Invincible (Invincible #1)

Evie was diagnosed with terminal cancer months ago. She's exceeded the number of days the doctors had given her to live so now she's just grateful for every extra day she gets. Until she miraculously starts getting better. For so long she's been The Girl with Cancer to her family and friends and getting them to see her as just Evie seems impossible. Then she meets Marcus, someone who doesn't know her past, and he makes her feel alive.

This book ended up being a faster read than I thought it would, considering the subject matter. There was definitely a before and after feel to it, before the miracle vs after the miracle. The before parts, when Evie was in the hospital, were both heartbreaking and yet also fun. It was a children's cancer ward and the author did a good job of reminding the reader of that when things were getting too lighthearted. The bond that had developed between Evie and two other kids, Stella and Caleb, was really nice and fun to read. The whole 'before' part had a bit of a Red Band Society feel to it.

The 'after' part almost seemed like a completely different book. Evie was, understandable, such a different person from in the first part. She had accepted death and it didn't come. All of a sudden she had to deal with the fact that she did likely have a future and that she was expected to fit back into society outside the hospital walls. She wasn't adapting well and everyone just seemed to ignore it or make excuses. Part of me sympathized with Evie but the more she used her cancer as an excuse for her behavior, the more she lost me.

Besides cancer, the book also touched on drug use/addiction, depression and eating disorders. There were a lot of issues going on and it felt a little overwhelming. There wasn't enough time to give all the issues the attention they needed.

The theme of old vs new continued through the whole book. Old Evie vs new Evie, old friendships vs new friendships, old romance vs new romance. Will, her boyfriend who stuck by her through everything, started off as really sweet and thoughtful while she was in the hospital and he did his best to understand New Evie, but he came across as a little smothering and condescending at times. Marcus, the new boy Evie met, was more of a mystery. He didn't know about her past so he could easily accept New Evie. I could see why Evie wanted and needed someone who didn't know about the cancer and who wouldn't treat her like she was about to break.

This was the first book in, I believe a duology, so it will be interesting to see what happens to Evie, Marcus and everyone else in the second book.

3.5 (liked it a lot)
I wanted to read Invincible because I am drawn to stories with illnesses and cancer. I started early in my reading life with Lurlene McDaniel and still seek out books with those types of feels. I have also enjoyed Amy's other books, so made sense to request and want to read this one.

I really like how strong she was and how she wanted to keep it together for her family. it's definitely hard seeing her in the position that she had accepted that she was going to die she just wanted to be strong for her family her mom her dad her sister as well as her best friends since kindergarten and her very loyal boyfriend all of which is stuck by her side throughout the whole treatment and diagnosis and spreading of the cancer.

I also like how this book focused on some of the unique types of friendships that you make when you are in a teen cancer ward. Stella and Caleb are two of which that have been by her side caleb has a brain tumor and Stella is also dealing with some chemotherapy and radiation and they've been and at the same time a lot. still is one of the people who tell it like it is and to is raucously funny. we get a lot of the humor from the book from Stella and also when please put on line of her pain meds and her whole view of the world seems to change. Everything becomes funny to her and she knows that there's pain but she just doesn't care about it and the world is painted in this picture of being high I guess is the best way to put it.

When the book begins when you see her in a position where she thought that she was going to die she had accepted it and she had declined further treatment. we know from the synopsis that she is going to get a whole new lease on life but I do appreciate getting to know her while she was in that really hard time in her life. I can't imagine living with a death sentence or with a choice of either giving up or being in extreme pain. with the years for life span in the hospital it feels like the whole world moved on without her and I totally cannot imagine how that would feel or how I would move on.

It was sad the loss that happened before Evie's miracle remission. She thought she was dying and then suddenly all traces are gone. She has a new lease on life, but she is carrying a lot of baggage with her. Between the loss of a friend and the way that she has felt pain, been on the door of death has changed her. She used to be a cheerleader and even while she was sick, she kept the upbeat persona.

There was such a change in her. She didn't know where she fit, and she felt so much differently than she did before. School, cheerleading and prom all seem so meaningless. She turns to her pills and alcohol in order to help dull the pain, first physically and then more and more so emotionally. Her parents, Will, and best friend are all so worried about her. She makes bad decisions, and although I could understand how she was feeling, she really didn't treat any of them well.

While I can see her draw to Marcus, someone who didn't see her go through the cancer, and someone who saw her as strong and tough. It rubbed me wrong because of how Will stuck by her side, and I felt like Evie kept leading Will on, while she was seeing, kissing and emotionally connecting with Marcus.

Honestly this book left her in a pretty bad place, and I felt for her so much. I was worried about how far depressed and uncaring she was.


Bottom Line: Emotional journey of Evie, a cancer patient, now cancer free trying to fit back into a life when she'd already accepted death.