Customer Reviews

Deadline

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

About once a year I find a book that makes me cry at the beginning and again at the end and changes my life somewhere in between. Last year that book was Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the year before it was Louis Sachar's Small Steps, and the year before that it was Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Sisterhood of Traveling Pants, Book 1) by Ann Brashares. But now, at the tale end of this year, I can tell you that Deadline has changed the way I look at life, given me hope for the future and made me a better person, all within 316 pages.

If the cover of the book doesn't get you hooked--a sky so vividly blue it makes your heart ache and type placement that makes you wonder if you holding the book upside-down--the story will turn your life upside-down. And that's no joke.

Ben Wolf knows exactly what he wants from life. He wants to join the football team despite his miniscule size. He wants to teach his civics teacher a lesson in acceptance. He wants to clean up the town drunk, get the girl of his dreams to see past his size, heal his mother's manic depression, all in the year he has left after being diagnosed with a terminal, aggressive blood disease. And he wants to keep it all to himself.

What Ben doesn't know is what he wants for himself. He has spent eighteen years holding everyone around him together, so now he doesn't know how to hold himself together.

This is a beautifully written story with full characters and imagery that will transport you to the tiny town of Trout, Idaho. I know it sounds sappy, but it really did touch my heart. Chris Crutcher is a master at bringing humanity to the written word.

When I first read about this book, the premise seemed like a sure winner. A kid has a year to live, and decides not to tell anybody. How does he come to terms with death and pack in as much life as possible in the short time remaining?

As I was reading, however, the premise was the thinnest, least believeable part of the book. Compared to Chris Crutcher's real strength-- making you care about the characters and their relationships as they deal with pain and the horrible things that happen in life-- it seemed a touch gimmicky, getting in the way of the real, gritty stuff that was happening.

The main character's medical problems as illness caught up with him, the reactions of the people around him-- they just weren't quite real, they were glossed over a little.

That said, there were other things in this book that made me go, yeah, that's exactly how it is. Some of them were things you don't see in a lot of books.

I loved how Crutcher showed that situation where you're keeping a secret, and maybe you think it's too soon to tell someone, and then the relationship progresses and suddenly it feels too LATE to tell them and it's a big mess. That was pitch-perfect.

I loved how the main character felt like a real teenager in his not-quite-realistic thinking about death, a little romanticized and theoretical and yet not afraid to tackle the big questions like religion and meaning head-on. The way he attached near-ultimate importance to a football game was a perfect match for how he took the idea of death in stride. The way his anti-racism town project was a little off-kilter and doomed to failure, but still so much more right than the attitudes he was fighting against. Everything had the out-of-scale intense emotion of being a teenager.

I liked how people made mistakes and there was no way to really fix them, no symbolic literary redemption whatever, just moving forward and doing the best they could.

Definitely read this if you've liked Chris Crutcher's other books--for the football, the small-town dynamics, the romances and family relationships. If you want more focus on what it's like to die young, you might also like Paige Dixon's "May I Cross Your Golden River?" or the brand-new "Before I Die" by Jenny Downham.

This is classic Chris Crutcher with all of his signature trademarks -- sports, therapy, social issues, sexual issues, coming of age, and, of course, profanity. DEADLINE even picks up a strand from one of his first works, RUNNING LOOSE. Lou Banks, the teenage protagonist of that work, is now the football coach of Trout (Idaho) High School, home of this work's protagonist, 18-year-old Ben Wolf.

The wrinkle here is a death foretold. Right out of the gate in the opening pages, young Ben hears from his doctor that he has a terminal disease with one year to live. He decides a) not to take treatment for it so he can live his remaining days without radiation and chemo-related sicknesses, and b) not to tell anyone, family included. Crutcher makes him 18 -- older than your average YA hero -- so he can pull this off with the story remaining believable.

OK, so you have a year to live. What to do? If you're a short, wirey runner like Ben Wolf, you ditch track to go out for football and train like no tomorrow. And you try to win the heart of one of the school's toughest beauties, volleyball star Dallas Suzuki. You also treat yourself to dreams where you meet and have deep talks with a guy named "Hey-soos" (yes, a Spanish-sounding rendition of a guy we know from a Testament we know).

Add to the mix football action scenes, an alchoholic ex-priest with a secret, a teenaged mother with a secret, and a running, nothing-to-lose battle of wits with a pig-headed history teacher, and you get the type of book Crutcher fans look forward to. Oddly, some teenaged readers, when offered Crutcher fare, tend to find it too cerebral or "dated" in a sense. For instance, this book includes Ben's quixotic quest to get a street in his town named after Malcolm X as well as jokes about Patty Hearst -- the type of names Baby Boomers like Crutcher himself can relate to, but Gen X and Y readers might have no clue about.

Not a big deal when you consider the emotional punch built into the end, of course. We see this one coming (as does Ben), but it still takes us by surprise. Death, as a character, is like that. For that matter, Death in real Life (if you'll forgive the oxymoron) is like that, too. Recommended for Crutcher fans, adults who like YA books, and thoughtful kids who don't need plot alone to sustain them through a book, DEADLINE is a great exercise in living each day like it might be your last.

"Put your own oxygen mask on before you try to help anyone else. Life is your practice field. The state playoffs are inside you."
I love the way Crutcher seeps deep inside your head and makes you think. Ben is a great character. He is "normal" but beyond this years in the way he sees things in his shortened life. It makes you wonder if it wouldn't be better to know of your impending death.
The way Ben challenges his teacher is any "great teachers" dream of a great student. I teach, I would love the passion Ben has to question what he is learning.
Don't pass up this book! If I could give it more than 5 stars, I'd double it.

I've read all of Crutcher's books and this one ranks way up there with "Running Loose", which I consider his best. You'll love the main character - Ben Wolf - as he lives out the last year of his life. Though this is young adult - like always there are plenty of adult situations which will make you think.
Wolf goes through it all his final year - athletic stardom, love and pain and life and death.
This one will stay with you long after you've read the final page.

I am a middle school teacher and read this book over the holiday break. I really enjoyed it but would recommend it for high school-aged readers. There is some cursing and references to sex, which I'm not saying is bad. As a teacher, I just know I'd have some unhappy parents to deal with if I assigned this to my 6th graders (although they would have really enjoyed the story). Great themes of loyalty, friendship, and courage.

This is a completely engrossing read. The premise is straight forward enough, but this is Chris Crutcher, so there are interesting characters, sports, coaches, a believable teen romance. And, as usual, Crutcher provokes thought on difficult issues. What IS the best way to live? What lies should you tell, if any? How WOULD you live if you only had a year left? Can one person make a difference? Whose oxygen mask goes on first?

I read this right after reading Downham's "Before I Die", and the contrast was fascinating. Same basic premise: a teen living with a terminal illness. As much as I liked the intensity of Downham's realistic drama, I like Crutcher's more, because "Deadline" is supremely joyous.

As a teacher, I know that some students who don't read much will need a hand navigating the first 100 pages, as Ben Wolf takes a while to get to know. Still, there are some serious twists and more than a few moments to choke up over which offer plenty of payoff for the faithful. And yes, the people who object to Crutcher's other works will probably find this one equally offensive for all the usual reasons: sex is mentioned, religion is discussed, politics are argued. And those are some more reasons to savor this fine book.

I think young adults and teens will enjoy this book about 18-year-old Ben's last year. During a routine sports physical, Ben finds out that he has a terminal illness and that, with or without aggressive medical intervention, he has about a year left to live. It's his senior year in high school and he decides not to tell anyone about the diagnosis and to forgo treatment. He has a few goals in mind, primarily to play football with his beloved brother and to get a date with his crush, the gorgeous volleyball player Dallas Suzuki.
Things don't go quite as he planned, but he does manage to cram a lot of life into the few months he has. The main part of the book centers on his interactions with his family, Dallas Suzuki, his friends, team members and other residents of the small town where he lives. Definitely the author crams a lot of discussion worthy themes into this novel including such topics as sexual molestation, abuse, racism, mental illness, and teen pregnancy. Ben's actual disease is never really identified nor is it the central subject of the book. The main premise of the book seems to be about relationships and not keeping secrets. There's a lot of semi-religious overtone, and at times, the discussion about Malcolm X seems to go on for far too long as do the descriptions of the football games and the American History classes.
All in all, a very enjoyable read. Recommend.

This book made me remember why I love Chris Crutcher's novels so much.

Ben is about to start his senior year in high school, and he has some big plans to get himself ready for college and to have a great cross-country season. Everything changes when he sees his doctor for his annual physical.

Ben has a disease that will kill him. It will likely kill him within a year, although he might have a little more time with treatment. Ben decides he will not have any treatment and, furthermore, he will not tell anyone about this disease. He doesn't want to have any of the hassle he associates with being the kid who is dying.

With only a year left to do everything he's ever dreamed, Ben starts by scrapping cross-country and going out for the football team, instead. His younger brother is a superstar but the fear of acquiring a life-long injury has kept Ben from playing. No more! He pursues the most beautiful girl he knows, and is surprised when she is so quick to let him into her life. He makes a nuisance of himself in classes, free from the worry of not graduating.

As Ben attempts to live his dreams, though, he comes to realize that not telling those he loves about his illness is eating away at him. But now that he's kept the secret for so long, how can he come clean?

This was a great story, with fascinating characters. Both the heroes and villains are well rounded, and Ben's struggle over whether to tell the truth is heartbreaking.

If you have ever read the book A Walk to Remember, or even watched the movie, then you know the feeling that you get when you find out that your favorite character is dying. Intense sadness; anger; desire for change; hope that it's not true; and then finally, you just give up. You know it's true, but in the end it doesn't make it any more bearable.

In Deadline, you know from the very beginning that Ben Wolf is going to die. It is inevitable... even on the front cover it says it. The evidence is everywhere. But, since it's introduced so early in the story, you don't really think about it as more than a plot point.

So, what would you do if you were going to die? Well, I'm sure there are different answers for different people, but I know Ben's answers. He wants to make a difference. He wants to stick out. He wants to live life to the fullest; and he does. He goes out for football, despite the fact that he weighs less than a hundred and thirty pounds. He befriends the town drunk. He starts arguments in class, trying to get people to think about life and the way things are. And he finally gets the guts to ask out that perfect girl he's had a crush on.

And throughout all of this, he is the only person (besides his doctor and his therapist) who knows that he's dying. But obviously he can't keep it that way.

This book was truly amazing. It's a real page turner, from the very first sentence. Chris Crutcher isn't one to waste words; he doesn't write anything that doesn't mean something to the story, so this book isn't full of pointless banter. It has feeling. It has meaning. I can truly connect to the characters in a deep way. I felt like there was just the right amount of sarcastic humor and life messages to make this a really enjoyable book; you will laugh, you will cry... and you will also fall in love with this book.