Thaw - Hardcover

Roe, Monica M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1590784960 ISBN 13: 9781590784969

Publisher: Front Street imprint of Boyds Mills Press, 2008

Synopsis

A proud, gifted young man learns to overcome abuse. Dane, a high-school senior and ski team standout, is in a rehabilitation clinic in Florida, a thousand miles from his home in upstate New York. Guillain-Barre syndrome has paralyzed him completely, and doctors don't know whenor ifhe'll regain the use of his body. When Anya, a young, no-nonsense woman, enters Dane's room and introduces herself as his physical therapist, Dane promptly sends her away. He's confident that he'll overcome this freakish illness without her superior attitude. Dane finds his occupational therapist more agreeable, and the two make quick progress on Dane's upper extremities. His legs are another matter. Dane understands quickly that if he wants to skior walkagain, he'll need to work with Anya. She and Dane reluctantly agree to develop his body strength, but as his family's visit to check his progress gets nearer, tension mounts. Dane's disdain for his friends, his family, and even his girlfriend grows clear, and his father's intolerance for failure becomes a consuming preoccupation. When the day of the visit arrives, a lifetime of subtle abuse either will cause Dane's icy mind to crack, or the young man will learn to thaw.

About this title

About the Author

Monica Roe works as a traveling physical therapist. Originally from upstate New York, her work now takes her throughout the country, most recently to a small island hospital in southeast Alaska. This is her first novel.

Reviews

Grade 10 Up—Eighteen-year-old Dane is furious—with his father, his ex-girlfriend, his no-nonsense physical therapist, and most of all with the disease that has robbed him of the use of every muscle in his body, Guillain-Barré syndrome. In a rehabilitation hospital in Florida, far away from his family and his career as a champion high school cross-country skier in upstate New York, Dane slowly relearns how to feed himself, turn the pages of a book, and perform basic physical functions, and he is forced to consider the possibility that he won't fully recover. Punctuating his fear of this fate-worse-than-death scenario are his encounters with the daughter of a man vegetating in a room across the hall, four years after a brain injury. In flashbacks, Dane recounts his relationship with his former girlfriend, whose love he has never been able to fully return (until now?). Like Chris Crutcher's characters, disgruntled Dane guards his emotions carefully, allowing only his nature-loving occupational therapist to penetrate his anger. Roe's descriptions of wintry New York are stunningly beautiful. The protagonist's frustrations about feeling out of control will resonate with teens, and the context of neurological rehab presents an original and challenging read. As Dane and his friends are sexually active, use strong language, and drink at parties, this novel is best suited for an older audience.—Nora G. Murphy, Los Angeles Academy Middle School
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Edition details

• Publisher: Front Street imprint of Boyds Mills Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1590784960
• ISBN 13: 9781590784969
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 235