Yes (Vasquez & James Series)
Rounding up to five because really, any nits were so not vital to the story. I adore Luki and Sonny, so when I first saw the subject matter of this book, I yelled at Lou. All right, more squeaked in dismay, but Lou, in her kind, gentle way, said that while she wouldn't give things away, she could promise that it would be okay.It better be, I muttered to myself, after Delsyn and all that anguish in the last book...grumble, grumble, grumble...
But without giving things away...yes. Everything's going to be okay, gentle readers. Yes, I cried. Yes, my heart broke for them and with them and around them, but this book isn't about dying. True to the title, it's about affirmation - the affirmation of will, of love, of choosing life while you can.
There are no bad guys here, no guns, no car chases or harrowing fight scenes. It's a simple story with a simple plot, but told with such sympathy and understanding that it's no less engaging than Luki and Sonny's other stories. The only antagonist here is the cancer, the struggles all internal. I would have liked to have more Sonny, perhaps, but i understand. While Sonny is his rock and his support, this really is Luki's fight.
Lou's spare, simply poetic prose is perfect for the subject matter, never over-explaining, never over-indulging in long passages of angst and self-recrimination. Things are. This is how and what they are. She sets them before us just so, through Luki's eyes and his odd, often detached way of dealing with the world.
"...he gazed at the axial CT images, which was a view from the top down, and made his lung look like an almost egg-shaped hole, and the tumor look like a yolk splatted in the middle of it. Mr. Vasquez, I'm afraid you have a fried egg in your lung."
Yes, I had to work myself up to read this, but I'm so glad I did. Strength isn't always in the physical and courage is sometimes found in something as simple as saying yes.
