Both Sides Review

Imagine if you were in a tragic accident – unable to move or speak but otherwise cognizant of everything around you. Imagine hearing doctors deciding your fate without you having a voice in the outcome.

Alex is a 16-year-old girl who finds herself in that exact situation in Both Sides, a novel that begins when – while on a class field trip – Alex and another girl, Sandra, end up in a horrible accident.

If the doctors act quickly, they may be able to save one body…and one brain. Amid the confusion and uncertainty, we hear everything that’s going on in Alex’s mind – from her initial disbelief to her quips about the absurdity of it all to her realization that she may have to go through the rest of her life living in the body of a girl she couldn’t stand. If she survives.

Both Sides tackles these issues and more. Within its pages every reader will find her own answers and discover, in the end, a story of courage and a girl who never before existed.

Award-winning author Paul E. Stawski captures the minute-by-minute struggles of a 16-year-old girl whose world is suddenly turned upside down in Both Sides. Radical brain surgery is the only option. Time is running out and Alex’s mind is racing: will she still be the same person when she comes out on the other side?

My Review

The plot to this book alone is intriguing in itself. For something so powerful I feel the author did a wonderful job. I love how the author portrays the teenagers as exactly that, teenagers. Alex is not the "lovey dovey" type. She is at the age where she just wants to be treated like an adult. She loves her parents but they should just know that already without her having to say anything. Her best friend can be both a convenience and inconvenience depending on who is around. Alex is just a typical teenager. I found myself wanting to tell her about herself many times.

I personally identified more with Sandra. So naturally I wished there was more written about her. It had to be extremely hard for Sandra's mother to look and her daughter's body and know it's not really her or is it? The moment when Alex cried but didn't want to,had me wondering if Sandra's body was functioning on it's own.

Both Sides is a great book and I can barely wait to read the second book and find out what life will be like for Alex and Sandra. Who's in control, Alex or Sandra? Will the law change their mind and consider Alex/Sandra a living person? Will Alex/Sandra get to stay with Alex's parents or will Sandra's parents fight for custody?

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About the Author
Paul E. Stawski won the Highlights for Children fiction contest for his short story, Code Red, a science-fiction story about a little girl who has to make a very grown-up decision. As a child, Paul was the subject of Newbery-Award winning author Lois Lenski's We Live in the North. Then, as an adult, he taught at an all-girls' high school before becoming a full-time writer. Both Sides is his first novel, he is currently writing the second book in the Both Sides series, Taking Sides due to be released January 2014. He lives in Troy, Michigan, with his wife and two cats.


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Taking Sides is the second book in the Both Sides series. In BOTH SIDES, Alex grappled with the idea of her brain being transplanted into Sandra’s brain-dead body. In TAKING SIDES, she struggles with her new reality, starting with the ride home from the hospital and the ensuing media circus. She’s now a celebrity who literally comes face-to-face with her new identity every time she looks in the mirror – and every time someone else looks at her. How will her friends react? How will Sandra’s? And what about their classmates and their parents? With everyone taking sides, Alex begins to wonder: is anyone on her side?

Tour Dates

I received this book to review through Beck Valley Books Book Tours, all the opinions above are 100% my own.