Publisher's Synopsis
Written by a renowned children's cancer specialist, Blood Work is a fictional but true-to-life-account of just such a near-fatal illness. It is also a life-and-death adventure and a coming-of-age romance. The story tells of sixteen-year-old Moraig ("Raig") Broussard's journey through the trauma of cancer and its treatment. It opens as Raig wakes up in a hospital room, utterly unaware of how she came to be there. Events of the past weeks unfold like a high-speed movie: how she'd lost her head to school football star, Hilton Sears, had come close to losing her virginity, had ended up in a downtown dance hall with a false ID, drunk several Margaritas in quick succession, blacked out and had to be ambulanced to the local Emergency Room, close to death from blood poisoning arising from an infected belly stud. Oncologist Maddie Sullivan lays out the stark reality to her-leukemia is immediately threatening her life. Raig is hurtled into the maelstrom of cancer therapy, an odyssey from which she emerges physically and emotionally scarred and embittered towards the world. Cut off from her friends and totally rejecting her parents' efforts at support, she draws comfort from Maddie's loving care-herself a life-long sufferer from spina bifida. But nothing appeases Raig's despair at losing her blond curls and eye-catching figure, while developing rolls of fat and colonies of zits. At this lowest-of-low points, a high-school friend texts her that her football star beau Hilton has been busted for selling drugs. She at once rejects all further cancer treatment. Her parents' shaky marriage is rocked by their daughter's rebellion, coupled with their own helplessness. Freed from the hospital's torments, Raig sets out to recapture her physical and mental toughness, only to suffer a major head injury in a bike accident. Back in Intensive Care, blood is pressing down on her brain-and her leukemia has recurred in full force. During emergency surgery she undergoes a near-death experience, during which she talks to her dead grandfather. He reignites her will to live, and in her twilight state she agrees to further cancer therapy. An ally appears: Rap, a high-school senior and hospital volunteer, who introduces her to the healing benefits of the drum and the paintbrush. As Raig fights her way through her ordeal, and as her feelings for Rap deepen, she helps her parents draw close once more. The story closes as Raig, now eighteen and newly finished her chemotherapy, ponders the uncertainties of the future: Will her parents stay together? What of Rap and herself? Most of all-will she stay cancer-free, build a career, and live to raise children of her own? As she speeds her bike towards younger brother Ewan's ice hockey game, these questions give way before a newfound resilience and lust for life. Renowned author Sheldon Currie says of Blood Work: "A beautifully written story that will capture the hearts and imagination of all its readers." Fourteen-year-old Ispeeta Ahmed writes: "This phenomenal book perfectly depicts the life-and-death battle of a teen with cancer, including humour, a beautiful romance, and even elements of fantasy." An entertaining and educational read for not only teens but adults, too -- more than 50% of whom read YA novels!
