Review of “There's No Cure for Impossible” by Carolyn Summer Quinn

​Score: 92/100 (9.2 out of 10)

Imagine... a child has gone missing, and your childhood best-friend may be involved!

There's No Cure for Impossible is a contemporary fiction, suspense, and mystery (missing person) novel by Carolyn Summer Quinn, an author who wowed us with Until the Stars Align.

While this book doesn't quite have the oomph that Quinn's World War II-era novel did, it is still poignant and compelling nonetheless.

So, what makes it a poignant and compelling read?

Well, it starts with the characters and their dynamics. This book follows Selena Lawrence, a young woman trying to climb the career ladder at a news station, working in the publicity department. Similar to Matt in To Outwit Fate K.E. Adamus, Selena is someone who always seems so close to her goals yet still so far.

Part of that is that she's had a ball and chain—a dead weight—around her ankle for years in the form of her childhood friend, Mila Gannon (no relation to Rich Gannon, unfortunately).

Mila is a very troubled individual who can be considered both the deuteragonist and main antagonist of the novel. In that sense, she's very similar to Devon (the troubled twin brother) from Secrets in the Mirror by Leslie Kain or Rachel (the prodigal sister) from A Sister Ago by Caitlin Buhr. In fact, all three of these novels and their characters share a lot of the same beats and themes. The ending and ultimate fate of Mila also reminded us a lot of what went on with Desirae from Perfectly Imperfect by Darlene Winston.

That's not to say that this book doesn't have some originality of its own, but we couldn't help but be hit by a profound sense of deja vu as we read it and compared it to these other works.

Mila becomes the most wanted person in New York City after she becomes the primary suspect in the kidnapping of a baby girl named Sadie Atchison. Selena is shocked yet not surprised by the news that her former best friend has gotten entangled in another serious crime.

Throughout the book, Selena reflects on Mila's turbulent life and past. In particular, she reflects on Mila's propensity to choose poor romantic partners like Ajax Morrison, a convicted felon convicted of armed robbery, and Phineas Marquez, who was involved in sending drugs hidden in a package to Selena's house. These men were terrible influences on Mila, yet she continued to make progressively worse choices.

According to Selena, Mila “couldn’t be trusted as far as she could be thrown.”

The book also explores Mila's upbringing and school days alongside Selena. Mila, it turns out, came from a relatively wealthy family with both of her parents, Sylvia and Curtis Gannon, being highly-paid, greatly-respected lawyers. Mila had a privileged upbringing including various white-collar activities like horseback riding lessons, ballet classes, and expensive trips to Europe.

However, money isn't everything and it doesn't guarantee a good, happy life. Mila suffered from a deep need for attention and validation. She struggled with self-worth and constantly sought to find love and acceptance, even with dangerous and unsuitable men like Morrison and Marquez.

We are often told, “that was Mila for you...” You can almost hear the protagonist sighing and see her rolling her eyes as she says or thinks this.

All the while, Selena did her best to be a good friend and support Mila, constantly trying to guide her back onto the straight and narrow. In a lot of ways, Selena was like Gavin (the good brother) from Secrets in the Mirror by Leslie Kain, who—despite much lower expectations and humbler beginnings—made something of themselves while their counterpart floundered due to poor decisions and emotional instability. Both Selena and Gavin (in these separate books) often bail out their counterpart and sacrifice a lot of themselves and their lives to helping them. You also get a sense, in both these books, that the main characters have a misplaced sense of duty and obligation to care for their friend/sibling, becoming entangled in an abusive, parasitic, one-sided relationship. It's almost like a kind of Stockholm syndrome.

At a certain point, it becomes too much even for the angels among us.

And, so, we get the title of the book: There's No Cure for Impossible. We can't fix everyone. We can't control people. We can't force people to change. They need to want it. They need to want to get better. They need to take responsibility for their own choices, emotions, actions, and decisions. This book does a good job at putting that message forward.

And Mila isn't the only character with an impressive amount of depth. Selena herself is a rather interesting character. You really get the sense of how tantalized she is being so close to the televised side of things yet off-screen and untelevised. It doesn't help that some of the news anchors and established cast, like Lana “the barracuda,” are rude and condescending to her, treating her like a peon.

Something that really stood out to us about Selena is that she doesn't take s***t from anyone, it doesn't matter who they are. She speaks her mind no matter what. She isn't afraid to talk back to someone who is insulting or rude to her, which we respected and appreciated. It should also be noted that some of that strength and outspokenness might actually come from being around Mila for so long, being forced to be the responsible one. So, maybe there are some positives that came from all this darkness.

Now, this book does have some flaws. There are some minor grammatical errors like:

- “The whole subject of Mila and Sadie still disturbed me no end” (in which the word “to” is missing)

However, that's small fries. What we think really held this book back was the tone. There were times when it was serious, discussing serious topics like kidnapping, mental illness, and drug use. At other times, it became almost comical. It almost reminded us of one of the hokey comedies at times. For example, when the parents of Sadie (the kidnapped girl) are interviewed by the news media, the dad goes on an over-the-top belligerent rant in which he starts threatening Mila on national TV, saying something along the lines of, “even if you return my daughter, I'll find you and whoop you anyway.” Thanks, Dad, that helps a lot.

There are also scenes, especially in the news studio, that seem more like high school teenage drama than a bunch of people trying to report on a serious issue in which a girl's life is on the line. We understand that may have been the point (since the news media can be pretty biased and more concerned with views/clicks that doing the right thing), but it gave us tonal whiplash. Shouldn't we care about the well-being of the kid? Shouldn't we be thinking about how troubled and disturbed Mila is? Part of the issue is that we've seen this kind of character and this arc too many times in the last couple years. There have been a lot of Milas come through our contest. And, to be fair, there are a lot of Milas in real life. Maybe you can relate?

Check it out on Amazon!