★★★★☆
The Thing With Feathers pulled me in whether I wanted to be pulled in or not.
Epilepsy is a tricky subject to write about, and as someone with a parent who has epilepsy, I avoided reading this book. I was afraid I’d read it and say, “Ugh, this is so inaccurate.”
The issue is, epilepsy is so shrouded in mystery that one person’s “Ugh,” could be another person’s, “OMG, that’s my life!”
Give The Thing With Feathers a shot, if it piques your interest at all.
I’m sticking to my 4-star guns, though, only because the main character does that thing. That thing a lot of YA authors assume teens do, where she’s constantly going on about how she doesn’t want to make connections with people, because she totally hates the idea of having human connections and friends and a life. I understand that, especially with something like epilepsy, making friends or connections can be scary. But there’s a difference between portraying a character as being scared of making friends, and just constantly repeating “I CAN’T have friends, because I’m different.”
To be fair, though, she does get past that (slowly), as part of her character development.
Overall, this story is heartwarming. The subject is important. Give it a shot.
