Before I Die by Jenny Downham

                                    

Paperback: 327 pages.

Genre: Young adult fiction.

Publisher: Random House Group 2007

Source: Sent to me by a blogging friend in the UK. Len Lambert Writer

First Sentences : ‘ I wish I had a boyfriend. I wish he lived in the wardrobe on a coat hanger.’

Review Quote: ‘ 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.’ Sunday Times

Awards: ALA Teens' Top Ten (2008), Branford Boase Award (2008), ALA's Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults (2008), The Inky Awards for Silver Inky (2008), Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee (2012)

My Opinion : Heart breaking I recommend to the young adults it is intended for. 

As a genre YA is one I normally stay well away from but this was recommended by a blogging friend Len Lambert who very kindly sent me her copy when she had finished with it.
I had to preserve with this one and I was at least half way through before it began to have much impact. It is indeed a very sad novel and you would have to be a very hard person for it not to be an emotional read.  The narrator is Tessa a sixteen year old that has been fighting a loosing battle with leukaemia for the past four years and has now been told that she probably just has months to live. She writes the inevitable list of things she wants to do before she dies, trying to cram them all into the few months she has left. The list includes everything from sex, drugs, crime, and fame as Tessa hurtles towards the time her body can no longer cope with the demands she has placed on it. As she tells us the story her feelings and relationships with her parents, sibling and friends are all painfully related.

The ending is of course particularly poignant as we already know that Tessa is going to die. Reality and dreams all start to get mixed together and the closing pages are a very emotional read as those that care about her gather around her to make their farewells.
I did not really enjoy this book and would never had chosen to read it myself had it not been recommended. I think though it is a good introduction to teenagers on the emotions that come with knowing you are dying.  It will undoubtedly transfer well to the cinema and is to be released as a film Now Is Good in May 2012.

Author Profile

Jenny Downham was born in 1964, she is a British novelist and an ex-actor. Before I Die, was her first novel which is to be released as a film called ‘Now is Good’ in 2012. The book was short listed for the 2007 Guardian Award and the 2008 Lancashire Children's Book of the Year, nominated for the 2008 Carnegie Medal and the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize, and won the 2008 Branford Boase Award.
Her second novel, ,You Against Me was published in December 2010.^[1] The book is powerful novel about family, loyalty, and the choices which we have to make. 

Getting to know Jenny Downham

Uploaded by kidsatrandomhouse on Nov 29, 2010

Book Trailer – Before I Die

Uploaded by TwilightLover2708 on Mar 7, 2010

Information, photo and video used in this post is with thanks to the following websites.
Wikipedia - Jenny Downham
Jenny Downham – Goodreads
YouTube

I have chosen to read this title as the letter B for this challenge which I have decided to attempt, for now anyway, to achieve in alphabetical order. I have a good selection of titles to choose from on our bookshelves so will see how it goes. You can follow my progress here.