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Jenny Downham
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Media
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Book
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Publisher | David Fickling Books | ||
ISBN | 9780552774628 | ||
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Reviewer
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Jayne
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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 Ten Things 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.T
Review
This is a wonderful book written by Jenny Downham, the story of a young girls last months and her battle with cancer.
The story is just as it should be with none of the scary bits left out, and yet it has the fun of a teenager's wishes wanting to do quite a few things before she dies. But she takes to writing them on the the wall behind her bed. Some of the things are what most young people would not want their parents to see, or even dare to think that they would get up to! Jenny tells the story in such a way that you find yourself laughing at the situations that Tess gets herself in but then she strikes the right note and writes wonderfully abiout the tense times and the times that cause panic in the home when problems arise.
How her mum accepts that she needs Adam the lad next door to support her and hold her when no-one understands how helpless Tess feels.
This book as the fly sheet says is UPLIFTING, LIFE AFIRMING, JOYOUS - THIS EXTRAORDINARY NOVEL CELEBRATES WHAT IT IS TO BE ALIVE BY CONFRONTING WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE TO DIE.
A beautiful book Jenny, thank you for writing this and sharing this wonderful story with the world.
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