30 Days of BSC | 3: Favorite Regular Series Book

[luxken27]

3.) Favorite regular book:

No surprise that it's a Stacey book, but I suppose this particular one is an odd choice to make my favorite. It's sort of a comfort read, I suppose. But why do I especially like it?

It's well-written, for one. (I even paid homage to it in one of my fics.) And it's funny - I love the scenes were the OG BSC visits Stacey in the hospital and comment on how uber-comfortable the hard plastic chairs are :D But I also like it because it shows what a truly brutal disease diabetes is.

In 99% of the books, Stacey's illness is completely glossed over. Her Chapter 2 description is basically that she's tall and thin and model-pretty, but having this disease means she can't eat sweets and it's made her tough, or more mature than her years. And then it's never mentioned again.

But in this book, we see just how hard it is for Stacey to stick to her diet, and how hard it is when her diabetes gets out of her control. She's hospitalized for two weeks as her doctors try to stabilize her insulin levels and then figure out how to treat it from there on out. At one point, she's on continuous IV. That's some pretty serious shit, yo, enough even for a young reader to comprehend.

It was nice to see Stacey functioning in the hospital, and see that even someone as tough and mature as her has fears, and that it's hard for her to deal with her sniping divorced parents on top of a load of schoolwork on top of being seriously ill. She's at her lowest point, and all the ugliness of it comes out. It's very cathartic. As someone who related to Stacey because of her disease (and who watched her grandfather struggle to control it), I thought this was really well done.

The subplot wasn't the greatest, but it was sweet: Charlotte making herself into a hypochondriac, trying to be sick enough to be in the hospital so that she could see Stacey again and see with her own two eyes that she'd be okay again.

Anyway. I really like the books that focus on Stacey's illness and show that it is chronic and hard to deal with, instead of just an excuse not to eat sweets.


Previous...
1.) Favorite sitter: Stacey McGill
2.) Least favorite sitter: Abby Stevenson

Upcoming...
4.) Least favorite regular book
5.) Favorite mystery
6.) Least favorite mystery
7.) Favorite super special
8.) Least favorite super special
9.) Favorite minor character
10.) Least favorite minor character
11.) Favorite sitting charge
12.) Least favorite sitting charge
13.) Favorite parent
14.) Least favorite parent
15.) Favorite BSC fight
16.) Favorite BSC love interest
17.) Favorite BSC organized event
18.) Favorite vacation spot
19.) Favorite holiday book
20.) Favorite couple in the book
21.) Favorite couple not in the book (as in who you wanted to get together but didn't)
22.) BSC member or minor character you could see yourself being friends with
23.) Favorite Friends Forever
24.) Least favorite Friends Forever
25.) Moments/Scene from the books that sticks out to you the most
26.) Favorite Claudia outfit
27.) Favorite Stacey outfit
28.) One thing you learned from the BSC
29.) Favorite BSC 'villain'
30.) Biggest 'that wouldn't really happen in real life' moment

Comments

[impy]

Man, now I want some fudgey brownies. Curse you, book cover! I think this one came out about the time my grandfather, who was usually very good about not indulging his sweet tooth, started raiding the cookie packages if they were left on the table. Which, as the book shows, is not a great idea.

And now I must awww ♥ at Charlotte because that is adorably sweet and I'd forgotten it.

[luxken27]

They are making fudge on the cover (even better, LOL)! Charlotte and Becca are Martians in their gourmet intergalactic bakery.