37 pages • 1 hour read
LancaliI Fell in Love with Hope
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 14-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 14 Summary: “Real”
Sam, C, Sony, and Neo plan a grand gesture for Sam to tell Hikari how he feels about her and to apologize for running away. When C goes to retrieve her from her room, she isn’t there nor is she in any of the other places they usually hang out. Sam panics but realizes where she is—the cardiology unit where he and he first started to drift apart. He races through the hospital and reaches her, only to find she has self-harmed again. He tears apart his gown to make makeshift bandages, but she slowly fades and is closer to dying. In an episode of anger and depression, Sam cuts his own hair and attacks himself, which brings Hikari back to them.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Before”
The original Sam, the narrator’s love, was not a healthy child. He was born with no immune system and was very weak. His mother abandoned him after his first day alive, and he lived in the hospital from then on.
He and the narrator become closer, sharing parts of their lives that they don’t with others. One day, Sam is beaten up by other patients who are just as scared as he is; the narrator steps in to defend Sam. Sam loses consciousness and the narrator fears that Sam will die. Sam doesn’t and explains to the narrator the concept of hope. He doesn’t believe in it, but he believes in Sam.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Now”
Sam and Hikari are a couple, and Neo and C are closing in on the conclusion of their novel. While Neo writes, Hikari and Sam act cutely; Sony’s condition has improved, and she leaves the hospital more frequently. Now, she wants to get a job at the hospital working with the children.
Neo’s father interrupts their meeting and notices Neo’s writing. Sam and C oppose Neo’s father when he asks the friends to leave so he can talk to Neo privately. Neo’s father attacks and threatens C, who tells him to leave. Sam confronts Neo’s father with the truth that people cannot have control, no matter how hard they try. When Neo’s father promises to return with Neo’s mother, the friend group decides they need to flee the hospital at once.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Tears of Joy”
The quintet drives away from the hospital without any challenge—the only delay is Hikari, who goes back to retrieve their hit list of things to steal. C drives them through a tunnel and brings them to a small mall to get fries from a fast-food restaurant. While they eat, Sony sees a tattoo shop and decides everyone needs to get a tattoo. Neo gets an open book, Sony gets a pair of wings, and C gets a pair of earbuds; they all get the same text: “[T]ime will cease disease will fester death will die” (243). Meanwhile, Hikari promises to draw the moment they fell in love—the moment despair fell in love with hope.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Before”
Sam recalls a day from his past: He and Sam spend time at the park together under Nurse Ella’s supervision. She explains Sam’s immunocompromised state, and how any small interaction could kill him.
But one day at the park, Sam and Sam run, play, and realize their feelings for each other. The immunocompromised Sam removes his mask to kiss the narrator Sam, but Nurse Ella catches them before he can. She returns them to the hospital after they fall into a mud puddle.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Heaven”
After getting tattoos, the friends make their way to a nearby beach where they buy ice cream, dance, sing, and enjoy a moment of life that is untouchable. Neo falls asleep first, with Sony and C sleeping next. Hikari and Sam remain awake for a few minutes to talk about their dreams and desires—Sam’s dream for all of Hikari’s tomorrows, and Hikari’s desire to give them to him. Sam also wants to reveal his secret to Hikari but chooses not to that night. The next morning, Sam wakes up to Sony struggling to breathe and coughing up blood. He and Hikari place Sam in the back seat of the truck and put on her oxygen mask while C and Neo drive them back to the hospital.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Wings”
Sam, Neo, Hikari, and C drive Sony back to the hospital. Along the drive, Hikari calls Eric and tells him to meet them there. Eric does and freezes when he sees Sony unable to breathe and coughing. She receives treatment, but it is only a temporary measure to slightly prolong her life. She wakes up and talks with Sam as though everything is okay—she asks about her wings, she jokes that they got caught, and she states that it was a good day.
Sony reveals the secret of her condition—she was pregnant at one time but chose to have an abortion because she did not want to risk the child being like her. She then passes command of the team to Sam. After a short goodbye to the rest of her friends, Sony dies.
Chapters 14-20 Analysis
The second escape signifies a shift and growth in Sam’s character. Until now, he has never been able to leave the hospital or go further than a few blocks away. Sam’s essence is connected to the hospital. Typically, he only extends as far as the hospital’s influence before he must return.
For the first time, Sam sees hospital patients outside of the hospital, enjoying life and being more than their diseases. Several of them agree to get tattoos of their greatest dream, their team motto: Time and disease will die, but people will live on. The tattoos are symbols of the marks the patients leave on the world. Just like tattoos are permanent on the body, so is the impact of the hospital patients, even after death. No one can ever truly forget or escape the people close to them.
Sam and Sony view the result of their escape differently, reflecting their contrasting mindsets. Sam sees their escape as a failure because they end up back at the hospital. Sony sees a full day outside that she would otherwise never have had, and one that she gets to enjoy with the people close to her. From Sony, Sam learns the importance of Living in the Moment. Though Sony dies, she dies happy because she had the best day. Sam faces a choice: He can either accept Sony’s perspective, or he can impose his own views. Since learning from Neo, he accepts Sony’s perspective without judgment.
These middle chapters are crucial to Sam’s growth. Though he still has lessons to learn, Lancali shows how far he has already come. In Sam’s mind, Sony’s death could join that of his love Sam and the patients that Sam knew who died feeling hopeless, but it doesn’t. Sam breaks away from his pattern and chooses to let Sony’s memory be happy rather than sad.
Sony’s purpose in the novel comes to an end. She achieves her dream: to fly and to move without limitations. She leaves the hospital, experiences the world, makes memories, and makes the most of her final day. Instead of mourning her loss, she teaches Sam to live for the moment. Until now, Sam has lived in the past and future. He avoids the present and forgets to live, as living increases the risk of the people he cares about dying. Now, Sam has a new perspective and becomes the leader of the group.
