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Title: Jack Tumor
Author: Anthony McGowan
Category: Fiction, Young Adult
Rating: 4.5/5
Why I Read It: It released in 2009, and I was in the mood for something new.

Summary: Hector’s hearing voices—well, one voice—and that’s never good. And this particular voice happens to be a talking brain tumor. Also not good.

Review: Hey, writers! Are you grappling with how to tackle a heavy topic like mortality without making a total downer of a book? Here’s a little known technique that might do the trick: Add a talking brain tumor!

I know, this book sounds weird. I picked it up at the library without reading the premise, so when I got home and saw what it was, I pawned it off on my partner.

And then he started laughing. Out loud. A lot.

So I had to see for myself. I’m here to report that yes, this book is weird. But it’s also bloody brilliant. Note: I can get away with saying “bloody” because of the aforementioned brain tumor but also because the author is British, which serves as further proof that non-American English-speakers can write a damn good book.

Sometimes, the funny bits turned into tangents that seemed to exist for funny’s sake and not the story’s sake. But they were awfully funny, after all, and it was only a couple times that the tangents interrupted the flow of the story. (I hesitated even saying anything because I loved this book so much, but I wanted to explain why it didn’t get a full 5 stars from me.)

Check it out for yourself:

“Hector?”

A man looking a lot like a doctor was staring at me. …

I nodded.

“I’m Dr. Jones.”

I nodded again. He hadn’t said anything yet that I felt like disagreeing with.

“As you know, this is a teaching hospital. Would you mind if some ah, observers sat in?”

Before I had the chance to mind, a group of gormless-looking students began filing into the room. Not all gormless-looking. There was one exceptionally pretty girl, with the kind of straight black hair I like.

It meant I was going to get an anal probe for sure.

I felt the electric tingle of a blush as the whole scene played out before me: the pink rubberized truncheon they were going to use, the sparking electrodes at the end of the probe, the giggle from the students at the farting noise produced as the probe was extracted, my stuttering efforts to say it wasn’t me but the probe that made the noise.

“So, you’ve been having some problems?” said Doc Jones.

Problems! Where did I start?

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