Brave Enough – Kati Gardner

So I recently went to the library after 2 mundanely long months to pick up a whole lot of books, and I’m very fortunate to not have contracted Covid as of yet, and hopefully I never will! But that’s like, a basic overview of how the New Year for me is turning out to be, right?

But more about this amazingly scripted book. I was immediately drawn into this book as soon as I started it, and just kept on reading & reading, despite the fact that I had to go out into stores and groceries to get things, which actually kind of kept me going, since I was not at all interested in the vegetable section of Food-Lion as I skimmed through the market carelessly, balancing the book carefully on the handlebars of the shopping cart.

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Firstly, I just want to thank whoever the heck made this cover, because for all that is holy, my pupils, retinas, my entire eyes are soaking in the aesthetic Canva-likeness of the cover. Honestly, my book reviews also have the outside of the book putting in a small part of what I think of the book, and that cover with it’s semi-formal cursive and beautiful stenciled, paint splattered, gradient cover really gave me a part of a good feeling of the book.

Now, if you want books that actually show cancer as a real life book theme and not as the author using cancer just as a plot device, this is a book I’d recommend to you. From the start we know we are following two characters who have a connection with this illness, and we literally immerse in what happens when you have cancer.

To be honest, I really did my best to read this book with a full, open heart, and I shoved away my usual parochial thoughts into the drawers as I flipped through the pages. I couldn’t love it as much as I wanted to. However, let’s try something different and list down the points that I noticed while reading and skimming through this book.

1. The author’s note at the end of this story:
   ‘When I was a teenager and reading every book I could get my hands on, I was desperate for a girl that looked like me. For a girl who had cancer and lived. And it was really hard to come by. So, I wrote one…’
   Honestly, if I said that I wasn’t in tears after reading this book, I’d literally be lying. This quote actually made me really sad. Also I know this bullet point was small and somewhat basic. I don’t care, sue me (lol please don’t actually sue me, i’m very broke and own like 57 cents and a few buttons)
   
2. The everlasting amazement:
   I think that it really explains a book a lot when one’s read it maybe weeks or months ago and still remembers exactly how hard this book resonated with them. I read this book a couple weeks ago, perhaps during the first triduum of 2022, and honestly, I’d bet that even in March or April, I wouldn’t be able to find the right words to let loose my reasoning of the importance and rawness of this story. I think the only other book that I’ve read that balances with cancer was TFIOS (The Fault in Our Stars – John Green), but this book was really quite exceptional in the books that deal with illness, or disorders (not entirely sure how I should be saying that but please forgive me if i offended you in some minor/major way :C)
   
3. The character drive:
   This book was definitely more character driven than following any other subset of this book’s categories and groupings, and I found myself rooting so hard for both Cason’s and Davis’s wellbeing, both individually or together.
   Cason had been hiding a serious leg injury in order to make the audition for a ballet theater that her mother supposedly worshipped, and kept telling herself that the injury was just a strain, until she couldn’t pull it off anymore and ultimately set off the big reveal of what really happened to her leg, that one moment tipping her perfect pink prima donna world off of its “pointe” (see what i did there? huh- okay i’m gonna stop now)
   
4. The author’s perspective on this book:
   Coming from an author who is a cancer survivor herself, I highly appreciate her writing about her experience as a cancer patient and amputee. The various characters in ‘Brave Enough’ also had cancer, so this book and the next one in the duology (Finding Balance) are about her experience as a cancer patient and amputee.
   
5. Davis’s struggle:
   Okay so the subtitle for this category probably sounds a bit like I’m taking schadenfreude in Davis Channing’s struggle to overcome his drug addiction. But I promise that’s not what it is…
   Davis was a former cancer patient who was sentenced to 300 hours of community service at the hospital wing where Cason was residing in after getting caught and charged with an intent to distribute drugs. Although Davis has been clean and sober for almost a year he does still struggle very heavily all throughout the story with the addiction, especially on those harder days. still struggle heavily throughout this story with his drug addiction, especially on the harder days.
   I think one thing I absolutely appreciated in this sort of sub-grouping of a drug abuser/addict was that the addiction wasn’t a sugarcoated, goody-two-shoes version of the reality. It wasn’t as simple as saying that once he did drugs but now he isn’t fazed by them, it was more realistic and in the sense of doing drugs and battling its tantalizing pull every day, which truly is the reality of a drug addiction (as far as i know). However, I did want to know more about Davis, like what he liked and didn’t like to do, or basically just some general info, other than the fact that he was a drug addict, but sadly a lot of the book was comprised of this theme alone
   
6. No overextended drama:
   I seriously liked how there were no extra over-the-top villains; this was one of my favorite thing about this book. It didn’t had to make things and events extra like a soap opera. Like people asked for help and were able to maintain strength throughout, like normal people, instead of being like ‘yes i am a book character and i dont need help because in books, anyone can be anything and i am iNviNcibLe’. (the 3/4 mark of that burlesque exaggeration was kind of a Zootopia reference, I apologize for not being unique)
   
7. Lack of explanation:
   First off, one thing that I kind of disliked was the instant love. Personally, I love that trope of falling in love at first sight, but only if it’s written in an absolutely spectacular way. The insta<3 in this story had so much potential, but I think it got somewhat ruined. It could’ve worked so well if they had it kind of paced out. She doesn’t even know him, and it’s like Davis only knows of Cason because of her dancing and maybe kind of liked her, but I never got the reason for the liking and how exactly he knew her from school.
   
8. Mommy issues:
   Okay, I understand parents can be toxic, ignorant, etc.
   However, this story is literally some big exception: Cason’s mother just cared about her daughter getting into the perfect ballet school and taking up all of those new things just to please herself, even though most of the time Cason was upset because she was constantly under the impression to do her best, nothing less, up until some midpoint where Cason finally gets her leg, yk, and her mother finally bursts in while apologizing for overworking her. Like girl, you’re a bit too late to say sorry, nice try tho.

Okay this list would go on about forever if I didn’t find a stopping point, but here it is…

All in all, you don’t want to miss this because it’s a book that will stick with you for a long time to come. And this author deserves not only Cason’s story to be told but her own as well, so don’t mind me while I go back to the author’s note and continue bawling my eyes out.

he ship was cute and I was absolutely in love, so though I can say these things now that I’ve had a day to think about this book, I was in love the entire time I was reading, which is one of the main things I look for in books. I’d give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. Thank you to Kati Gardner for indirectly sharing her story, and I’ll see you guys later! Stay safe and keep reading <3