- Title: Cursed
- Author: Karol Ruth Silverstein
- Book Form: E-ARC
- Pages: 320
- Publisher: Charlesbridge Teen
- Genre: YA, Contemporary
- Rating: ★★★.5
A debut novel for fans of The Fault in Our Stars that thoughtfully and humorously depicts teen Ricky Bloom’s struggles with a recent chronic illness diagnosis.
As if her parents’ divorce and sister’s departure for college weren’t bad enough, fourteen-year-old Ricky Bloom has just been diagnosed with a life-changing chronic illness. Her days consist of cursing everyone out, skipping school–which has become a nightmare–daydreaming about her crush, Julio, and trying to keep her parents from realizing just how bad things are. But she can’t keep her ruse up forever.
Ricky’s afraid, angry, alone, and one suspension away from repeating ninth grade when she realizes: she can’t be held back. She’ll do whatever it takes to move forward–even if it means changing the person she’s become. Lured out of her funk by a quirky classmate, Oliver, who’s been there too, Ricky’s porcupine exterior begins to shed some spines. Maybe asking for help isn’t the worst thing in the world. Maybe accepting circumstances doesn’t mean giving up.
– Goodreads
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Cursed definitely got better for me as time went on. It follows the story of Ricky, short for Erica, who has a chronic illness. She’s been skipping school for SIX WEEKS and finally gets caught.
We follow Rickey as she goes back to school, tries to connect with her crush, and tries to find acceptance.
The writing seemed juvenile at first – but that was just Ricky. She had a lot of growing up to do. She did it with the help of her most-hated-turned-favorite teacher.
You don’t discover what illness RIckey has until about halfway through the book. I started picking up on it pretty early on. I had some knowledge of it being a nurse, but my best friend’s sister also has the disease.
I loved that it was own voices. It’s nice to see representation of someone with this “mystery illness”. This is the first book that I’ve read that featured that illness.
Also, shoutout to whoever designed the cover! It’s a nice nod to the pain scale we use in healthcare for patients to rate the amount of pain they are in.
I would recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about kids with illness or loves YA contemporary.
Warning: this book does contain swearing!
Until next time…
Mithah Reads 