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Before I Die
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Tessa - (Female) Is dying and has a list of things she wants to accomplish before she dies; list is filled with activities that will make her feel alive; tries to settle everything in her life, before its too late
The Horn Book
(High School) Downham's impressive first novel is a searingly intimate portrait of a sixteen-year-old facing imminent death. When the treatments for her advanced leukemia stop working, Tessa makes a list of things she wants to do in the time she has left. Her brash best friend Zoey helps her with the illicit items (driving without a license; getting high): after all, Zoey says, ""there are no consequences for someone like you."" First on the list is sex, and first-time sex with a stranger is, unsurprisingly, horrible, but pursuing the list makes Tessa feel alive, regardless of the outcomes. Amazingly, Tessa's number eight is realized as she falls in love with sweet, awkward Adam; this time, sex is tender and warm. Downham deftly builds Tessa's rich characterization through her shifting emotions. She grieves for the things she'll miss, rages that Adam and Zoey have full lives ahead without her,yet thrills at the moments she has right now -- riding on Adam's motorcycle, smelling the sea, tasting a kiwi. Far from sentimental, the novel doesn't shirk the raw physicality of Tessa's illness but shares the painful tests and transfusions, the weight loss and thinning skin, the nausea and aching bones. Tessa's body lets her down before she gets all her wishes, but she continues to make her own choices to the end. Downham's imagining of these last days and hours feels intensely real; the pages are ripe with love and loss as Tessa slips in and out of consciousness, her family and boyfriend by her side. This memorable novel is a clear directive to live one's life fiercely and fully, whatever the duration. Copyright 2007 of The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Reviews
With only months left to live, 16-year-old Tessa makes a list of things she must experience: sex, petty crime, fame, drugs and true love. Downham's wrenching work features a girl desperate for a few thrilling moments before leukemia takes her away. Although Tessa remains ardently committed to her list, both she and the reader find comfort in the quiet resonance of the natural world. Tessa's soul mate, Adam, gardens next door; a bird benignly rots in grass; psychedelic mushrooms provide escape; an apple tree brings comfort; and her best friend, Zoey, ripens in the final months of pregnancy. Downham's lithe, facile writing creates a chiaroscuro of life and death, of organic growth and decay. Although Tessa begins to see herself within the natural continuum, she still feels furious with her lot. She lashes out and behaves cruelly at times, making her believable to teen readers. Because her experience feels so palpable, readers will believe that the novel's final pages might offer a crystalline vision of death. Lucid language makes a painful journey bearable, beautiful and transcendent. (Fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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Quick, easy read. Useful reminder to live life to the fullest.
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kay well, im really enjoying this book soo faar !! i cant wait for the end :| i hope it will come sooner !! but im only on chaper twenty-five !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well written. Can't really compare it to The Bucket List. Be sure to have the kleenex box handy towards the end