Rules For 50/50 Chances by Kate McGovern

Rules For 50/50 Chances by Kate McGovern

Release Date: November 24, 2015

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 352

Summary: A heartrending but ultimately uplifting debut novel about learning to accept life's uncertainties; a perfect fit for the current trend in contemporary realistic novels that confront issues about life, death, and love.

Seventeen-year-old Rose Levenson has a decision to make: Does she want to know how she’s going to die? Because when Rose turns eighteen, she can take the test that will tell her if she carries the genetic mutation for Huntington’s disease, the degenerative condition that is slowly killing her mother. With a fifty-fifty shot at inheriting her family’s genetic curse, Rose is skeptical about pursuing anything that presumes she’ll live to be a healthy adult—including going to ballet school and the possibility of falling in love. But when she meets a boy from a similarly flawed genetic pool, and gets an audition for a dance scholarship in California, Rose begins to question her carefully-laid rules.

My Thoughts:  I wasn’t sure what to think as I started Rules for 50/50 Chances but I enjoyed it.

We are introduced to Rose who has been watching her mother deteriorate pretty fast.  Her mother has the early onset of Huntington Disease and it seems to be getting worse over time. Sometimes she’ll seem okay, others not so much. Rose is so scared she also has this gene. She wants to live her life to the fullest but it's hard for her. She wants to go to ballet school and have a successful career.

Rose meets a boy named Caleb. His family also suffers from another genetic curse. Sickle Cell. He knows the heartbreak and trouble of living with people with a genetic disease. I loved Rose and Caleb’s relationship. It started off slow and picked up! I loved the moments with him and seeing them together.

I really felt for Rose. I would want to know too if I carried the gene. It would drive me crazy watching my family deal with things hers did and not knowing.

Rules For 50/50 Chances was a really wonderful debut. The ending. wow. I don’t know if I’d agree with happened but I try to see things from both sides.

Overall: I did enjoy this one. I think at times, I wanted to know how it was going to end right away but I made my way there even though I wanted to skip ahead! HAHA!

Cover:  Like it! I’d probably pick it up! Made me wonder what is about. 

What I'd Give It: