The list of things she’ll miss also grows. By the end of the book, items on her list start to include things like getting her parents back together, having Adam move in, and meeting Zoey’s baby. The next few items on Tessa’s list involve breaking the law, taking drugs, and saying yes to everything for just one day. Tessa is less than impressed with the results. She goes out with Zoey and they meet two boys in a club. In the first few chapters, Tessa is determined to cross the first item off her list: sex. The first few things on Tessa’s list are frivolous. The thing is, you know that some of these things aren’t going to happen because Tessa lives in a clock. It’s about a girl who realizes what’s important in life.

The book is about much more than a girl with terminal cancer. Tessa is a really funny character who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to go after it. It feels odd to say that I like this book instead, I feel like it is more accurate to say that I like Tessa. Adam becomes instrumental in helping her cross off the items on her list, but he also helps her realize what’s really important, and it’s things that Tessa doesn’t think are important when she creates the list. While Tessa is determined to finish her list, she is also falling in love with Adam from next door. She sets out to complete this list with the help of her friend Zoey and her parents. Other items are really sweet, such as getting her parents back together and falling in love. Some things are reckless like breaking the law and taking drugs. The list is everything she wants to do before she dies. Tessa has had leukemia for four years and when she finds that she only has a few months to live she decides to make a list on her wall. That also seems like an unfair comparison. Before I Dieby Jenny Downham may as well have had a giant red sticker visible only to me that said: “Don’t Read Me, You’ll Cry for Hours.” Despite the ominous title, I picked it up and read it in three sittings.īefore I Diecan be easily summarized as a teenage version of The Bucket List. To order all featured titles at a minimum 20% discount, visit .Some genres I avoid like the plague, and anything avoiding dying children is one of them. Juxtaposing the barren landscape where the remnants of the 'Inglish' aboriginals live with the hi-tech cities of the new civilisation, Useful Idiots is a thoughtful black comedy about greed, prejudice and the idiocy of governments. When a storm uncovers a human skull in the watery wastelands, it brings the old and the new worlds into direct conflict. It is a hi-tech era in which history is controlled by the authorities and archaeology has become taboo. Set in a dystopian future, the UK is now partly under water as a result of climate change and has been renamed the Rhine Delta islands. Useful Idiots by Jan Mark Photograph: David Fickling Books

Before i die by jenny downham