Painless

I enjoyed this one a lot, tough to put down. David's unique condition and struggle really connected with me and I think it will with others, too. Full review this week.

Great book. Love the characters. Great message for all to become independent and to enjoy life.

This book's premise is fascinating! David is a boy who suffers from a disease that makes him impervious to pain. He doesn't feel any physical pain.

What I liked: David is a likable and naive character which is probably realistic given that he never leaves so house. I like how David learns to become more independent and learns to love and help other people.

What I didn't like: There wasn't a great plot to this book and there was an awful lot of bad stuff happening, deaths, terminal illnesses, rejections, failures. I guess I wouldn't suggest reading this if you want to read something light.

I liked the book overall and it was a quick read. I guess I wanted more to happen, but this is definitely a character driven book.

This book made me sad, but in a good way. I found myself not Wanting to put the book down and feeling very emotional regarding the title character. The author really made you feel involved in the struggles and emotional pain he was feeling. Excellent read

Beautiful story of a young man with a rare disease who decides to live the life he has been given to the best of f his ability. He finds who is true friends are, his true family members, and the people who really love him. He learns that he's not the only person who suffers and the world doesn't revolve around him. The novel’s early chapters contain short, choppy sentences that move the plot along quickly. I believe this reflects David’s life: slow, cautious, and planned. However, as David progresses and learns more about himself and others, the sentence structure changes along with him.

Painless – S. A. Harazin Thank you NetGalley for proving me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
David is a teenager, although, not a normal teenager; David cannot feel pain. Without the ability to feel pain, life becomes very dangerous. Not knowing whether somethings wrong, not knowing whether you’ve seriously injured yourself, not being able to regulate temperature efficiently; Davids life is fragile. ‘Painless’ tells the story of Davids adolescent life with this rare genetic disease.
I finished this book fairly quickly, I started it as a bedtime read and had it finished the morning after. It was a very easy read, which I quite enjoyed. Sometime’s it is nice not being mentally challenged by a book and it’s nice to be able to breeze through one. I feel as though the author kind of rushed through it at certain points, the book lacked description and any form of depth.
David, the main character, I actually grew to like. We are given a very simplistic idea of what it is like to live with this rare genetic condition by Davids descriptions of previous injuries. Ultimately making the reader emphasize with David, as the author effectively portrayed the ways in which this held him back from being a ‘normal teenager’. When another character was thrown in to the mix (Luna), I found the story became very predictable, to the point I had the entire story correctly mapped out in my head. This could potentially be due to the fact that I read an awful lot, so it’s something similar to what I’ve read many, many times before; so for a casual reader it is likely to be much more shocking.
The story deals with many issues such as: living with disease, Alzheimers. abandonment, cancer, relationships, death of peers and many more. This is refreshing. It gives the reader an honest and raw insight to the reality and harshness of life. I for one, enjoyed reading about struggles that I’ve been lucky enough not to have to face in life, and it is probably very educational for younger readers that know very little about the reality of the world.
Overall, although a quick and easy read that could have been improved by including much more detail, I enjoyed the book. It served as a reminder that life is precious and you should live it to the full. It left me wanting more, there are many unanswered questions; did David ever find his father? Did Luna survive? Did they get finally get together? Has David managed to go without hurting himself for longer than a couple of hours? I now live in hope that there will be a sequel and these questions will find answers.
★★★

This was a beautiful story of David and his search to find feeling when he is unable to feel. David is unable to feel things but he lives in a world that is driven by both emotional and physical feelings. As David grows older, as does his caretaker. David needs to learn to face the reality of his situations which is one he never thought he would be in due to his life expectancy. A beautiful story about relationships with loved ones and friends. Luna is his new caregiver but she offers something that David didn't expect and watching their relationship shift and change was really quite sweet. David is a great character and intriguing to observe his tough situation. Great book!

Sunday March 29 Painless and Inspiring: New YA from S. A. Harazin By Traci J. Cothran

Have you had your fill of painful coming-of-age books about teens? Then try out Painless by S. A. Harazin, whose main character, David Hart, has a rare medical condition called CIPA (congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis) that doesn't allow him to feel physical pain. If he breaks a bone, he won't even notice it unless he happens to see it sticking out from under his skin. If he lays his hand on a hot surface, he won't notice until he can hear or smell the burn. The downside to his insensitivity and to his body's inability to sweat to regulate his temperature is that, well, this can easily result in an early death.

Despite numerous operations, and having to wear protective gloves, goggles, and a helmet as a young child, David has made it to high school graduation - or its equivalent, as he was home schooled. The not-so-painless part of his story is that both of his parents abandoned him years prior, leaving him in the care of his grandmother. She's been awesome, if a tad overprotective, but lately she's been showing signs of increasing dementia. David's legal guardian - the family lawyer - is considering moving David into an assisted living home (for his own safety, of course).

David wants none of this, and is yearning to live. He wants to be free - to drive a car, date a girl, get a job, have his own apartment, and do all the things regular people do who don't have to constantly take their temperature. So he creates his own bucket list, which includes tracking down his absentee folks.

David's only friends are his personal assistants, first Spencer and now Luna. They're paid to keep an eye on him and to make sure he doesn't hurt himself accidentally, so they're friends - but for a fee. Luna seems to just be passing through, stopping in town on some greater journey, yet she agrees - with some hesitation - to accompany him on his trip to track down his folks. (They'll even tick off an item from her bucket list along the way when they spend the night in sleeping bags on a beach.) The pair will crash David's mother's wedding, and trace his dad to the place he was last seen. As David and Luna get closer to the truth, though, a major hurricane brews and threatens to entrap them.

David's a kid who's been sheltered, quite literally, all his life, and now he's spreading his wings while understanding the risks of doing so. Along the way, he's getting to know himself, but he's also starting to understand others not just as they relate to his life, but who they are on their own. Ultimately his journey is not pain-free, yet I believe he finds it liberating at the end.

Remember that episode in House, M.D. with the girl who can’t feel pain? I remember watching that and thinking, THIS CAN’T BE REAL. (Hey, I was just a little first year at the time.) Google showed me the light, though, and so I learned a pretty important physiological lesson: pain has purpose.

YEAH, SHE HAD A SIX-FOOT TAPEWORM IN HER, IN CASE YOU FORGOT THE GORY DETAILS.

I love reading YA with protagonists that aren’t perfect. Give me protags with OCD, PTSD, porphyria, cerebral palsy, autism… I want to read about all of the people in the world! I was elated when I heard that someone had written a book about CIPA – congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis.

"A first kiss. Falling in love. Going to prom. These are all normal things that most teenagers experience. Except for 17-year-old David Hart. His life is anything but normal and more difficult than most. Because of the disease that wracks his body, David is unable to feel pain. Abandoned by his parents, David now lives with his elderly grandmother who is dying. When David’s legal guardian tells him that he needs to move into an assisted living facility as he cannot live alone, David is determined to prove him wrong. He creates a bucket list, meets a girl with her own wish list, and then sets out to find his parents. All David wants to do is grow old, beat the odds, find love, travel the world, and see something spectacular. And he still wants to find his parents. While he still can. "

Painless by S.A. Harazin is a deliciously easy read. No struggling to understand what is going on and no pseudo-philosophical chit-chat. The writing style reminded me of The Perks of Being a Wallflower in that the main character has a lot of thoughts and internal monologue. And also, he is quite socially inept.

Side-note: don’t you love the cover? I really like it. And it is relevant to the story!

I liked that David’s sole problem was not his CIPA. He is dealing with the decline of his grandmother’s health and mind, feelings of rejection by his parents, having a crush, fighting with friends and lying about having sex. David tries valiantly to prove his independence, and that is something with which readers will surely be able to identify.

My biggest gripe was with Luna. I did not like her and I didn’t like her “secret” – did everyone have to have medical issues? She was manipulative, and that shouldn’t be blamed on her secret.

Although I didn’t find this book to be life-changing, I enjoyed it and can comfortable recommend it to high school readers (and, you know, anybody else that likes YA).

“I’m not a baby, but sometimes I think I’m waiting to be born. The first time, God forgot the neurons.”

You don’t have to know anything about CIPA to enjoy this book, as the author pretty much tells you everything you need to know. However, there was some misinformation as to the rarity of CIPA. It’s rare, but not “seven people in the whole wide world” rare.

Here are some of my favourite CIPA articles, if you want to know more:

1. Assessment of cognitive and adaptive behaviour among individuals with congenital insensitivity to pain and anhidrosis, Erez et.al., Journal of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, June 2010

2. Recurrent fatal necrotizing fasciitis due to Streptococcus Pyogenes in a child with Hereditary Sensory and Autonomic Neuropathy Type IV, Kuzdan et. al., Japanese Journal of Infectious Disease, 2011

3. Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhydrosis: report of a family case, Labib et. al., Pan African Medical Journal, July 2011

4. Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis: a case report of a 33-year-old patient, Kosmidis et. al., Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics B, 2013

I received this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Netgalley.com, to Albert Whitman & Company, and to S.A. Harazin.

I've read through quite a few reviews on this book and I simply cannot understand why many of them are so negative. David Hart cannot feel pain. He has lived his life in a protective environment and lives by a strict set of rules just so that he can survive. As he grows into adulthood, it is finally time to set out on his own. He makes a bucket list and commits to achieving his goals one at a time. Along the way, he makes a few special friends that make it all worthwhile. I loved David's ever changing relationship with Luna. Although she had her own issues to deal with, she truly grew to love him in a special way. Other reviewers thought that the book was lacking in character development but I thought that the author did a wonderful job.

This book was intriguing to me because of the uniqueness of David's disease. While I've heard of this condition, I never thought very deeply about how much it can affect one's life. How odd that David can feel things like wetness but not coldness. Or that he can not feel well while not necessarily feeling pain. It is also odd that something major, like appendicitis, could occur and he would be completely unaware. I left this book hoping that David can continue to beat the odds and live a happy, fulfilling life.

I received this novel from NetGalley.

This novel swept me up and engulfed me from the beginning to end. I love the character progression and that the protagonist has a rare disease, I think rare diseases are often over looked and it was so intresting to learn a little about something new.

As much as I enjoyed the novel for the most part, after I read the final sentence, I was hit with a feeling of, 'did I really enjoy this'? And I think that comes from nothing is really finished at the end, loose ends aren't really tied, their lives just continue. Which is fine, just leaves me wanting that little bit more...