Somebody Up There Hates You

Somebody Up There Hates You

by Hollis Seamon

Synopsis:

Suthy has landed me here in this hospice, where we—that’s me and Sylvie—are the only people under 30 in the whole place, sweartogod. But I’m not dead yet. I still need to keep things interesting. Sylvie, too. I mean, we’re kids, hospice-hostages or not. We freak out visitors; I get my uncle to sneak me out for one insane Halloween night. Stuff like that. And Sylvie wants to make things even more interesting. That girl’s got big plans.   Only Sylvie’s father is so nuclear-blasted by what’s happened to his little girl, he glows orange, I swear. That’s one scary man, and he’s not real fond of me. So we got a major family feud going on, right here in hospice. DO NOT CROSS line running down the middle of the hall, me on one side, her on the other. It’s crazy.   In the middle of all of this, really, there’s just me and Sylvie, a guy and a girl. And we want to live, in our way, by our own rules, in whatever time we’ve got. We will pack in some living before we go, trust me.

My thoughts:

At 17 years old, Richard Casey has been through chemo, radiation, countless surgeries, and now he has been labelled terminal. SUTHY (Somebody Up There Hates You) syndrome is the only explanation that makes any sense to Richie for why he and 15 year old Sylvie have ended up in hospice for their final days. And while everyone around them are determined to keep them alive, Richie and Sylvie have definite plans about how they want to spend whatever amount of time they have left.

Some people will compare this book to John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars and yes both books are about teens with cancer but that is where the similarities end.  Somebody Up There Hates You is narrated by Richie and you would think that he would be a bit pissed off by the direction his life seems to be headed and hoping for a miracle but Richie is more a realist; yes he has cancer and yes he will more than likely die from it but he’s 17 there’s still things he wants to do and he isn’t dead yet. Even though this book is about teens with cancer it is still a book with a positive message; it’s not over till it’s over and both Richie and Sylvie (especially Sylvie) aren’t willing to call it quits just yet.