Needles by Andie Dominick

The book Needles by Andie Dominick was about a young girl named Andie. The book starts with her as a young girl, living with her loving mom and dad, and her older sister Denise. Her family is pretty ordinary, except for one thing. Her sister Denise is living with Diabetes. Andie always watches Denise giver herself her insulin injections, and longs for it to be her giving herself her own injections. Soon, her dreams come true, and Andie is faced with living with diabetes. The book follows Andie through elementary school, high school, college, and her adult life. Soon Andie moves in with Denise, since both of them lived alone. Then, there comes the day that Andie will never forget. After going on vacation for 3 days, Andie returns home and is faced with the image of her dead sister lying on her bed. What does she do after this tragedy? I guess you’ll have to read to find out!

Some of the themes that stood out in my mind as I read this book were “Be careful for what you wish for”, “Never take family and friends for granted” and “See the people, not only their disability.” The setting was pretty present, and was in the 1900’s. It switched from the hospital, then to Andie’s house, and then back again. The moods were up and down, but unfortunately they were down most of the time. Living with the disease, Andie doubted her life frequently, and had suicidal thoughts off and on. Dreary, negative, and depressing were some of the moods, but there was hope sometimes, and sometimes Andie had a good outlook on life.

Some of the reasons that I enjoyed this book were what I learned from it, and the new outlook it gave me on life. There was so much about diabetes that I had never known about. I learned how hard it was for someone living with diabetes, the things they couldn’t eat, the activities they couldn’t participate in, and the severe complications that came with the disease. Eye complications and low chances of healthy pregnancies are two examples that Andie had to face in her life. Like I mentioned before, I really did learn to appreciate my health so much more. Every time I have to go to the doctor to get a vaccine, I’m terrified. I absolutely hate the sight of needles, and the cotton swab with alcohol. I couldn’t even imagine giving my self a shot every single day of my entire life. I became so much more grateful for my health by reading this book. I also enjoyed the memories that the author put into this book. She describes her experiences with vivid detail, and there was never a moment in the book where I put it down because I was getting bored. The length of the book was good, and it didn’t drag on like some of the other non-fiction books I’ve read before.

There weren’t many things I disliked about this book, but there was one I thought of. Sometimes Dominick skipped different time periods in her life. One minute she was in elementary school, and then it seemed like she got bumped up to high school. She would go at a different rate, and seemed to only write about the important parts. I wished she would have at least written a little bit about each time period she experienced. Overall though, I enjoyed this book immensely, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good non-fiction!

-Sonia