Review: Brave Enough

Brave Enough by Kati Gardner
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars

Brave Enough gives us the story of Cason and Davis, two teenage cancer survivors who help each other survive and thrive. Cason, a talented ballet dancer, dances through pain to complete weeks of training and an audition for the American Ballet Theatre. After many days of telling herself the terrible pain in her leg is just a strain, she collapses during the audition, her femur crumbling, and finds out that she has Ewing's sarcoma. Cason had thought kids with cancer was merely a trite plot device. She finds the reality shatters her world, not just her femur. Davis is in recovery and not just from cancer. He's been released from rehab and is attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings because he's become addicted to pain meds, an ugly reality that we seldom hear about with respect to cancer survivors of any age. Davis struggles in recovery, lurching from wanting "just one hit" to striving to make his family, friends and doctors proud of his commitment to sobriety. He is plagued by an ex-girlfriend. Alexis, who is still and addict, and their dealer, Ethan, who menaces Davis in multiple ways. As part of Davis's recovery and juvenile sentencing, he is ordered to do community service at the same cancer hospital he worked out. The lure of stealing some of those pain meds is balanced with the personal knowledge of just how much the children in the cancer ward need their pain medication. Davis keeps pushing Ethan and his demands away. It's here that he meets Cason, in treatment for her cancer, who attended his same high school. They had always been in different circles (Cason was in barely any circle since her entire life was about ballet) but now their lives overlap because of their cancer experience. They provide support for one another and hope for their futures.

Gardner is herself a Ewing's Sarcoma survivor, though she was younger than her protagonist Cason when she was diagnosed. She brings authenticity to the patient experience but where I struggled in this book was the lack of depth and insight into the abusive relationship between Cason and her mother, Natalie. Although we see Cason snarking about her mother being more artistic director than mother, and there are passages where Natalie finally seems to come to terms with the fact that Cason has cancer and will never dance as she did before, the unhealthy dynamic felt glossed over. It is hard to believe that years of such a controlling relationship could be resolved in the months that this book covers in Cason's life. This is a parent who had her daughter dancing through indescribable pain, as her femur turned to mush. Who controlled every corner of her daughter's life.

The value of this YA book lies in promoting empathy in young people. Cason, Davis and all the other kids' lives have been upended by cancer. You can substitute any other potentially fatal acute or chronic health condition that roars into a young person's life and leaves them forever changed.

I received an ARC of this book from Flux Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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