Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon (review)

“Somebody Up There Hates You,” aka SUTHY syndrome, is seventeen-year-old Rich’s explanation for having terminal cancer that’s landed him in hospice with no more than thirty days to live. Though beaten down by disease and chemotherapy, Rich isn’t dead yet, and in fact he’s completely fallen for another hospice patient, fifteen-year-old Sylvie. Sylvie is determined that she and Rich will lose their virginity together before they die, and while Rich takes a quick diversion (on an illicit Halloween outing, he’s delighted by oral sex from a mysterious Marie Antoinette) and fears the wrath of Sylvie’s furious father, he’s as eager as she is. Will they manage to take this one last life-affirming step, and how much life do they have left to affirm? Seamon is particularly acute at balancing the average teenage lascivious longings with the running down of the hourglass; there’s some resemblance of the issues and emotional dynamics to Green’s The Fault in Our Stars (BCCB 5/12), while the inevitability of the coming end stage also recalls Downham’s Before I Die (BCCB 10/07). Richie’s paradoxical blend of checked out (he’s pretty much stopped eating) and still here is believable and poignant, and his adoration of willful, indulged Sylvie brings additional dimension. The book takes a strange turn in the final third, however, after Rich’s successful sex with Sylvie leads to bleeding that may kill her; it’s also not clear whether readers are meant to accept as literal Rich’s poker game with Sylvie’s father for more days of life and what change the game actually causes, which muddies and undermines the conclusion. The situation and the ironic vitality of Rich’s narration are still compelling, though, and readers will appreciate the particularly modern take on doomed young romance.