Amy and Matthew (or Say What You Will) by Cammie McGovern

Published: March 27th, 2014
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 322
Format: Paperback
Rating: ♥♥♥

Amy loves Matthew and he loves her back. This is their story.

Amy is unflinchingly honest about her limitations. Born with cerebral palsy, she can’t walk or talk without help. But trapped inside this uncooperative body lies a brilliant mind and a luminous spirit – a girl capable of truly loving and worthy of being loved in return.

Matthew has his own set of challenges – a mind consumed by unwanted repeated thoughts, obsessive rituals and a crippling fear that he can't explain. But underneath all of the anxiety lies a deep seed of hope for someone to come along who believes in him…

This is the story of Amy and Matthew. It may not be a fairy tale romance or set in an imagined world far from our own. But the love they share is real. And yes, there's magic in it.


My thoughts on it: 
I thought this book was incredibly interesting and also quite cute. I found it interesting to read about someone with CP (cerebral palsy), and I think that this could help a lot of people with understanding what it must be like to be disabled. I liked Amy as a character, and Matthew as well, because despite their faults they fit together perfectly, and were just really cute. I also enjoyed that they ended up helping each other, Matthew helped Amy realize how she had lived a sheltered life for a long time, while Amy helped Matthew with taking steps to overcome/learn to live with his OCD.

However, although there were many positives about this book I ended up giving it a 3 heart rating because I found that the plot was at times slow, and the characters could at times be quite annoying, which in some ways made them more real, because no one is perfect, but I could't ignore those points, hence the lower rating, although I did enjoy it.

I would recommend you read this book, especially if you want a different kind of love story, it is very cute at times, and I think it could be eye opening to a lot of people, in that it handles both physical disability and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). 

Love, H♥