Before The Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson

It's 1999 and ten-year-old Zachariah Jr.'s (ZJ) father is a famous football player who has won several Super Bowl championships. His famous father, a tight end, is known as "Zachariah 44" Johnson.

ZJ has three best friends: Ollie, Daniel and Darry. Ollie who loves math, who has green eyes and a red Afro was left outside a Texas church as a baby. He was adopted by a preacher and his wife. His mother, Bernadette is a widow and sometimes visits ZJ's mom for a cup of coffee.

ZJ's life begins to change when the new millennium comes. While celebrating New Years Eve, December 31, 1999 with Ollie, Darry and Daniel at his home, ZJ's father becomes angry over the noise. They are listening to Prince's 1999 and his dad comes into their room, yelling and asking who the boys are. ZJ and his friends at first think he was joking, but ZJ's father didn't seem to know who they were.

The next Friday after school, when ZJ asks his friends to come over, they each find an excuse not to come. However, on Sunday Daniel shows up and the two boys work together on a puzzle during the rainy afternoon.

ZJ's father says his head hurts all the time. Other times, everything seems fine. ZJ and his parents have a delicious dinner, his father and mother dancing in their living room. As his father's headaches worsen, he is told he has to stop playing football and eventually can no longer drive. As the doctors struggle to determine what's wrong, ZJ struggles to cope with what this means for his father and their family.

Discussion

Before The Ever After tells the story of a young boy whose life begins to unravel as his father starts to experience symptoms of what is now called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a degenerative brain disease that often occurs in people who have suffered concussions and other repeated head trauma over a period of time. Athletes such as football and hockey players, boxers, and soldiers who have experienced brain injury from explosive blasts on the battlefield are at risk, but so are those who suffer head injuries in other settings as well. These injuries result in a build up of a protein called tau in the brain. This protein which smothers brain cells, affects the areas of the brain that are responsible for memory, the regulation of emotions and other important functions. 

CTE was discovered by Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born doctor who studied the brain of former NFL player Tim Webster whose mental health had seriously deteriorated prior to his death of a heart attack in 2002. Omalu found tau proteins in Webster's brain. Omalu named the condition Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and in his paper to the medical journal, Neurology, in 2005, he suggested that Webster's health issues were directly related to the hits he had taken as a football player. 

His paper was not well received by the NFL, which suggested his research had serious flaws. Undaunted, Omalu examined the brain of a second NFL football player, found the same proteins in his brain and wrote a second paper to Neurology. Again the NFL refused to accept his findings, but further investigations on the brains of more ex-football players continued to support Omalu's conclusions. His work caught the attention of the media and eventually CTE gained acceptance as a real and serious disease.

In Before The Ever After, ZJ's father, Zachariah is an outstanding tight end with a professional football team and has won Super Bowl championships. The story is set in late 1999 into the year 2000, before Dr. Bennet Omalu's research and the discovery of the effects of repeated injuries to the brain. Zachariah's story is told through the eyes of his twelve-year-old son, ZJ as he remembers how his father's illness began, the events leading up to his beloved father's hospitalization and how he, his mother and his friends struggled to cope.

 In the poem, Before the Ever After, ZJ describes life before his father, "Zachariah 44" who is only thirty-four years old and in the prime of his career, became ill. Before the ever after there was going to Village Ice Cream, people recognizing his father, pointing and smiling, picnics on Sunday afternoons in Central Park, and ZJ and his father making up songs. ZJ's father calls him "little man" and often endearingly refers to ZJ's friend Ollie who was abandoned at birth as "my son from another mother and father."  These descriptions portray ZJ's father as a kind, involved father who cared about those around him.

But as his illness progresses, there are changes, subtle at first, like the shaking hands and the incident on New Years Eve 1999,  the headaches and the memory loss. It soon becomes apparent that ZJ's father is not quite well.  In the poem, The Trees, about the trees in their front yard that ZJ and his father named, he describes his father:

"Some days he seems just like that tree.
Like he's not his whole self anymore. Like one by one
somebody or something
took his branches."

Many of the poems in the novel emphasize what ZJ's  father is experiencing and how ZJ and his mother struggle to understand what is happening as the the man they love fades. ZJ often describes his father, a big man at 233lbs as looking small when he is experiencing his memory problems and confusion. Each of these memories remain strong for the young ZJ.  In the poem, Call Me Little Man, ZJ remembers the first time his father forgot the name he always called him by. 

"The first time you forgot my name
feels like yesterday. Feels like an hour ago.
Feels like I blink and you forgetting
is right there in front of me."

Another poem, Audition, drives home how ZJ's father at times couldn't managed even the simplest of tasks. This poem relates how it took seventy-two unsuccessful takes for a commercial. His father was unable to remember his line, "I'm Zachariah Johnson, and this is my car." and get into the car.

Many poems highlight the difficulties medical doctors were experiencing at this time to understand what was happening to football players like Zachariah. In the poem Waiting, ZJ talks about how they are always waiting. 

"We're always waiting.
Waiting for another doctor.
Waiting for more tests. Waiting for test results.
Waiting for new treatments."

It is evident the doctors don't know what is wrong with his father. In the poem, The Broken Thing, ZJ describes how the doctors don't know what is wrong.

"There's not a name for the way
Daddy's brain works now.
The way it forgets little things like
what day it is and big things like
the importance of wearing a coat outside
on a cold day. There's not a name
for the way I catch him crying
looking around the living room like
it's his first time seeing it." 

Before The Ever After is also a novel about friendship and how friends can help one another deal with loss and the difficulties of life. At first ZJ's friends abandon him when they witness his father's unusual angry outburst on New Years Eve. It is more out of fear, as they don't understand what is happening. However, as his father's condition deteriorates, ZJ's friends rally around him. He is still part of their circle, going for bike rides and snowball fights. When his mother holds a birthday party for his dad's thirty-fifth birthday, his friends arrive to celebrate. In the poem, "Company", Ollie, Daniel and Darrie meet ZJ in the schoolyard after his father is hospitalized.

"We heard about your dad, they say.
You know we got you, ZJ.
Ollie even gives me a hug, bro style, pounds my back,
then Daniel and Darry do the same.

This is a whole nother kind of pigskin dream
to have your boys surrounding you,
telling you they got you,
their hands on your shoulders,
their arms around your neck."

Professional football has offered many young men a chance to escape poverty and difficult circumstances. Before The Ever After simply and effectively highlights the price many of these men and their families have paid for such a chance. With Dr. Bennet Omalu's research, perhaps some families will be spared such a price. Jacquelline Woodson has crafted a deeply touching novel that explores this issue for younger readers.

Book Details:

Before The Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
New York: Nancy Paulsen Books      2020
161 pp.

Movie: Concussion

Concussion tells the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian neuropathologist working at the Alleghany County Coroner's office in Pittsburgh under the direction of Cyril Wecht and his discovery of CTE - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. 

Omalu was assigned to Mike Webster, a former center for the Pittsburgh Steelers, when he was brought into the morgue. Webster, only fifty years old, had died after suffering from depression, amnesia and other problems. Omalu wanted to know why a man whose CT scans showed normal, had behaved so bizarrely.

The movie begins by showing Dr. Omalu working in the Alleghany County Coroner's office, focusing on his rather eccentric mannerisms including talking to the dead bodies before doing autopsies. He is not disrespectful but assures them that he wants to learn the truth about them and asks for their help. 

The scene alternates to Pittsburgh Steeler great, Mike Webster, behaving bizarrely. He is seen by Dr. Julian Bailes, former doctor to the Steelers, who tries to calm him. Webster has no idea what is wrong with him but he knows something is wrong; he can't sleep and he hears voices. He begs Bailes to help him. Days later Webster dies and his body is taken to the Alleghany County Coroner's office.

Initially Omalu's colleagues tell him to leave the body alone and not to do an autopsy. However, Omalu is intrigued and puzzled as to why a man with a normal brain should have acted so bizarrely. Before his death we are told Webster was pulling his own teeth and supergluing them back in. The autopsy shows nothing seriously wrong with Webster so Omalu decides to order sectioning and slides of Webster's brain. He does this to strong opposition by his colleagues and is told he must pay for this out of his own pocket. His mentor, Dr. Wecht endorses the tests that Omalu requests even though Omalu reveals he has no idea what he is looking for. Omalu is shocked at what he finds - Mike Webster's brain shows serious damage. He discovers plaques of protein have formed around areas damaged by violent blows to the head. These plaques disrupted Webster's brain function affecting emotion, mood and cognitive functions.

Believing Webster to have dementia pugilistica common to boxers who received numerous blows to the head during their careers, Omalu watches football games on television and even attends various practices. What he sees are numerous instances where athletes receive blows to the head. These "hits" are rated and lauded during the games. Finally Omalu decides to talk to another doctor, Dr. Ron Hamilton who brings in Dr. Steven DeKosky. DeKosky is also shocked by the slides of Mike Webster's brain. Omalu tells him Mike Webster's position as a center was the most dangerous in football, exposing him to a constant barrage of blows that eventually permanently and seriously damaged his brain. Omalu tells Dekosky he believes there are more injured players whose doctors incorrectly believe they have early onset Alzheimers.  DeKosky decides that this research should be published and tells him to find a name for the condition he has uncovered. Omalu comes up with the name CTE - Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.  However, the NFL refuses to accept Omalu's research as legitimate science stating there is an "absence of clinical information." and they want Omalu to retract his statements.

While Omalu's superior, Dr. Wecht supports him, he warns Omalu that he is taking on the Goliath of sports in America, the National Football League. Considered America's national game, he will face grave difficulties in having his discovery recognized and accepted by the NFL because it is a corporation with 20 million people who are addicted to the fame of football. Omalu is shocked as he naively believed that the NFL would want to know that players are being seriously injured. Omalu confirms that a second Pittsburgh Steeler player, Terry Long who committed suicide also had CTE. They decide to go public with Long's results and Omalu warns that there are many other players at risk. At this point Omalu begins to receive threatening phone calls and his house is watched. Despite this, he remains undaunted in his quest to get his discovery accepted by the NFL.

It is at this point that Dr. Julian Bailes contacts Omalu and tells him he wants to help because he knows of at least twelve Steelers who have died young. He tells him the NFL has known about the concussion injuries for years but has hidden it through faulty research. Bailes tells Omalu he has uncovered the NFL's dirty secret but that he must keep going. Because CTE does not show up on a CT scan, Omalu tells Bailes this means more men have to die in order for him to prove it exists. Working together the two not only find that evidence but eventually force the NFL to accept that CTE is a legitimate disease caused by repeated concussive and sub-concussive injuries incurred by playing football.

Discussion

Concussion has received mixed reviews but this movie is really quite well done. The focus is not on the football players as many might have thought, but rather on the doctor who brought to the attention of both doctors and the NFL, the serious brain damage being done to NFL athletes. Concussion offers viewers one of Will Smith's best performances. His performance is understated but convincing as Dr. Omalu whom he portrays as a dignified, intelligent and determined researcher who cares about the people who enter his morgue. They are not bodies but human beings whose bodies allow him to learn the truth about their lives and how they died. Smith is supported by a fine cast including Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Prema Mutiso who plays his girlfriend and future wife, Alec Baldwin as Dr. Julian Bailes, Albert Brooks as Dr. Cyril Wecht and Eddie Marsan as Dr. Steven DeKosky.

The film seems to suggest that part of the problem Dr. Omalu had in getting his findings accepted was due to the fact that he was a black man and not an American citizen. It's probable this played a part but also that other factors as suggested in the film were more significant. Pro football in the United States is a hugely lucrative business and anything even hinting at the dangers of playing the sport would be considered a serious threat to a multi-billion dollar sports industry. In the end, Dr. Omalu is seen giving a presentation at an NFL players meeting where he tells those in attendance that he understands the excitement and the power of the game, but that there are also dangers that need to be recognized. To this day he remains convinced that the way America plays football is different from years ago and it is leading to serious head injuries. There's no doubt the much larger athletes in the sport have played a critical part in changing the nature of the injuries suffered from tackles.

Although the film has caused some to question Omalu's claim that he discovered CTE, there is no doubt that the film, Concussion comes at a time when the seriousness of concussions is being re-evaluated. Doctors are discovering that concussions, whether incurred in sports or in accidents, have long-term consequences. It is an area of research with many unanswered questions. There is significant recognition that the brain needs time to heal, that rest is imperative. Hockey player Sidney Crosby, ironically also a member of a Pittsburgh sports team, suffered two significant hits to his head in January of 2011 and was diagnosed with a concussion.  Crosby initially experienced no symptoms after the first hit, but a second hit coming four days later resulted in a serious concussion. He was off ice for three months but when he tried to return to train, he again suffered concussion symptoms and was forced to discontinue his training. Crosby attempted to return to play in November of 2011 but his symptoms returned and he was sidelined again. He did not return to regular play until March of 2012. Eric Lindros, considered a huge hockey talent never really lived up to his potential due to at least eight serious blows to his head. Lindros spoke about how the concussions affected his career and his life outside of hockey in an article from Macleans Magazine in 2011.

In 2016 we recognize concussions as the serious injury they are thanks in part to the work of doctors like Omalu. Trainers and coaches are required to follow specific protocols after a head injury and doctors now treat concussions seriously. Thanks to a film like Concussion, even more young athletes will become aware of the potential for serious injury in contact sports like football, rugby and hockey.

Blank by Trina St. Jean

Blank is a novel about a young girl's attempt to come to terms with her life after a brain-altering injury leaves her unable to remember who she is.

Fifteen-year-old Jessica Grenier wakes from a coma having no memory of who she is or how she happened to be in the hospital. Jessica describes her parents as the Woman and the Man and her younger brother, ten year old Stephen, as the Boy or  Little Man. Jessica refers to herself as the Girl. The day of Jessica's accident, April 26, is designated as the Very Bad Day, the day she was attacked by a bison bull named Ramses on her family's bison farm. She spent eleven days in a coma and has been awake now for nine days.

In the hospital Jessica looks at the pictures her mother brings in but they stir no emotion in her. She states, "...my old life is a long blank that my brain no longer fills for me." She understands what she is told but she feels nothing. "I may finally be awake, but I am hollow."

Jessica's doctor, Dr. Lavoie whom she nicknames Super Doc because he saved her, tells her although most people with her type of injury regain their memories, but he has no way to be certain this will happen to her. Dr. Lavoie encourages Jessica to continue on with her rehabilitation. A day or so later Jessica does have a few memories of the accident but these upset her so much that she becomes enraged, breaking a cup and stamping on the pieces. As a result of this, Dr. Lavoie arranges for Jessica to see a neuroscientist, Dr. Kirshbaum, who will help her manage her impulses and her anger. She's already receiving physical therapy from Ruby, who is teaching her to walk again. Super Doc encourages Jessica to give herself time to heal.

One day Jessica decides to pay a visit to the TV lounge at the end of the hospital wing. There she meets a girl with dark purple hair and a nose ring whom she dubbs Nose Ring. When she returns to the lounge, she and Nose Ring watch a soap opera about a woman who has amnesia and doesn't remember her fiance. When Nose Ring asks Jessica the reason for her stay in the hospital, she doesn't tell her about the accident. On another visit, as they are watching the soap opera, Nose Ring remarks that it would be nice to have amnesia. "Think about it. How many people get a chance to start fresh like that?" This leads Jessica to ask what she's done in her life that she would want her "whole miserable past erased". At this point Nose Ring tells Jessica her name is Tarin and she is visiting her grandmother who had a stroke.

Jessica gets a visit from her three best friends whom she knows are called the Pink Posse from their get well card. The visit is awkward though because although Jessica can remember their names, Cybil, Kerry and Megan, she cannot really remember her friendship with them. All of this makes Jessica feel deeply lonely. After another CT scan, Dr. Lavoie announces that Jessica is ready to go home. He tells her and her parents that her memory loss is not only due to emotional trauma but also due to some physical damage to her brain and that it might be permanent. Although this makes Jessica feel relief, her mother seems to have difficulty with the fact that Jessica might not return to her old self some day.

When Jessica returns home she struggles to come to terms with the person she is now compared to who she was before her injury. Her room is filled with her collection of porcelain frog figurines which she hates and eventually breaks. None of this feels familiar to Jessica who wonders, "If I lie here long enough, ... will her soul slip back into this empty shell I'm walking around in?" As Jessica struggles to put her life back together she wonders about the person she was and the person she is now. Can she come to terms with the fact that her past is gone but more importantly can she learn to live in the present, accepting who she now is?

Discussion

Blank focuses on the very personal struggle of the main character, Jessica, to restart her life after a serious head injury.  Admittedly,  Jessica's accident seems a somewhat strange and readers picking up the novel might conclude that this is a story about a gunshot injury given the cover and the title. When Jessica returns home, her room feels like that of a stranger. This leads her to try to understand who the Girl was by going through her cell phone texts and facebook posts. But although this leads Jessica to determine that the Girl was someone who liked animals, artsy photographs and motivational sayings, she finds the Girl's life remarkably bland. To Jessica, a picture emerges of the Girl as a "goody-two-shoes" and this annoys her. Jessica is also worried that as she learns more about who she was, she may not like that person. It is because of this fear that she delays looking at a personal journal her mother gives her.

It is obvious though to Jessica that her behaviour is different from before her accident; she's more impulsive and is interested in different things. She's rude towards others and she misses the comfort of having her life figured out. "I want to be her little girl again, have her take care of me and tell me everything is going to be all right. But the sad truth is, I am not her daughter at all. I'm a rude, crazy stranger who is posing as her darling Jessica."

With the help of Dr. Kirschbaum, Jessica is asked to focus on the positive things in her life. Jessica also begins to tackle certain things head on - she goes to visit Ramses, she meets Tarin again and tells her the truth about what happened to her, and she also asks her father to tell her about the accident. Ultimately it is Jessica's desire to understand what happened to her that is the impetus for her coming to accept her life as it is now. Part of that acceptance comes from learning what really happened during the accident and coming to realize that she needs to give herself a chance to make a good life for herself.

St. Jean realistically portrays Jessica's journey towards understanding what happened to her and her struggles to cope. The story feels realistic as to the effects of the injury on Jessica, her family and her relationship with her friends. Jessica also realizes that although there are some things from her past she no longer likes, she is willing to restart her friendship with her best Megan and to reconsider going to a support group.

Blank is part of the extensive canon of young adult literature on teens with amnesia that seems so popular these days. At times the pacing is slow but the mystery of Jessica's accident and her determination to discover why the seemingly good Girl did such a stupid thing are what keep the reader engaged. Overall, Blank is a good debut novel for Trina St. Jean, who hails from the lovely hamlet of Wandering River in northern Alberta. Look for more well written stories from this bright, new Canadian author!

Book Details:

Blank by Trina St. Jean
Victoria, BC: Orca Book Publishers    2015
301 pp.

Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott

Scott tackles an unusual ethical dilemma in her latest novel, Heartbeat. Seventeen year old Emma's mom, Lisa has "died" and is being kept alive on life support by her mom's new husband, Dan, so that their unborn baby son can continue to develop in-utero long enough to be delivered. Emma is horrified by Dan's apparent unilateral decision, believing that this is not what her mother would have wanted. "I mean, I know it's a baby and it's partly Mom, but I wish Dan had just once thought about what Mom would have wanted." 

Shortly after her mother and Dan married, Emma's mom began taking fertility treatments. She spent two years in fertility treatments before she finally succeeded in becoming pregnant. However as Emma's mother had previously had a blood clot in her leg, her pregnancy was not without some risk. Then one day, at twelve weeks into her pregnancy, Emma's mother was reaching for a piece of toast and collapsed.  She had a massive embolism in her brain.

Dan was given the option to turn off the ventilator or keep Emma's mom on it and save their unborn baby. He chose to try to keep his wife alive to save their unborn baby believing that this is what she would have wanted. But Emma is distraught because she feels Dan has chosen the baby over her mom, who has now been on the ventilator for almost four weeks.

Emma's anger over her mother's situation is so overwhelming that it threatens to destroy her entire life. She isn't on speaking terms with her stepfather, Dan, and spends most of her time at her friend, Olivia's home. Emma was an excellent student working towards gaining admission to one of the top ten schools with the goal of obtaining her PhD in history. Now she doesn't care about school, her assignments are late or not completed at all. And most of all she doesn't care about her ex-boyfriend, Anthony, the self-absorbed boy who made out with her and then dumped her.

But then Emma meets bad boy Caleb Harrison. Emma has already formed an opinion about Caleb who has a reputation at school for being a "total druggie" and who steals cars. He drove his father's limited-edition Porsche into the lake and watched it sink. When Emma goes to the hospital to see her mom, she runs into Caleb doing volunteer work. 

When Emma really looks at Caleb she realizes that he is sad, although she doesn't know why. Emma continues to encounter Caleb at the hospital and when they talk she realizes that he understands how she feels. As their relationship develops amid a shared loss, Emma discovers that Caleb's empathy and understanding give her the strength to confront her stepfather about what she's feeling and about what happened to their family.

Discussion  

Heartbeat considers a very specific medical situation, one which has been in the media recently, involving keeping a pregnant woman who has been diagnosed as "brain dead" on life support so that her unborn baby might have a chance to survive to viability. The concept of brain death is something Scott never directly addresses in her novel but it is central to the story and important to understand.

A person is declared brain dead when a specific set of criteria have been met. These criteria were  developed in 1968 by the Harvard Medical School specifically so that organs could be retrieved from living donors for transplantation. What many people do not know is that organs "harvested" from a dead person without a beating heart are unsuitable for transplantation because they deteriorate within minutes of death. For organs to be suitable for transplantation, the donor must have a beating heart and continue to breathe and must do so until the last organ, usually the heart, is removed.

While most doctors have accepted the brain death criteria, some doctors are now questioning both the neurological criteria for declaring brain death and its use. One of the main criteria used in declaring brain death is the apnea test where the patient is removed from a ventilator to see if they can breathe on their own. This inability to breathe is not necessarily a sign of death. A ventilator might be needed to aid in the patient's recovery and in some cases removal either causes more damage or results in the patient's death. Complicating the brain death issue is the fact that patients who have been given a diagnosis of brain death continue to behave as a living person; hair and nails grow, food is digested and expelled, unborn babies continue to grow. Are these patients truly dead?

Further complicating this issue are the countless situations related in the media over the past thirty years, of people declared brain dead, who regain consciousness sometimes immediately prior to a a planned procedure to have their organs removed. It appears that the current brain death criteria suggest doctors do not fully understand injuries to the brain and how the brain heals from these injuries.

Recently there have been several situations which have re-ignited the discussion around brain death - namely pregnant women who have been kept alive so that their unborn babies might grow to 24 weeks and be delivered. There is no doubt that these situations are terribly traumatic and complicated for the families involved. Each case must be taken on an individual basis as each pregnancy is different.

While this short novel doesn't go into all this detail, Scott does a good job of demonstrating how traumatic this situation is to Emma and her stepdad. It rips apart their relationship as both make assumptions about how the other felt about the wife and mother they loved and lost and what she was experiencing during the pregnancy and what she would have wanted for their family. It underscores the importance of having a power of attorney for personal care. This would have been especially important in Emma's mother's situation as she had prior health issues.

As Emma's life disintegrates, it is her relationship with Caleb that ultimately helps her get back on track, confront Dan about what happened when her mother collapsed, and what their relationship will be in the future. Although Emma's situation is difficult, Caleb's is tragic as his parents seem unable to cope in any way with the death of their daughter, Minnie. Their personal tragedies allow Caleb and Emma to forge a bond and develop a relationship that is both affirming and supplies mutual support. With Caleb, Emma can begin to grieve and this helps move her forward to the next steps of acceptance and hope.

Fans of Elizabeth Scott will enjoy the emotional drama in this novel, as will those readers who read Lurlene McDaniel's novels which focus on characters struggling with a chronic illness.

Book Details:
Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott
Don Mills: Ontario  HarlequinTeen    2014
244 pp.

Anything But Ordinary by Lara Avery

Anything But Ordinary is a book filled with much promise but which ultimately will leave readers disappointed.

Seventeen year old Bryce Graham is a promising diver who suffers a devastating, coma-inducing brain injury during an Olympic trials dive competition. Anything But Ordinary opens when Bryce awakens five years later in Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Her younger sister, Sydney, is now seventeen, her father's hair is grayer and things have changed immensely as Bryce is about to learn. She has missed graduating from Hilwood High and four years of college. Bryce wonders about what has happened to her best friends and teammates, Greg and Gabby.

In the days immediately after awakening from the coma, Bryce makes a remarkable recovery. She can talk, use her hands and use a wheelchair. She is even beginning to stand and take a few steps. This makes her recovery all the more astounding and of interest to researchers in neurology. Although Bryce's recovery appears to be going well. However she is having strange visions accompanied by intense pain. While most of the visions are of events that have already happened, Bryce does have a vision of the future as well. She decides that she will not tell anyone about what is happening, despite being asked about her memory by her doctor, Dr. Warren.

Dr. Warren, who suspects Bryce isn't being truthful about what's going on, wants Bryce to remain in hospital for several more weeks to undergo tests, but Bryce wants to leave as soon as possible. Anxious to get on with her life, Bryce is allowed to go home. At home though, Bryce discovers that life for her family has changed a great deal. Her parents argue and are no longer close. Her father has quit coaching and stopped working on the airplane he was building. And her sister Sydney is a party animal, often getting drunk and staying out late at night to party.

As she begins to take her life back and heal from her brain injury, Bryce feels trapped by her past and the years she has missed. While she has been in a coma, life has gone on for Gabby and Greg, both of whom went to Stanford instead of Vanderbuilt which they received scholarships for.  Bryce's world is further turned upside down when she learns that Gabby and Greg are engaged to be married and that they are moving to D.C where Gabby will study law. Greg was Bryce's boyfriend before her accident and now she must come to terms with the fact that he is marrying her best friend. This is even more difficult because Gabby seems oblivious to the effect this has on Bryce whom she has asked to be her maid of honour.

When Bryce returns to Vanderbilt for a CAT scan, she has a vision while undergoing the scan. The results puzzle her doctors but she refuses to stay in hospital and has her new friend, Carter, who is a second year medical student drive her home. Bryce continues to prepare for Gabby and Greg's wedding, by agreeing to be Gabby's maid of honour and going shopping for dresses. Greg, however, is having second thoughts about the wedding and tells Bryce he is still in love with her. He begins to see her behind Gabby's back and although Bryce tries to discourage him and continually walks away from him, she does become involved with him again, while also beginning a relationship with Carter.

Bryce tries to encourage her parents to reclaim their lives again and to develop a life outside of looking after her. She eventually manages to talk to Sydney and come to an understanding of what her younger sister's life must have been like while she was in a coma for five years and her parent's life revolved around keeping watch at the hospital. It takes Sydney to help Bryce come to the realization that her relationship with Greg belongs in the past. At the rehearsal dinner when Greg once again confronts Bryce about his marriage to Gabby, Bryce asks him what he really wants in life and tells him that this is something he alone must determine. At this time, Carter reveals to Bryce the result of the earlier CAT scan and the true state of her health.

Discussion

While the concept behind Anything But Ordinary was interesting, the novel succeeds on some levels and not on others. Lara Avery does a great job of portraying the difficulties a young person might encounter after being sidelined for just long enough to make a substantial difference. Bryce is physically twenty-two years old but still emotionally only seventeen-years-old. While her friends have finished university and are socially more mature, Bryce is still very much a teen. She's also dealing with the trauma of being in a coma for so long. The author also does a good job of capturing the emotional toll of Bryce's injury on her family. For example, Sydney who feels abandoned by both her parents as they focus on Bryce, rebels with her goth clothing and acting out.

Because Bryce's physical abilities return so quickly (she is walking within a matter of days) that aspect of her recovery takes a second hand to the relationships in her life - especially her friends from high school.  In fact, the relationship between Gabby, Greg and Bryce dominates the storyline. Rather than focusing on her recovery, Bryce becomes completely focused on Greg and Gabby, who have developed a life together but which gradually unwinds after Bryce comes back into their lives. Bryce seems unable to come to terms with their relationship and to recognize the blossoming interest of her new friend Carter, who has more than a passing interest in her. She repeatedly tells Greg that she doesn't want to meet him again, yet continues to do so.

Greg is confused and behaves in a very dishonorable way by refusing to acknowledge that he is be unfaithful to Gabby, as he meets Bryce and pursues a physical relationship with Bryce. And Gabby doesn't seem to recognize Greg's interest in Bryce. This strange triangle is frustrating and yet predictable. Readers will surmise that Greg is probably going to call off the wedding and when he does, it's really no surprise.

Bryce's recovery was not portrayed in a realistic manner. She received little help in terms of psychological counselling to help her pick up the pieces of her life. She was simply allowed to sign out of the hospital because she was legally an adult and she refused to return for check-ups. This was ostensibly due to the visions which Bryce wanted to keep secret, but this wasn't believable.  The visions were never really explained and while most were of events that happened while Bryce was in a coma, one inexplicably was of a future event that allowed Bryce to save her sister. It's likely this was done because the focus of the novel was on the love triangle that forms the main plot of the novel.

Near the end of the novel, Bryce finally confronts Sydney, who has suddenly "burnt out" from her bad behaviour and now appears to be open to talking to her sister. Bryce learns what life has been like for Sydney for the past five years. This was a very interesting scene and it was unfortunate their relationship wasn't explored in more depth the book. The ending of the novel is shocking and disappointing, considering the actions of Bryce.

Anything But Ordinary had much potential, but lots of loose ends and characters with little depth.  A great cover and an interesting opening chapter will draw readers in. They will stay to find out what happens but will be left with lots of questions.

Book Details:
Anything But Ordinary by Lara Avery
New York: Hyperion       2012
327 pp.

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

Left Neglected is Lisa Genova's second book, again telling the story of a woman coping with a serious neurological problem. Thirty-seven year old Sarah Nickerson is VP of Human Resources at Berkley Consulting, which "offers strategic advice to companies all over the world in all industries". Her job is a pure stress, pressure cooker position in a company that is known for its premiere consulting work and high burnout and divorce rate among staff.

Sarah and her husband Bob, also a Harvard business grad, live in Welmont, a wealthy suburb of Boston and have three children, Charlie, Lucy and Linus (named after the Charlie Brown characters). Sarah's life is incredibly hectic, a combination of having to juggle 70 to 80 hour work weeks with the responsibility of raising three small children. But all that changes one morning on a rushed drive to work, when Sarah pulls out her cell phone and is involved in a serious single car accident. Sarah suffers trauma to the right side of her head. She awakens eight days later in ICU to discover that her brain does not recognize the left side of her body. She knows she has a left side but doesn't know where it is. Her brain ignores all sensory information that originates on the left side of her body.

At first Sarah believes that she will recover within two weeks and be back into the groove of her hectic life. She can't afford the time to be disabled. She enters therapy, first at the hospital and then at the Baldwin Rehabilitation Center. Instead of a fast recovery and a return to her crazy out of control life, Sarah begins to realize that this process will take more time than she might be willing to admit. "The more therapy I have, the more I realize that this is not a math equation. No one will give me any guarantees. I might get better and I might not. The therapy might help, and it might not. I can work hard as I've always worked at everything I've ever done, and it might not be any more effective than just lying here and praying. I've been doing both."

As she works to rehabilitate herself, Sarah must also come to terms with her past and in particular with her broken relationship with her mother, who emotionally abandoned her when she was young. Sarah gradually learns to redefine her life, the nature of success and her priorities in life. What started out as an obstacle and a disability has become an opportunity for positive change and personal growth.

Discussion

The title, Left Neglected has two meanings; referring both to a neurological disorder arising from the head injury that Sarah experiences and her emotional abandonment by her mother and father during her childhood.

There were many facets of this book that are very enjoyable: the overall writing style of the novel conveyed through the voice of Sarah, which was both engaging and genuine. Genova infused Sarah's voice with humour that lightened what could have been a very oppressive situation and added to the overall tone of the book.

Left Neglected portrayed events in a realistic way, especially in contrasting Sarah's lifestyle before and after her accident, demonstrating how Sarah's disability impacted her life, its effects on her relationship with her husband and children, and how it changed the way she viewed others.

In Left Neglected, a momentary lapse of attention while fishing for a cell phone, changes Sarah's life forever. This common habit, done during driving is both dangerous to the driver and to those around them. The novel highlights how one bad decision can change a life forever.

Left Neglected is more enjoyable and better written than her other novel, Still Alice. This is a great book that will appeal to older teens, book club participants and those who enjoy books about overcoming personal difficulties.

Book Details:
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
New York: Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster, Inc.)
327 pp.