Seamon, Hollis. Somebody Up There Hates You. Algonquin Young Readers, 2013.
Richard is a typical teenager - he's snarky, sarcastic, hates having people tell him what to do, and imagines his girlfriend naked approximately once every 2.4 seconds. Oh, and he's dying. Richard is in hospice care, which means he's got less than one month to live. This story follows Richard's antics on the hospice floor where he's spending his last days.
I enjoyed the fact that Richard was pictured as a normal teenager - he played tricks on Halloween, he wanted to clean up before a "date" with his girlfriend, he worried about his mom. I was also glad that the book did not end with Richard's death, which would have been unbelievably depressing, This was just a story of a kid who doesn't want to die but realizes that he probably will soon, and until then he's going to enjoy his life as much as he can.
Recommended for: teens
Red Flags: language, some fairly graphic descriptions of sex between Richard and his hospice girlfriend
Overall Rating: 4/5 stars
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