Author: Hollis Seamon
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Shelves: Young Adult (mature), Humor, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction
Recommended for Fans Of: John Green, David Levithan
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Richard Carey has SUTHY Disease (Somebody Up There Hates You Disease), better known as cancer. Living in a hospice in what everyone around Richard believes to be his final days, Rich is determined to make the most of what he has left. To do so, he must break the rules, makes some new friends (particularly the pretty girl living in the room next to him) and learn to let go and fly. Told in a sarcastic and humorous way, Hollis Seamon writes a new novel that brings to light the silver linings in a rainy storm cloud, and a generation of teens that won't let anything get them down.
Review: Let's start off by clarifying that, yes, this book is similar to The Fault in Our Stars, but it is, at the same time very different.
Similarities: Main character(s) with cancer, same sarcastic and witty tone, romance between two cancerous kids.
Differences: The author never says what type of cancer Richard has, and while the characters in The Fault In Our Stars are extremely lovable and easy to relate to, Richard is a very flat, one dimensional character who I find very annoying sometimes. And the "romance" in Somebody Up There Hates You is not really love, but more like lust.
So now that we are clear on the dividing lines between these two books, on to my thoughts. The reason this book only has a 3.5 rating is because I was kind of disgusted while I was reading it. This is mainly due to the fact that Richard gets a blow job by a "preschool" hooker Marie (who was an absolutely horrid character) and then enjoys "sexual interactions" with his friend Sylvie, right after! And they were doing this in a hospice.; which I think is not only disrespectful, but also very nauseating. I found that extremely disgusting, because Richard proclaims several times in the course of this book that he "loves" Sylvie, and last I checked, Love is not hooking up with a street urchin behind her back. In fact, none of the main characters were very likable at all. Richard is a strange character with extremely lustful and a perverse obsession with sex, while Sylvie is vapid and self indulgent. The only saving grace for this book was the wonderful background characters (also known as the hospice staff and the patient's families). These nurses were so kind, and one of my favorite quotes from this book that Richie used to describe his favorite nurse was: "Sometimes, you know, human kindness just knocks you off your feet." These people stood for the intended theme of this book, which was that there is always a hidden light during dark times, and this, I absolutely adored.
Conclusion: Although it does not match up to The Fault In Our Stars, Somebody Up There Hates You is okay in its own unique way, and it might be worth a read for someone looking for a light, amusing novel.
xoxo,
Fiction_TheNewReality
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