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Book Reviewed by:The story of Tessa, a young teenage girl who has only months to live ... a brilliantly crafted novel, heartbreaking yet life-affirming.
Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of ‘normal’ life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallised in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.
During the first few chapters of Before I Die, adult readers will probably be asking themselves if this is really a book for them. After all, haven't we done our time with teenage angst already and do we really want to experience it from the viewpoint of a perceptive, witty, but not always likable dying teenager? Many of those who stick through the sometimes disjointed opening chapters (disjointed because the author is channeling a teenage voice) to reach the heart of the novel will answer with a resounding yes, and all but the most hardened of cynics will be reaching for the Kleenex by the final chapters...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
About the Author
First time author Jenny Downham caused quite a stir with
Before I Die, a novel targeted at teens with crossover
appeal for adults in general. Publisher David Fickling (part
of Random House), who also publish The Curious Incident
of the Dog in the Night-Time, are so enthusiastic about
the book that they rushed the 2007 hardcover into press in a
fraction of the time normally taken, and foreign rights have
been sold in at least 11 languages .
According to a June 2007 article in the London Times,
written a month before Before I Die published in the
UK, nobody is more surprised by the buzz surrounding the
book than Downham herself, a single...
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