The Ultimate Cure

Sometimes I wonder how some people can still survive after everything they have been through. People go through horrible events like family death, horrific car or plane crashes, a medical disaster and they are still completely alive. Of course, a part of that person dies with whatever experience that occurred, but they make it through without being broken. This is what happens to Mia Pearlman in Margo Rabb’s novel, Cures for Heartbreak. In the book, Mia has just lost her mother to cancer within such a short time; twelve days. It shows how she recovers from the death, to coping with her broken family’s problems, and maybe a few of her own on top of that.

Mia and her mother got along so well. They were very common, unlike her sister who was more like their dad, and went on trips out of New York City to smaller towns to visit friends. They talked and were well-liked by each other. The book tells how she deals with some of the secrets of her mother before she died. Like how she had a secret love before her father, and how she found one of her old boyfriends before everything.  Mia learns that there was a lot she didn’t know about her mother, but that doesn’t make Mia miss her any less.

Mia’s dad was always a quiet man, and he never said much. Not even when Mia’s mother would scream at him to say something, he wouldn’t. But after her death, her father seems different. At first he has a medical emergency of his own just months after his wife’s death. Mia wonders for a while whether she will be an orphan in less than a few months. But her father turns out ok, but stays on an unusual health kick from then on and even gets involved with other people. Including a strange psychic named Sylvia. Mia wonders what he dad is getting into, but she finds out more than she bargained for.

Then, there is Sasha, a very-ill nineteen year old boy in the hospital. He shared a room with her father for a while, and she went to his 19th birthday party, solely because they shared a room. But she bonds with Sasha’s mother, Gigi, who seems too young and lively to be his mother. Mia and her sister, Alex, call him ‘cancer boy’, which seems pretty bad, but Mia actually might have a crush on him. But after he’s out of the hospital, Sasha goes on a trip to Europe, and isn’t back for quite some time. Mia at first thinks he’s dead, but she learns that he isn’t. She’s pretty happy about that.

This is a beautiful, heartbreaking, poignant novel. Everything I love about a story of forgiveness and learning to get through the hard times is in this book, and I loved every minute of it. It makes you want to reevaluate your life and family, and if you do, you’ll find that they aren’t all that bad, just a few flaws. If you think about what you’d do without them, though, you can probably say that you’re glad that you have them, no matter how bad they are to you. Family is a thing you can’t break, and I’m glad that Margo Rabb was able to put that message in such a smart, funny novel.

Cures for Heartbreak by Margo Rabb

RED’S ALL STAR REVIEW: 4/5 stars. It was such a funny, poignant novel; you can’t help but love it.

MASS APPEAL: Girls probably like it more, but it is good for those who have been through this kind of thing.

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