A young adult novel about the freedom to make adult decisions
Blazing Reader,
Novels about the inner lives of teenage girls? They've never been on my reading list.
But I decided to branch out with my most recent read of Breathing With Trees by Donna Costa (whom I met through the Alliance of Independent Authors). Like me, Costa writes character-driven stories challenging mainstream medicine.
In her 290-page novel, a teenage girl named Lucy is deciding whether or not to get the HPV vaccine — as she faces the onset of puberty, dates her first boyfriend, connects with Mother Nature and tries to unravel the mystery behind her absent father.
The story has enough layers and moving parts that it kept me flipping pages, finding myself more engaged with each chapter, wondering what choices and repercussions Lucy would face next.
In particular, Costa did an excellent job, through narrative and characters, showing the many sides of the vaccine debate. In particular, Lucy’s science teacher, Mr. Munro, challenged the HPV propaganda video played for the students by saying:
“This video lists the pros and cons of the vaccine, but there is data that did not get mentioned in the cutesy video. You and your parents are expected to make a decision about getting the vaccine. It’s called informed consent. If you’re not fully informed or if you don’t have all the data, can a scientific mind make a decision with only some data?”
The seriousness of HPV theme is countered by the amusing and quasi-ritualistic dietary and lifestyle choices of Lucy’s mother and grandmother — including their morning shot of cod liver oil. Lucy enjoys the nutrient-dense Westen A. Price menu — finding even pasteurized fruit juice repulsive — but struggles to fit in with her peers.
She actually sees getting a vaccine as an act of rebellion against her mother and a way to prove to the kids she's really one of them.
“I thought growing up was about having freedom… to stay out late, to get a real tattoo, a piercing, go to a bar,” Lucy laments. “But growing up was about freedom of choice. To make decisions. Adult decisions. It didn’t feel as free as I expected.”
This is a coming-of-age story for teenage girls navigating the minefield of modern medical propaganda, junk food commercials and a society better connected to the internet than nature. You can find out more about Breathing With Trees, or purchase a copy, through my Blazing Book Shop.
—John C.A. Manley
John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.
