.
Tiffany Schimdt makes you go through many emotions in this book. She had me crying many times, she also had me grinning. She made me fall in love with her characters. They make you think about the true value of life. I didn't want to finish this book, I wanted to savor every moment of reading it. I loved this book and would come back for more from the author. She is on my auto-read list, for sure.