Book Review: God is in the Pancakes by Robin Epstein

 
God is in the Pancakes by Robin Epstein

Publisher: Dial

Publish Date: May 13, 2010

Hardcover, 272 pages
Young Adult

My Review:
Why I read this: The title was very intriguing as well as the write-up about what the book was about.  It seemed more serious than a lot of books I've been reading lately and I wanted to read it.


How is the novel driven:  Character.  This is about Grace and decisions she has to make and how she learns more about life as a 15-year-old.


My thoughts: I really enjoyed this book.  Ms. Epstein took an interesting premise and way able to pull off centering the book around that premise while adding more layers and not becoming confusing.  Grace is a wonderful 15-year-old and she's a typical 15-year-old.  She's trying to figure herself out and when Mr. Sands asks her to help him die, she really goes through a thought process on whether to do it.  The book is thought-provoking.  Grace doesn't simply have this problem, she has others as well.  She meets Mrs. Sands and likes her as well and then there is her own personal life.

The book is amazing, it's uplifting and it deals with the serious subject of watching a loved one with a debilitating disease suffer and change.  This is heady stuff and Ms. Epstein handles it in a marvelous way.  The novel never really becomes depressing as it could dealing with this subject.  There is appropriate humor throughout the book that helps with the seriousness of the subject-matter.  Through the whole book Grace amazed me, I love her character and I really enjoyed this book.


In the end I liked it because I didn't feel like Ms. Epstein as an author was trying to shove an agenda down the readers throats.  It's not like that at all, she's just writing a story dealing with a somewhat controversial subject but in the end she leaves the decision of what is truly right and wrong up to you.  She doesn't deliver a definite statement, but presents facts and feelings through the book that work through this.  I loved it, it's marvelous and a great book for teens and adults as well to read.

My Rating: 4.75/5.0

About the Book:
Fifteen-year-old Grace Manning is a candy striper in a nursing home, and Mr. Sands is the one patient who makes the job bearable. He keeps up with her sarcasm, teaches her to play poker . . . and one day cheerfully asks her to help him die. At first Grace says no way, but as Mr. Sands’s disease progresses, she’s not so sure. Grace tries to avoid the wrenching decision by praying for a miracle, stuffing herself with pancakes, and running away from all feelings, including the new ones she has for her best friend Eric. But Mr. Sands is getting worse, and she can’t avoid him forever.

Robin Epstein has delivered an incredibly engaging, thought-provoking debut YA novel, with all the snappy dialogue and attitude of the movie Juno.

About the Author:
Robin Epstein is a former sitcom writer who lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Her Website



FTC Information: I received this book through 1-ARC Tours for review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.