Just like another similarly themed favorite book of mine If I Stay, Before I Die never crosses over into the area of melodrama, and this is very important to me, because I despise being emotionally manipulated by books. But things change when she gets to know her new neighbor - an 18-year old boy Adam, who has a heartbreaking story of his own. The first sexual experience doesn't make Tessa feel any better, in fact, she is crushed more than ever. She wants to experience love, but knowing that there is no way it is possible in her circumstances, she settles for having sex. Some items on the list are silly - to try drugs, to commit a crime, to become famous - but one desire overwhelmes Tessa. Trying to make the best of the time she has left, Tessa comes up with a list of things she would like to experience before she dies. She knows that she has only a few months to live and struggles to come to terms with her fate. The premise of Before I Die is quite simple - Tessa is 16 and dying of leukemia. It's not as if I didn't know how it would end - the title says it all, but I didn't expect to be touched by the story to such a degree. A book that will make you happy to be alive.This book about broke my heart.

It's a novel that won't fail to touch those who read it, and despite the melancholy subject matter it manages to be hugely life-affirming. A book that will make you happy to be alive.

For everyone, it is a reminder to value the people that matter, seize the moment, wish with courage, adventure with relish, even if it's just a trip to the swimming pool, drinking hot chocolate or driving down a dual carriageway in the rain Guardian It deals with death, but it's a hymn to life The Irish Times It's about love and friendship and family. I defy anyone not to cry reading this book Daily Expressĭownham's prose is brave and bare, her characters relentlessly realistic Sunday Telegraph Tough but tender, angry rather than resigned, Tessa is an appealing heroine whose company is never less than bracing IndependentĪ work of great humanity and profound empathy.

Writing about dying children can sometimes seem too easy a target for instant emotion but always does much better than that Independentĭestined to drive hundreds of thousands of readers to tears and to swift injunctions to all their friends to read it Observer

Jenny Downham's extraordinary first novel does both The Sunday Timesīefore I Die is so real, so sad, so true - and I so wish I'd written it myself Jacqueline Wilson 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. Novels for young teenagers do not usually feature drugs and casual sex within the first 20-odd pages.

Before i die by jenny downham