Before I Die- Speech free essay sample

If it sometimes seems as though the world is killing itself, here, between covers, is something to live for. A book about a 16-year-old girl dying of leukaemia. This may sound too depressing for words, but this much-hyped novel is meant to drive hundreds of thousands of readers to tears and to fast injunctions for all their friends to read it. | | |Good Morning Class and Mr Cartwright. Before I Die by Jenny Downham is in every perception, every | |particle of one girl’s desire, regret, rage, lust, light and darkness right to the end. Here is a | |girl who wants, and because her time is limited, her wanting has a greater intensity than your | |average teenager will ever know. A girl named Tessa, trapped in her failing body in an unnamed | |English | |town writes a list of 10 things that she desires to do before her time is up. 10 experiences that | |are not necessarily the kind of thing a parent would love. We will write a custom essay sample on Before I Die- Speech or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In fact, Tessas pretty sure that her dad| |will hate most of it. But its her life. And she wants to get to experience it. Tessa tastes new | |experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. This is where Jenny | |Downham | |has managed to take the reader into the mind of sixteen-year-old middle school girl, her family and | |her friends as Tessa puts up an amazing struggle and we see the strain that such an illness brings | |to all around her. Jenny expresses to readers throughout the novel to never turn your back on the | |external world, and honestly what it is like to face death, as Tessa thinks, â€Å"before I’ve even lived| |properly. † | |Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, her | |relationships are strained at best. Her father is at wits end. Zoey, her best friend, comes and | |goes. She meets the boy neighbour, after a long stretch of watching him through her bedroom window. |Although through all that Tessa finds love. In the early stages only to get close, push him away, | |get close | |then push him away again she finally falls in love with Adam and for her receiving his love in | |return is the experience she most hungers for. One of the more surprisin g revelations to be found in| |â€Å"Before I Die† is that it’s a young adult novel only in the sense that readers Tessa’s age are | |perhaps the ideal audience for a true story about sex, drugs, love and death. Although reviewers | |have stated â€Å"I | |don’t care how old you are. This book will not leave you†. Personally, not the easiest story to | |read, in terms of sunshine and happiness. It will take you to the very edge, but its certainly well| |worth the read. Tessa is someone to aspire to, when all is said and done. | |By Jenna Hitch | | |