Life Happens Next (review)

Readers of Stuck in Neutral (BCCB 6/00) will recall its protagonist, fourteen-year-old Shawn McDaniel, whose cerebral palsy renders him completely incapable of voluntary movement or communication, and whose father almost killed him in a presumed act of mercy. Though still shaken by that event, Shawn is more concerned with two other developments: his crush on his younger sister's best friend; and the arrival of his forty-something cousin, Debi, who has Down syndrome. Initially, Debi finds Shawn a puzzle, and her beloved dog, Rusty, is hostile to him, but soon it appears that Debi and Rusty see Shawn more deeply than anyone else. Shawn's situation remains absorbing, and his doomed romantic interest will elicit sympathy from many readers who feel just as invisible as Shawn to the objects of their yearning. The fact that it's Debi and not the lovely Ally who achieves a connection with Shawn is nicely underplayed, and the book is direct and compelling about the meaning of such recognition to Shawn. The notion that Debi observes more about Shawn than his deeply devoted family is implausible, however, and the spiritual aspect of their relationship—with Debi appearing to him whole and able during his seizure-induced altered mental states—is superfluous to his more interesting conscious reexamination of his perceptions about and valuing of other people. There's still plenty to discuss here, though, and those struck by the first book will want to follow this new chapter in Shawn's life.