Before I Die

BEFORE I DIE
By Jenny Downham
David Fickling Books, 2007

Category: Young adult fiction

Practical details:

  • I connected to the BEFORE I DIE buzz at EmilyReads (read this post), and was intrigued.
  • My friend Jane, librarian extraordinaire, saved it for me when it arrived at her library; otherwise I might never have gotten my mitts on it.
  • I read it (lived it, really) for two days.

Less-than-practical truths:

  • I was utterly taken from the first chapter.
  • This was a book I read only in quiet moments when I could lose myself. No reading in the car during pickup, no reading at the stove while fixing dinner. I read this book only when there was quiet space to curl up and feel it. (As mothers of three don’t often have such quiet space, I had to make it. And I did. For this book.)
  • I was inconsolable at THE END. And let’s face it: I knew all along how it would end.
  • Tessa is a girl I will think about for a long while. Perhaps always.

Here’s a review from The New York Times.