Book Review: Saving Jessica
Teenage Love Is Not Always 'Just' Puppy Love
A review of Saving Jessica - a compelling story about love, sacrifice and difficult decisions.
Jessica and Jeremy are your average teenage couple in high school. Like most young people their age, they like to have fun, to out to movies, go to dances, and do everything normal teenagers like to do. But their relationship is anything but normal. Their lives are turned upside down when Jessica finds out that she is in renal failure and, in order to survive, must have dialysis three times a week.
Despite her doctor's best efforts, however, the dialysis does not work well. Jessica struggles constantly with high blood pressure and countless other problems despite the handfuls of pills she takes each and every day. Her best hope for a normal future is a kidney transplant, but due to her parents' health problems they are ineligible.
Realizing that there was a reason that he was spared in the car accident which took his brother's life, Jeremy makes a decision which will permanently affect both his relationship with his parents and with Jessica. He offers to donate one of his own kidneys to save Jessica, and his offer sparks a fierce battle between him and his parents, driving a wedge between them and forcing Jeremy to make some difficult decisions.
The road that Jessica and Jeremy travel together is a long one, filled with bumps and curves, but leaning on one another they make it to the end.
Something which really stands out is Jeremy's inner conflict between helping Jessica and following his parents' wishes. It's as a story about Jeremy's struggles as it is of Jessica's terminal illness. He struggles to prove that, despite his young age, he is competent of making a decision which will ultimately affect him for the rest of his life.
Saving Jessica is a touching story which deals with rebellion, sacrifice, love, friendship, and making difficult choices, knowing that whatever the outcome someone will be hurt. It also proves that not all all shared by teenagers is something to be taken lightly. Simply because someone is young does not mean that they don't have true feelings for the person that they are dating. Not all teenage love is the product of overactive hormones.
As Lurlene McDaniel does with all her books, she presents the story in a clear, concise manner. She portrays the characters in a very real light, without sugar coating. She shows Jessica's struggles with her illness and the restrictions forced upon her. She shows her parents dealing with a physically ill child, unable to help her themselves due to their own medical pasts. Lastly, she shows Jeremy, who wants to do the right thing and help his girlfriend, but struggles with resistance from his parents and the laws which govern our country.
