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A review by eatingwords
Before I Die by Jenny Downham
4.0
4.5 stars
When I first heard about this book, it sounded interesting. But I didn't think that it would emotionally drain me.
Tessa has terminal cancer and will die soon. She knows it and being sixteen, she wants to live her life to the fullest and do things that she soon won't be able to do anymore.
I thought that Tessa was very brave, doing her thing and completing her list of things she wanted to do. But at the same time she seemed selfish and not really to care about other people involved in her life. After thinking that I had to stop and think for a while that she is having cancer and she only has a limited life left so that it is somehow her right to be selfish and careless. She just wanted to feel alive for the few last times.
Zoey is a shit best friend. I didn't like her at all; she was mostly being a total bitch, but I somehow understood why Tessa didn't chuck Zoey out of her life.
Adam was the boy next door and their romance, although being short, seemed intense and real and pure. I really liked that aspect.
Tessa's father and brother were also great characters. Her father just put up with everything, he gave up his life in order to be there for Tessa.
Cal, Tessa's brother, was adorable. They were bickering like siblings do, but he was there for her and vice versa, when the other needed him/her to be.
I cried a bit while finishing reading this story and I had to think so much about it since finishing it. There's a quote on my copy which says
"A book that will make you happy to be alive" - Heat
This quote just sums it up so perfectly; that's what I was thinking after finishing this novel. Although it is very sad reading about a girl dying so young, there is so much truth in this quote.
A book that made me realize what life is really worth and that some problems aren't that big of a deal considering Tessa's life and how she deals with all of it.
When I first heard about this book, it sounded interesting. But I didn't think that it would emotionally drain me.
Tessa has terminal cancer and will die soon. She knows it and being sixteen, she wants to live her life to the fullest and do things that she soon won't be able to do anymore.
I thought that Tessa was very brave, doing her thing and completing her list of things she wanted to do. But at the same time she seemed selfish and not really to care about other people involved in her life. After thinking that I had to stop and think for a while that she is having cancer and she only has a limited life left so that it is somehow her right to be selfish and careless. She just wanted to feel alive for the few last times.
Zoey is a shit best friend. I didn't like her at all; she was mostly being a total bitch, but I somehow understood why Tessa didn't chuck Zoey out of her life.
Adam was the boy next door and their romance, although being short, seemed intense and real and pure. I really liked that aspect.
Tessa's father and brother were also great characters. Her father just put up with everything, he gave up his life in order to be there for Tessa.
Cal, Tessa's brother, was adorable. They were bickering like siblings do, but he was there for her and vice versa, when the other needed him/her to be.
I cried a bit while finishing reading this story and I had to think so much about it since finishing it. There's a quote on my copy which says
"A book that will make you happy to be alive" - Heat
This quote just sums it up so perfectly; that's what I was thinking after finishing this novel. Although it is very sad reading about a girl dying so young, there is so much truth in this quote.
A book that made me realize what life is really worth and that some problems aren't that big of a deal considering Tessa's life and how she deals with all of it.