Midnight Readers: A Personal Review ~ Amy & Matthew ~ Cammie McGovern

Amy & Matthew

Cammie McGovern

March 2014

Macmillan

goodreads says:

Amy loves Matthew and he loves her back. This is their story.

Amy is unflinchingly honest about her limitations. Born with cerebral palsy, she can’t walk or talk without help. But trapped inside this uncooperative body lies a brilliant mind and a luminous spirit – a girl capable of truly loving and worthy of being loved in return.

Matthew has his own set of challenges – a mind consumed by unwanted repeated thoughts, obsessive rituals and a crippling fear that he can't explain. But underneath all of the anxiety lies a deep seed of hope for someone to come along who believes in him…

This is the story of Amy and Matthew. It may not be a fairy tale romance or set in an imagined world far from our own. But the love they share is real. And yes, there's magic in it.

My thoughts:

I'm struggling a little with this one! I've heard so many things about this story but still was unsure what to expect. If you follow this blog and my reading habits you would have noticed I like my books to have an element of fantasy I guess, I like to be taken out of the 'real world' as I have so much to deal with everyday life. That said, I love the books by Laura Jarratt. 90% of my reading is fantasy, sci-fi, books with magical elements and so on. But I am definitly trying to change this.

A few of you know my mum suffers with agoraphobia and my poppy (dad) is an amputee. I help them in every way I can and yeah, sometimes it's hard, there are bad days and there are good days but I love them and would do just about anything for them. I read like most people do, to escape, I like to visit made up worlds, I like stories that I can pick up and put down, stories that are easy to read but then others that will make you think and really grip you.

For the mental and physical disabilities I deal with daily within my family cerebral palsy is not one of them and it's not something I couldn't imagine having to deal with. This makes it hard for me to understand Amy as a character/person, does her disability effect the way she acts towards others? She is horrible to Matthew, cheats on him, pushes him away, insults him but still expects him to be there for her, I'm pretty sure that's just her though! But Matthew I loved, it was lovely to see him grow and deal with his OCD throughout the story. He is the kind of friend anyone would want.

What I admire about this book is that our main characters are not willing to just sit back and let their disabilities rule their lives. They get out into the world and they get things done for themselves. And although at times I questioned if they really do help each other without one another I just wonder if they would have grown as much. Because when I think back how their unexpected friendship developed throughout the first half of the book it was beautiful and I think on many levels this would have been enough.

Another thing to love about this book is just how diverse it is and it's what we need in the world of books! I'm truly grateful for the authors out there who are willing to push my boundaries. So I may not connect with every character, and I may not love every book written but every story is worth telling! We Need Diverse Books because all our voices are different!