Stuck in Neutral

by Terry Trueman

Shawn McDaniel is fourteen years old, has a gift of remembering every conversation he has ever heard, and has what you might call out of body experiences. Unfortunately, Shawn has Cerebral Palsy, has several seizures daily, and has no control over any muscles in his body: not his legs, arms, eyes, tongue, neck…nothing. He can’t speak and share his brilliance with the world.  In fact, most people see him as retarded, or even as a vegetable. Shawn thinks his father is trying to kill him to end his suffering. He seems to be suffering, but Shawn is actually not in pain at all. In fact if he could speak he would tell his father that he doesn’t want to die.

The story is told from Shawn’s point of view and it’s interesting to imagine his world from his eyes and mind and then imagine what he looks like to everyone else in the book.  He sounds like a regular teenage boy, he just can’t move a muscle. The novel got me to think about people who are in Shawn’s position, not able to communicate, even by blinking the eyes but who are lucid and otherwise well.  In the Author’s Note at the end of the book Mr. Trueman explains that his son has Cerebral Palsy, like Shawn. If he is trying to raise awareness of the possibilities of there being much more to people like them than meets the eye, he has definitely done it for me.