Before I Die

This is a story about 16-year-old Tessa who makes a list with the headline Before I Die. Tessa knows that she is going to die since she suffers from leukaemia, therefore she makes up a list of the most important things she wants to experience and achieve during her remaining time on earth. To help her with that, she has her best friend Zoey by her side, and together they try out the things they are so curious about.

This book has a message to appreciate the small things in life, like a hug or just a simple ”hello”. Tessa does not take her life for granted anymore, and that is what you are going to be taught in this book. To live by a list is not living, living is the small everyday things that we usually do not reflect over.

I thought that the story was kind of a cliché since it started very sad and tragically, and then it turned into a love-story instead. If those are the kind of themes you like I would absolutely recommend it. On the other hand, I thought it was a bit prolonged and in that way it became boring and I lost focus while reading it. The one part I actually really enjoyed was the ending, it was touching but also beautiful. It was a perfect balance of love and grief that made me calm, unlike the rest of the book that included too many negative thoughts which made me as a reader almost become downbeat.

My conclusion is that I recommend this book if you want to get a very naked and true sight of life. I also think the reader should be around fifteen years to be able to understand all parts brought up.

Alma Swärdh. Peer corrected by Lisa Nordahl, and Wilma Schlömer. NATE15