Plank's Law by Lesley Choyce is a short book about a boy, Trevor, who has Huntington's Disease and is destined to die early. He has come up with a list of things to do before he dies, when he meets Plank, who explains Plank's Law - "just live." Plank is an old widow who lives near Trevor and becomes a friend and mentor of sorts.He encourages Trevor to find love and to pursue the girl Trevor noticed at the hospital. Trevor does just that and a relationship blossoms between Trevor and Sara. I wish this book was longer, you barely scratch the surface with many different relationships and even Trevor himself. I love that you can clearly feel that a teenager is writing the diary that this book is set up as. Unfortunately, only 3 stars as I feel this could of easily been longer to help connect with the characters and create a longer journey.

Unfortunately I found this to be difficult to get into and the story did not gel with me. It may be one which works better for other readers.

I felt this was too short to get properly into the story and the characters, and would have worked better as a short story. Not for me.

This book was an incredibly emotional and moving book for me. I adored the writing style of Lesley Choyce. The way it drags you into the story. I loved the concept of Plank's Law. Even when you feel like nothing else to live for, just having that extra little push can lead you to enjoy yourself. The characters were super sweet and innocent and highly enjoyable. I especially loved Trevor and his relationship with Plank and their conversations.

The whole premise of the book is really looking deeply into depression but Choyce handled the topic with care. A really moving book.

I had a really hard time getting into this book. The pacing is a bit slow and the characters were hard for me personally to connect with. I don't rate DNF on Goodreads, but I'm rating it for NetGalley to have the info.

Honestly this is the kind of book that totally grabs my attention, I love read about teens with disease, grieving, death and that stuff, and this book delivers it so well I couldn't say less about it.

Not quite as depressing a story as I had feared. I liked the" live life to it's fullest" message. After all, no one really knows how much time they have. Plank's Law is a great story for Ya's.

This friendship was strange at but first but came around to make sense in the end. I really liked the representation on Huntington's disease in a young adult novel.

The only downside to this book was that it is incredibly short! I don't feel like there was enough background to the main characters... I never got to truly know them, know where they came from, know what they were like before this... this made it harder to sympathise and really relate to them. I wanted a heartwrenching book... thats what I was expecting with this and I feel I was slightly let down. It really does send the 'Live every day like its your last' message though!

My decision to pick this up was totally random, it was the first on my home screen but I am super happy this is the one I read.
This is a short story following sixteen year old Trevor who’s been ill for years but has been told now that he only has about a year to live. Immediately when I figured out this is what the book was about I was super interested because that's a plot I love, and I flew through it.
The characters were all interesting, Trevor himself who’s point of view this is written in was a great character and narrator. He was unique as well, not just another YA character with an illness.
This centres around him wanting to make the most of what time he has left and part of that includes getting a girlfriend. This seems to be a common theme in novels. I personally don’t get it but that’s just because I’m weird. And although I’m not totally crazy about this trope it was interesting enough.
My only problem with this aspect in this book is that he accomplishes this task so fast. Like yes ok it takes him a week to find this exact girl but after that everything was so fast and I would have liked to see these two interact more before they started calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend.
Another thing I liked was the format and writing style. It was different and I loved the bulletin point parts, it felt like Trevor was sat across from me or maybe even making some sort of video diary type thing and telling me his story.
I do have a few problems with this. Like I’ve said overall I had a great time, it was sweet and slightly emotional at times. My main problem was the pacing though. I get this is a short story, it’s less then two hundred pages but I think the story could really have benefited from even just another fifty pages. I don’t know much about publishing so maybe this couldn’t actually be done, I have no clue, all I know is that I would have liked to see some things being more flushed out.
Overall I really do recommend this. Its a super fast read with an interesting plot and as long as you just sit back and enjoy it the speed of the pacing wont do your head in too much.

Genuine, saddening yet uplifting short story. The idea of the plot and the characters were likable but I feel that this lacked depth. Moreover, even though the message was pretty clear, I really wanted this to be a tad bit longer so we could get to know more about the characters.

Book Review
Title: Plank’s Law
Author: Lesley Choyce
Genre: YA/Family/Friendship
Rating: *****
Review: The synopsis of Plank’s Law gave me similar vibes I got from Looking for Alaska and Me, Earl and the dying girl so I was excited to jump into it, the opening to Plank’s Law was pretty good. We meet 16-year-old Trevor who is dying from Huntington's disease and decides to try and “fly” off the cliff when he is stopped by 93-year-old Benjamin Collier who prefers to be called Plank. Plank tells Trevor everything is going to be alright and tries to give the young boy the direction he is sorely lacking at this moment in his life. After his diagnosis Trevor isn’t sure how to move forward with his life but he enjoys watching the lives of others especially his friend Ant, who had moved to Australia a few years before. After the incident on the cliff Trevor decides to make a bucket list half of which is completely doable things like getting drunk, getting high etc. and the other half is improbable like seeing wild penguins and impossible like going to the moon. However, this small interaction prompts the most unlikely of friendships between these two and Trevor is pleased to have someone who listens to him but doesn’t pity him because of his condition.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Trevor decides to follow Plank’s Law part one of just living and goes to the hospital to find the girl who had smiled at him. On the second day of searching he finds her and learns her name is Sara and mostly has cancer but I liked the scene as Trevor is awkward and funny through the entire thing and Sara just takes all in her stride. After talking to her for the first time Trevor is extremely surprised to come away with her phone number and they start getting to know each other and personality wise I think they are a good match, Trevor is shy and awkward whereas Sara is confident and doesn’t give a minutes thought to what other people think of her. As they meet for coffee with pair decide to exchange stories about themselves and their lives, after Trevor recounts the story of the cliff and Plank telling him to find this mystery girl Sara unexpectedly kisses him and it was a beautiful scene not because they are sick kids but because it felt completely real like it could happen to me tomorrow.
In true geeky fashion Sara and Trevor add things to the others bucket lists and Sara wants to meet Ant and Trevor’s grandfather who is in prison. Trevor also agrees to become her chemo buddy as being her boyfriend has responsibilities. Trevor also gets back in touch with Ant as his condition seems to be worsening and Ant drops everything and flies out to see his best friend once more. After Ant’s arrival both Sara and Trevor notice something is off with Plank but decide not to push it. As they discussed Trevor’s bucket list at length, they look at Sara’s and it only has 3 items; to have a boyfriend, to make love, and to have a baby (since the doctors were wrong about the chemo bringing on menopause). As we cross into the final section of the novel, Plank has a mini-stroke and ends up in hospital, meanwhile, Trevor considers Sara’s request for a baby and decides he can’t take the risk of passing on his inherited disease to a child but that doesn’t change the way he feels about her. Things don’t stay great for long though as Ant is leaving again to start a new project and the new chemo seems to be taking a lot out of Sara, but they do still go and visit Trevor’s grandfather where they learn he is getting out early on compassionate grounds as Trevor is dying. In the last ten pages of the novel, we beautiful and heart breaking knowing what is to come.
Overall, despite the short length of this novel it was beautiful, heart breaking and hopeful all at once. I really loved Trevor and Sara’ relationship and while some may see it as rushed when you take into consideration that they both could die very soon the whole dating thing shouldn’t really apply to them. For anyone looking to break into this kind of novel, I highly recommend Plank’s Law as it is short and packs a punch.

I wasn't planning on reading this book but when I saw it I knew that I was going to like it. Just because I found an interesting synopsis and maybe a great plot. My disappointment came when I finished the story. It wasn't what I expected, it was much worse. I'm not saying that I didn't like the novel at all so let's talk about the good points. I enjoyed the humor and some parts of the story were nice and fast to read. I think this is a novel to take when you don't have anything to read in summer or whenever you have free time bacause it's a quick read and it takes few hours.

Why have the novel disappointed me? Well, seeing the synopsis - which I said I found interesting - I expected a more developed book. The plot isn't interesting, just how the main character says at the beggining "Most of my story isn’t very interesting, so you’ll be pleased to know I’m going to leave much of it out". The characters were good but I don't know how, I ended up tired of them. To sum up, it wasn't a book for me. But I recommend it if you want to read something quick and fast.

I received a copy of ‘Plank’s Law’ from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley and Orca Books for the opportunity.

“Most of my story isn’t very interesting, so you’ll be pleased to know I’m going to leave much of it out.” This is the first line of ‘Plank’s Law’ and unfortunately it turned out to be true. For me most of this story wasn’t very interesting and I think that is largely in part because a lot of it was left out.

‘Plank’s Law’ follows Trevor, a sixteen year old with Huntington’s Disease who’s been told he has one year left to live. If I had to pick a favourite character I guess it would be Trevor however he, like all of the other characters in this novel felt under developed which is probably a consequence of how short this book is (around 180 pages) and wasn’t very engaging. All the relationships felt forced, and the romance was just too insta-lovey, a little bit creepy as well (I don’t know if that’s just me though, some may find waiting at a hospital for a stranger who smiled at you one time romantic, who am I to judge?). In short though I felt no connection to any of these characters which made it hard to be interested in this book.

The plot turned out to be uninteresting despite it being what initially drew me to the book. It felt like a watered down Fault in Our Stars, nothing about it felt original and it read like a first draft that hadn’t been developed enough (another thing that could have been solved by increasing it’s length although now I’m thinking about it there probably wasn’t enough plot to make this any longer).

Unfortunately I didn’t like this book very much, it was a quick read though so if you’re looking for something short that can be read in a few hours this’ll do the job but I’m sure there are better books out there.

I really enjoyed the humor throughout this book. Trevor has spent a good portion of his life knowing that he had Huntington's disease and has spent most of that time going day to day not really living. I liked the relationship that Trevor has with Plank, an older man that he befriends at the beginning of the novel. Plank was one of the best parts of this book with his snarky sense of self.

The overall message of this book is one that has been said before but that did not detract from it. It's to live every single day to the fullest. To make the most out every moment that you have. Trevor starts to try to complete items on his bucket list. With the help of Plank and a girl named Sara, he realizes that there might be more important ways to spend his life.

The only real issue I had with this book is how rushed certain parts seemed throughout. I would have enjoyed getting to know the characters more and I feel that the relationship between Trevor and Sara could have been expanded upon. To me, their relationship, at least a the beginning of it, seemed forced. I would have liked them getting to know each other a bit before "falling in love." This story was very sweet and I loved how they both supported each other.

Plank's Law is a sweet story of living in every moment that you have left and was a story that I like reading. I just wish that there was more to it and that Trevor and Sara's relationship was fleshed out more.

This book wasn't really for me but I decided I wanted to stick it out until the end.
It's a fine, easy, YA read that won't wrench your heart out but doesn't have its perfect happy ending - it can't so it does Happy Ending in its own way.
It wasn’t really long enough to get a real handle on the characters, Antonio felt the most solid and he was tragic in the way of the wild and brilliant. Trevor’s character wasn’t solid but it couldn’t be as it was the one that was supposed to evolve and change, which it did smoothly enough.
It was a good way to pass a light to Ireland though It's not one I'd pick up in a store.

Review copy provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This just wasn't my cup of tea.

I requested this book from netgalley based on the intreguing blurb. Unfortunately, the book itself didn't hold my interest as I would have liked. The characters were not likable to me and I found myself struggling with the story.

Thanks to Netgalley and Orca Book Publishers for allowing me to have early access to this book .

I was first drawn to this book when a friend on here had given this book a two star rating, which is quite low and I wanted to see why.... and sadly I believe with them that this books deserves a two star rating.

I understand the reason why the author went for the short and sweet length of the book mainly due to the factor that Trevor the main character has Huntington's Disease (HD) but overall it just lacked something mainly in the ending. After being told straight away that Trevor has only been given a year or less to live due to HD, I was expecting there to be a rather sad ending, with him dying but it just didn't happen and [ at the end of the book he is still alive, overall it feels like this books deserves a second part [ just so that we can learn the fact on Trevor.

One of the only things that kept my interest in this book was the blossoming relationship between Trevor and Sara. This gave some awww moments as it was cute how two extremely ill people were able to find love.

DNF 50%

If I had to describe this book in one word it would be: annoying. Trevor annoyed me to no end and Plank was that cliche old man in a lot of realistic fiction and the romance didn't really enthrall me very much.

Like I said before, Trevor drove me nuts. He was by far my least favorite part of this book. He was really misogynistic and completely unrelatable. The sections when he got heartfelt and sad didn't really feel that real, though that may have been because I wasn't invested in his story very much at all. I usually am interested in books with terminally ill characters but this one just wasn't sitting right with me at all.

I always try to finish ARC's and this one was pretty short but I just couldn't do it for this one. It felt like a John Green knock-off that you would find at an airport or post office.