I think I missed the part about cancer when I picked this one. Unfortunately, I just. can't get into it. Definitely not for me.

Fear of Missing Out did not hold my interest at all early in the beginning and I never returned to it to try to finish again. Thank you for the chance to read and review. I am sure others will like it more than I did still.

Fear of Missing Out by Kate McGovern is a fast-paced read that will pull you in and keep you turning pages as fast as you can read them! The characters are real and relatable with a setting that is sure to take you away to another place.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing for the advance Kindle copy of this book. It is out TOMORROW! All opinions are my own.
•
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for this one. Astrid has beaten cancer once, but when her tumor comes back, the science-loving sixteen-year-old has had enough of hospitals, needles, and pain. Her mother pushes her to apply for a clinical trial, but after meeting a scientist who works in cryopreservation, Astrid wants to learn more about that route. With rich characters and complex moral questions, this book will certainly engage readers. I flew through it. Recommended for grades 9+.

This book is both hard and easy to read. Easy because Astrid has a great voice. Not distinctive, but relatable. Hard because the book is about, well, a serious illness. Talks of cancer and death are very front and center, and the people around Astrid have visceral and honest reactions. Some which are frustrating but only because they are so real. I flip flop from wanting to shake certain characters to thinking "OK, I get it, but you should've just sat there and ate your food instead of saying/doing some mess like that."

The book is hard to put down and will haunt you as well as hurt your heart. But it's beautiful.

This is a very emotional contemporary story that reminded me of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Astrid faces many challenging decisions as well as the opinions of her family members regarding her choices for treatment. I would absolutely recommend this to high school readers.

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Astrid was lucky. She beat cancer once, but it appeared that cancer wasn't done with her, and this time, fighting back seemed futile.

• Pro: I instantly fell in love with each and every one of these characters. Astrid was a no brainer, but I also adored Mohit, her mom, and her little brother. I wanted to group hug with them, because I had just met Astrid and couldn't bear to lose her.

• Pro: No sugarcoating, this book got tough towards the end. I am actually crying right now, but no worries, it was not all sad, downer stuff, because this story was filled with so much love, and Wow! What a testament about the life Astrid lived, that she was surrounded by so many people, who love her that much.

• Pro: The right to die is quite a touchy subject, and I really appreciated the way McGovern handled it. The approach was honest, emotional, and thought provoking.

• Pro: My heart broke over and over again for Astrid, and I hated that she was in this situation, but I admired her strength and her openness with her loved ones, and her determination to decide how she would spend her final days.

• Pro: I remember thinking, how lucky Astrid was to have experienced something as wonderful as her relationship with Mohit. Their love and affection for each other was a beautiful thing, and I was glad we had that, as well as her friendship with Chloe, because it helped me get through the really sad parts.

• Pro: McGovern didn't only let us view Astrid's pain and grief. We also got to see how her illness affected all those around her, and how they handled it.

Overall: An emotional, beautiful, and thoughtful story about one girl's struggle with terminal illness, and the choices she was faced with.

ALL THE STARS!! Your going to need a box of tissues for The Fear of Missing Out
Title: Fear of Missing Out
Author: Kate McGovern
Publication Date: March 19th

Synopsis: In The Fear of Missing Out, Astrid, a sixteen year-old girl, has a recurrence of brain cancer. Astrid, along with her boyfriend, Mohit, and best friend, Chloe, travel the U.S. in search of options for Astrid’s life. As Astrid learns options for her death, her family and friends must learn to selflessly allow her to make choices.


Opinion: Be prepared for the globus sensation! In fact, I’m currently writing this with a lump in my throat! I enjoyed this book and the range of emotions that came about. This novel heart wrenchingly encapsulates the realities of friendships and family in the harrowing situation of dealing with a terminal disease. Astrid is an amazing young lady dealing with the cruelness of cancer. There were times when I was so upset with Mohit and Chloe, but I had to remind myself that the characters were teenagers dealing with an incredible difficult situation. I empathized with the mother to an almost unbearable degree. Like, I had to but the book down at times because it was so emotionally difficult to continue. This book would be an ideal choice for a YA book club with powerful discussion forthcoming.

Rating 10/10...yes, really THAT GOOD!!

If you love books with strong female friendships, supportive friendships, caring boyfriends and boyfriends who play sax, then this is the book for you! It will make you cry, it will make you wonder, wonder what would you do. "Should I stay or should I go?" kind of choices. This is a book for fans of The Fault in our stars and I am sure that everyone will love it!

Ooof. This book was hard. It hurt and it was beautiful.

I loved Astrid and how complicated she was and how she wasn't interested in pleasing others. I love that she has this team around her that loves her and supports her, but they're also selfish, so it gets complicated. I loved this story and how it unfolded and I only wish it was a little longer, so certain aspects had a little more time to play out.

At it's heart, this is a story about living by our own terms, making our own choices, and doing what's best for us before anyone else, because nobody else knows exactly what you're going through. That's a reminder I think we all need, even if we aren't dying.

Astrid is dying. Her astrocytoma has returned after a period of remission, and this time she knows her time is drawing to an end. This novel is beautifully and thoughtfully written, exploring the different options available to her, and the reactions of her family and friends to the choices she makes over the ones they want her to make. In the author’s note, Kate McGovern writes that she became a mother during the writing of this story, and it shows, with inflections and insight that make the emotions visceral for the reader. McGovern could perhaps have delved a little more deeply into Astrid’s rationale for and against certain options, and the ending bypasses this to a small extent, but that is a small quibble with an otherwise outstanding novel intended for young adults, but that is perfectly accessible to all readers. – Megan Osmond

This review appears in Romantic Intentions Quarterly #4.

Astrid's story is relevant and timely in a world where people face cancer in many different forms. I really enjoyed this story and the way the author handles the tough choices that need to be made. Full of emotion and a heartbreaking moments. This one left me in tears and thinking about it long after the story ended. Thank you netgalley for an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Wow...this book is reminds me of old school Lurlene McDaniels. I was sobbing at the end. This is such a tender topic for our students. Many of them have someone sick in their lives and this book might help them connect with the decisions that are made.

https://bibwithblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/first-and-foremost-huge-thanks-to.html?m=1



First and foremost, a huge thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this breathtaking novel.

Warning: this book is not for the faint of heart. As a mom, certain parts of this book broke my heart and took me to dark places I really didn’t want to think about. I cried while my husband grabbed my Starbucks. I cried on the way back from Target. It really got inside my heart and made me feel more than I wanted to feel.

The premise of the book was such that I knew there’d be very little chance of mediocrity with this book: it would either be insightful and lovely or stupid and ridiculous. Luckily, I found it more the former than the latter.

There were things I didn’t like: I thought Astrid’s boyfriend was a bit terrible, going back and forth between controlling and selfish. Actually, you know what? That’s the only thing.

One thing I don’t tend to focus on tons that really stood out to me on Kate McGovern’s Fear of Missing Out was pacing. I liked the way things built in intensity and then slowed down as we waited at the end. I liked how McGovern wasn’t scared to steer the text away from our expectations as she reached the end. I miss won’t go into that more because there’s no way to really explore what I’m saying without giving spoilers and it’s not exactly what you’d call a plot twist, but things definitely don’t end the way you expect they will. The book, to some extent, reads in a way that has you believing there are two possibilities for the ending and the actual ending was a third option.

None of this would work without Astrid. I really liked Astrid and I don’t mean liked her as in thought she was cool and would like to be friends with her. I mean she was a really great character. Her voice felt so authentic; she had the snark of a witty, bright girl, but without that unrealistic precocious tone that some writers give their teens. The perfect mix of bright, but also deliciously imperfect. Stubborn and impetuous, she’s the perfect girl for what feels more like a Bildungsroman than just another YA cancer story.

This is a beautiful read that will stay with me for a long while. Read it.