And there's Adam, the blessing of love and vulnerability that lands next door to Tessa at the crucial time.Īnd where a lesser writer might swill us readers around in dying-girl thought soup, Downham lets the telling detail speak for Tessa's feelings instead. Mom, who cut out about the time of Tessa's diagnosis and who remains slightly outside of the helping circle (without becoming a monster). There's Dad in denial, determined to save Tessa through organic foods and fierce hugs. And Zoe, the careless best friend who has her own troubles to wake her up to life. There's Cal, the tactless younger brother who helpfully explains the process of decomposition. Throughout the book, their interactions thrum with tension and tenderness. In this novel, Tessa's relationships are so dynamic that we ache with her at the thought of losing them. She finally pushes herself to face facts: 'I have two choices-stay wrapped in blankets and get on with dying, or get the list back together and get on with living.'ĭownham escapes the common shortcoming of many young adult novels in which the only character that ever really matters to us is the speaker. Tessa burns up a maddening number of days moping when we think she should be fulfilling her dreams. Isn't the looming presence of death supposed to mature her beyond her years?īut that's precisely the kind of 'dying-young' trope that Downham admirably resists throughout the novel.

At first her ranting and left-field demands seem too adolescent.

Like most teenagers, Tessa is at odds with her parents and angsty about how life's shortchanged her. So she makes a list and vows to do everything on it before she dies. We know three pages into 'Before I Die' that sixteen-year-old Tessa won't survive her leukemia-and that there's plenty she still wants from life.

Before i die jenny downham movie