Been thinking about this lately, and decided to revise my score down from 5*. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got at the book.I'd have to re-read it to write an in-depth review, but here's a quick and dirty list of why I changed my rating.1. It's an extremely negative treatment of disability. I originally loved the book so much because of Adam. He was more familiar to me than any other disabled character I've run across, and I loved seeing my own experiences and frustrations voiced by someone else. Unfortunately, the more I thought about it, the more I hated how he was treated by the story. Here's the most realistic disabled character I've seen, and he really is just a cheap plot vehicle there to make Sadie seem tragic. All these things he does that made me like him so much - asking for a divorce, yelling at the nurse, needling Sadie - weren't meant to show the depth of his character or a man resisting dehumanization by a million cuts, they were meant to make me feel bad that Sadie was stuck married to him.2. Fuck Sadie. Seriously. Fuck that cheating, self-centered, self-pitying, patronizing bitch. She treats her husband like a burdensome patient then is not only surprised when he wants a divorce, she's offended by how ungrateful he is of how much she's done for him. What a prize.3. Hart forgot to write a character arc for Sadie. Even though I hate the bitch, I might've enjoyed the story if she grew as a person. If Hart challenged, rather than reinforced, society's negative biases towards disability, this would've been an amazing read. But Sadie never faces her flaws. She doesn't learn anything from her actions. In fact, I have to assume that the book doesn't think she's flawed at all. "Of course she resents her burdensome husband, who wouldn't. Here. Have this able bodied husband replacement. You've earned it." It's all really too ableist for words.4. She kills Adam off rather than has them divorce. I guess this was supposed to make me feel bad for Sadie. What it actually did was dehumanize Adam even further. Adam was there just to make Sadie look like a victim, and Joe was her reward for being a trooper. Fuck Sadie.Honestly, this is an ableist abomination. It's sad that everyone seems to think Sadie's the victim in this story. She's the embodiment of every negative stereotype there is of disability. That's what makes this a depressing book.Only thing giving this more than one star is Adam. I still love him.
