Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, and drugs with excruciating side effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of “normal” life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up.
Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, are all painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time finally runs out.

Before I die is aimed at the young adult audience but there is no specified age group. My best guess after reading this book would be aimed towards the older tweens 13-16. The main character, Tessa, is 16 years old herself and is battling cancer. I think this book is extremely well written and would love to read anything else by this author. Even though you obviously know how the book is going to end, it is still heartbreaking to read because Tessa has grown up so much in a little amount of time. There is a sense of cynicism througout the book and Tessa doesn't hold anything back when people ask her about her illness. It seems that sometimes she tries to offend people in the way she handles everything. Her best friend Zooey goes through her own transformation and finds out that she is pregnant but does not know how to handle it. Tessa urges her to keep the baby and even tries to make the goal to stay alive for the birth. Tessa compiles a list of things to do and most of them are illegal. Some of them are added as she begins to deteriorate including trying to talk during her last moments. She has a crush on her neighbor and they begin to fall in love even though she specifically didn't want to fall in love. Adam changes her attitude towards everything including death and makes her crave so much more. The way the ending is written makes her death all the more jarring because it is written in her perspective. They are partial sentences and large spaces between paragraphs. I've read other books on deaths before but this one was very unique.
I would definitely recommend this book but it is definitely not a light read. It is a book where you need to brace yourself for and be in the right mood.