Name: Before I Go
ISBN: 9781476761671

Colleen Oakley

Confronting the final months of her life when her breast cancer aggressively returns, twenty-seven-year-old Daisy endeavors to find her beloved husband another wife, an effort that forces her to make difficult choices.

Before I Go

"A heartfelt novel in the bestselling tradition of P.S. I Love You about a young woman in Georgia with stage four breast cancer who undertakes a mission to find a "replacement wife" for her husband before she passes away" --

riley dawson

** spoiler alert **
           I had a lot of different emotions while reading this. A LOT. Hopeful, nostalgic, sad, anxious, annoyed even. I felt that in the middle, it was getting to be too repetitive and that was annoying to me. I had to take a few minutes and tell myself that getting annoyed with a fictional character having terminal cancer was bad. 

Before I Go kind of reminded me of Hazel and Augustus from The Fault In Our Stars if only they’d met ten years later and weren’t both riddled with cancer. 

When Daisy started the clinical trial, I almost wanted to hope for the best. I started getting excited. Thinking, “maybe this will actually work! Jack and Daisy can go on vacation. They can finally start a family of their own!” I should know by now what to expect with these types of novels. It’s always nice to hope, though. 

My heart nearly broke in the end when Kayleigh and Jack spent time together every week. They both lost the person they loved the most. The only thing they ever had in common was Daisy. It made me think about my own best friend and how I would absolutely do the same thing for her. 

All in all, this was a relatively quick and easy read. Yeah, okay I did shed a few tears when it was over. Sue me for having feelings. I definitely recommend it though! (Especially if you’re overdue for a good cry.)

 Bruna Acioly Leão

I don't even know. This book hurt, man. 
It was hard to come back to it at times, so it took me so long to read it. 
But it was very well written, honest and heartfelt.

This book is about the struggle with the reality of death. We all know that we are going to die someday, but it is always something that gets put off, in the back of our minds. Something that happens to other people, not something that happens to us. When Daisy is faced with the very real treat of death in the form of a Stage IV breast cancer, she doesn’t know how to live the rest of her life. The romantic notion of seizing the day and taking the best of what you have doesn’t really work when you are tired all the time and have tumors compressing your vital organs.

On top of all that, Daisy also worries about the people she will leave behind, mainly her husband, and she tries to find a wife to replace herself in his life. But things aren’t so easy, because as Daisy works to settle things for when she leaves, she loses a part of the rest of life she does have.

It was a struggle to read this one, not because I was bad, but because thinking about these issues isn’t exactly pleasant. I think it was a very brave subject matter for the author to tackle into. It brings an interesting question to my mind though. How important the subject of death really is. It is a natural part of life, and yet we avoid as much as possible. But is all that avoidance a healthy thing? Are we just postponing the inevitable? Could we be more prepared and accepting if we discussed it more? Or would that actually be worse.

I don’t have any of the answers, but I think they are interesting to discuss anyway.

 Overall, Before I Go was a beautiful book, touching and well written. Worth the read if you’re looking for something emotional.

http://brunawrites.tumblr.com/post/11...

Before I Go

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