Review: Dakota Son by Mary Ramsey

Unshakable faith and determination are sometimes more powerful than any drug – such is the message in Dakota Son, an inspiring work of young adult fiction by Mary Ramsey.

Fifteen-year-old Sean Foster’s gymnastic career is sidelined by a severe infection induced by his cystic fibrosis, which lands him in the hospital. At his side are his mother and devoted sister, Sara, a brilliant science nerd and his best friend. Sara shows up at the hospital one day with a surprise visitor, the lovely Jen Quinto. She and Sean have something in common: Sean is constantly fighting for his life while her beloved older brother had lost his to liver cancer at eighteen. Jen is a constant visitor during Sean’s recovery and the two soon fall in love.

Shortly after leaving the hospital, Sean insists on meeting Jen’s family, but it doesn’t take him long to discover that her family isn’t like most other families – thanks to the barely-concealed hate her parents seem to have for each other – and it’s no secret that Jen had been conceived only to provide a potentially viable liver to her dying brother.

Despite her screwed up family, Sean lives only to be with Jen but things soon come to a head sometime after Sean’s sixteenth birthday when Jen abruptly breaks up with him and moves to Seattle to live with her grandmother, leaving him reeling. Things become even more messed up when Sara is admitted to UCLA on a full scholarship but his mother refuses to let Sean go live with her as planned, insisting that he stay and attend college at home. Suddenly, his whole life spirals dangerously out of control…

Dakota Son is a poignant and realistic look at the immense challenges of chronic illness. From page one, the reader is aware of Sean’s cystic fibrosis and the debilitating toll it takes on his body. The novel also takes a hard look at the challenges of a dysfunctional family, which can be like an illness in itself – unceasing and seemingly incurable.

Ramsey treats her main protagonist’s illness in such a way that it doesn’t foster pity. She has no time for false sentiments, as her narrative is packed with emotion, without being overly emotional. What makes Dakota Son especially gripping is the way in which Sean’s supportive family is juxtaposed against Jen’s dysfunctional one – pain, humiliation, and insults are barely sheathed behind a layer of so-called normalcy.

Ramsey deftly tackles other delicate subjects as well, such as the paranormal, holistic healing, death, and PTSD, managing to combine them with a touching romance, ultimately resulting in an engrossing and believable story. The only uncomfortable moment comes with the intimate relationship between Jen’s father, a wounded veteran suffering from PTSD, and Sean’s sister who administers his antibiotics and then comforts a man in her arms old enough to be her father as he suffers from a PTSD episode.

All in all, Dakota Son is a moving novel about faith, love, determination, and the journey in search of the elusive happily ever after, which is sure to have wide appeal.