When I was a teenager (in the mid 80’s) I read a book about a teenage girl who had Lupus and she lives on the beach with her parents who decide to get divorced. At the end of the novel she goes blind (or it’s inferred or perhaps she dies) due to the lupus. Her mother is from the flower child era and much of the book is set on the beach setting as she walks the beach in angst of her disease. I recall it being one of my favorite reads as a teenager. She has a brief stint with a boyfriend and many day’s lying in bed and much angst about the skin patch that lupus causes. I loved the book and read it several times.
Now that I’m old..my memory fails me and I cannot recall the title of that book….tho low all these years nearly the entire story has stayed with me.
Does anyone else out there remember it? Ahhhh while writing this….something came to me and I found it….did you read this book as a teenager? I did. About ten thousand times I think. The thing that really made me suddenly feel old is…..look up in the right hand corner of this bookcover photograph. $2.50!!! That’s how much a YA book cost when I was a YA. *sigh* But man was this book sooo good. I still remember it, all these years later. Even stranger is…I know I read it around the time I was 13 or so….perhaps even 11 or 12….and now I have my own child who will soon be 17. So so weird…time warp. Someone give me some Geritol…and a slug of whiskey now. I almost skipped this post but thought there might be some other old lady out there trying to wrack her brain for the title of this book.
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