Product Description

An intensely moving and uncompromisingly honest story told in the words of a 16-year-old girl who is dying of leukaemia.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12708 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-05
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Sunday Times Culture Magazine (10/6/07)
Novels for young teenagers do not usually feature drugs and casual
sex within the first 20-odd pages. But most books for teenagers will not
leave an adult reader's eyes so blurry with tears that it's hard to see the
final chapters. Jenny Downham's extraordinary first novel does both.

Heat
'A novel that won't fail to touch those who read it...will make you happy to be alive'

Synopsis
Tessa has just a few 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, her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa's time finally runs out. "Before I Die" is a brilliantly-crafted novel, heartbreaking yet astonishingly life-affirming. It will take you to the very edge.

Customer Reviews

Perfect book about love and life
I stayed up until 4am to finish this book last night and like other reviewers the tears just wouldn't stop coming. But this isn't a mawkish, sentimental book at all. It's an absolutely brilliant story about how precious and wonderful life is, and it makes you think about all the little things we all take for granted. The narrator, Tess, is a beautifully drawn character, a normal teenager with the usual insecurities and awkwardnesses except that she's an expert in leukaemia and when the book opens she has just been told that there is nothing more the doctors can do to help her. She is going to die, soon.

Her relationship with her family, and her best friend Zoey are real and believable. I was so happy that her parents allowed her the freedom to experience as much as she did when their instinct (especially her father's) was to wrap her in cotton wool. I also liked the life-affirming subplot about Zoey.

This really is a lovely, lovely book. It's one of those books that makes the world a better place. Read it!

A Brilliant Read
This book is about a girl called Tessa Scott, who only has monthes to live as she has a terrible illness. As she only has a short period of time to live, she makes a list of the things she wants to do before she dies.

This book was absoloutly brilliant. I couldn't put this book down and think it's impossible not to cry reading this book. I couldn't stop thinking about it after i had read it as it sort of leaves you on a cliffhanger.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any teenage and even adult readers.

Aimee,(the daughter!) 8/5/08.

Dying wishes
I finished this book in just over a day, as I couldn't put it down!

It deals with the issues of Tessa, who is 16 years old and has terminal cancer. She makes a list of the things she wants to do before she dies, even changing the list slightly along the way.

I thought this book was well written, and one of the most thought provoking books I have ever read, making me think "what would I put on my list?" The author dealt with the delicate subject matter fantastically and didn't make out Tessa to be a holier than though teenager, but a normal everyday teenager who had testy relationships with both friends and family.

It explores relationships of all kinds and how they respond to such pressure when difficulties arise and decisions have to be made. I don't usually read books twice, but this is definately one I would pick up again to read.