octavia_cade 's review for:

Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

3.0

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A young woman attempts suicide. She survives, but the damage she's done to her heart in the attempt has left her a week to live. She spends that week in an insane asylum, surrounded by the stories of others who, like herself, differ from the expected behaviour of normal people. The ending - which I won't spoil - is I think honestly something that most readers will see coming. (Coelho has seeded enough hints through the story that it shouldn't be a surprise.) But then, the point of this story isn't the twist ending. It's that life is something to be savoured, and that by treating each day as if it were your last you can better appreciate the magnitude of the gift. It's a little bit obvious in some places for my tastes, and could do with a little more subtlety, but there's something fundamentally gentle and kind in this that I really do appreciate, and it's awake to possibility and marvel as well, which is always worth reading.