100 Days by Nicole McInnes
A Novel
Title: 100 Days
Author: Nicole McInnes
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers
Publication Year: 2016
ISBN: 9780374302849
Rating: 5 stars
YA sometimes gets a bad rap for being frivolous or not realistic, but this is just the latest of several YA books that devastated me and made me ugly cry and snot all over myself. I have read several frivolous YA books but I have also read several YA books that deal with very hard and deeply emotional topics extremely well, and this is one of those.
Agnes Delaney is a fifteen year old girl with Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome. Progeria is a disease that makes you age at an alarming rate and is fatal. At fifteen, Agnes has had a relatively long life for someone with Progeria. She only has a hundred days left to live, but that’s a fact that only the reader knows. As her sixteenth birthday approaches, she starts to get frustrated with being everyone’s mascot. She is tired of having to accommodate her illness. She is tired of being “fine” and starts to wonder if maybe everyone would be better off without her. Even though she doesn’t know she only has a hundred days left, based on the expected lifespan of someone with Progeria, she knows time is limited. She fears the process of dying not because she is afraid of death but because she is afraid of what that process will do to those she loves.
Moira Watkins is Agnes’s best friend and protector. Agnes is small because of the Progeria and Moira is not. She is tall and she says she’s fat. She has been teased in the past for being fat, but none of the other main characters seem to think she’s fat, so I’m not really sure about that. I think she’s probably just tall and thick. Moira forms a physical shield for Agnes with her body and is always keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t get hurt. Moira lacks self-confidence because of her appearance and the teasing. She changes from a hippie to a Goth in middle school to try to hide behind a tough exterior. Agnes is pretty much the center of her life and Moira can’t imagine who she is or what she will become without Agnes.
Boone Craddock used to be friends with Agnes and Moira in sixth grade. He had a crush on Moira, but then he did something stupid that publicly embarrassed Moira and resulted in Agnes getting hurt and their friendship ended. In the four years between that and the story, Boone’s father got a brain injury which made his normally explosive temper turn into abuse. Since his father died in a separate accident, Boone has been the sole caretaker of his mother who is barely functional. He tries to keep food on the table, get himself through school, and keep his mother’s beloved horse, Diablo, despite increasingly dire financial straits. Boone is teased at school for being stupid. He’s not stupid, but with everything on his plate, academics aren’t his biggest priority. He had previously been in the ACE Program at school where he was able to get more individualized attention for his academic issues and his temper, but the funding for the ACE Program has been cut and so in addition to all of his personal problems, Boone finds himself back in the mainstream school program where he isn’t getting the support he needs.
With 99 days left in Agnes’s life, Moira and Boone get into an altercation in the school cafeteria and Boone threatens the girls. Agnes reports him to the Principal and Boone is sentenced to do community service by doing yard work at Moira’s and Agnes’s houses. This punishment brings them together and slowly their friendship resumes. It is complicated because Boone’s crush on Moira has never abated and Moira is starting to return those feelings, however Agnes is developing a crush on Boone too. Boone and Moira start dating and Agnes finds out before they get a chance to tell her and a big fight ensues. They are able to make up and they take one care-free trip to a local hang out to be “normal” teenagers for once in their lives. Shortly after, Agnes sharply declines and Boone and Moira are left to try to figure out how to pick up the pieces and move forward with their lives in the aftermath of her death.
It is no secret in this book that Agnes is going to die. It’s written on the flap copy and every chapter is headed by whose POV it’s from, how many days are left of Agnes’s life, and the date. So we know it’s coming and we know when it is coming. It isn’t sudden, so you go through this whole book thinking you are going to be prepared, but I found myself unprepared and I still cried through most of the last seven days of Agnes’s life. There was also some animal death earlier in the story that I had a feeling might be coming, but that didn’t make it any easier. I ugly cried during that part too. I think it’s a testament to McInnes’s writing and how lovable the characters are that I was still moved that much despite knowing it was going to happen.
As an adult reading this book, I am worried about Moira and Boone in the future. Boone still feels partially responsible for his father’s death and even though he bears no fault, he still feels immense guilt. Moira on the other hand feels extremely responsible for Agnes’s well being and as soon as Agnes gets sick, feels that it was her fault because of the trio’s last adventure. It is unclear to the reader whether Agnes’s death is ultimately from something that happened on this adventure or if it was just the natural progression of her disease (we do know she wasn’t responding to treatment and that the doctors felt the end was near), but as the characters spend Agnes’s final days with her in the hospital, I’m sure the doctors made some sort of diagnosis to them. Agnes’s mom tells Moira that it is not their fault, and I feel like it really wasn’t. Even if something from their adventure made Agnes ill, she did what she wanted to do without telling Boone and Moira ahead of time. They tried to stop her, but she didn’t listen. Agnes was completely capable of making her own decisions, and that was what ended up happening. However, grief doesn’t usually follow logic and I worry that they will eventually feel responsible and carry that guilt with them.
I loved the amount of growth the three main characters experienced in this book. Agnes takes her life into her own hands and has some of the “normal” kid experiences she has always wanted. When she finds out that the treatment isn’t working, she feels comforted knowing that Boone and Moira now have each other and that they will take care of her mother. She has a new found appreciation for her stepmom, Jamey, and feels that Jamey and their new family will help her dad through the loss. Moira takes a trip to California and realizes that there is a whole big world out there for her. That she can be who she wants to be and she doesn’t have to be defined by her appearance or her childhood bullies. Perhaps most importantly, she learns that it’s great to have a best friend like Agnes, but she is a whole person even without Agnes and can exist outside of just being her protector. She starts to accept that she is beautiful and is worthy of love from people other than Agnes as well. Boone finally opens up to his mother and lets her know how badly he still needs her. That wakes her up enough that she starts taking her medicine again and is slowly starting to resume the role of parent at the close of the book. Boone is able to stop feeling responsible for everything and is able to have a little fun and let loose a little bit.
Despite being a sad book overall, the book ends on a hopeful note. Once I was able to stop crying, I found myself hoping that everything would work out and that Moira, Boone, and Agnes’s family are all able to find solace in her memory not just sadness in her death and that they are able to move forward and live the days left in their lives to the fullest. Reading that back to myself, it sounds and feels a little cliché, but I think cliché is ok sometimes.