A review by gkneveu
Ways To Live Forever by Sally Nicholls
4.0
I found this book while wandering around the children's section of Books Inc. The first thing that jumped out at me was the title. I'll often pick up books with catchy titles out of curiosity and this one really caught my attention. I read the inside flap, then flipped it open and started reading. I read twenty pages in the bookstore, then decided I had to get it.
Sam is an eleven year old boy living with leukemia, it's the third time it's come back and he knows he's going to die this time. During "school", a class held at home consisting of himself and his friend Felix, a boy with cancer, he starts a writing project. He decides he's going to write a book about himself. It becomes a sort of log of all his thoughts, dreams and questions, consisting of lists, pictures and journal entries. He makes a list of the things he wants to do before he dies and a list of questions no one ever answers, he and Felix set out to make them happen and find the answers to those questions.
What I loved most about this book was the consistent, strong and original voice of the main character, Sam. Of course, this was obviously going to be a very sad book. But what makes it so affective is because of the way Sam tells us about it, the way he explains everything so calmly, as if it isn't anything to him because he's had to live with it his entire life. To us, it is something horrible and sad, but to him it's just his life and that's what hit home for me. I've read a few criticisms that say that the book is too sad and depressing, but I thought it was a really cool way to write a sad book. The author never "tells" us to think anything. She doesn't explain everything out to make sure that we feel the right feelings or think the right thoughts. She lets us make our own opinions, and I think that is the best way to write. The author shouldn't assume that every reader will react the same, it's up to the reader how they interpret the text. Like his classes, for example; Sam explains that their teacher always makes sure to keep Felix engaged, because he doesn't like to study. They get to do basically whatever they feel like doing, sometimes they just read for three hours or even blow things up for fun. Sam doesn't say the reason no one cares whether or not they study is because neither of them have very much time, so it doesn't matter if they learn math or not. It's much more heart wrenching when you realize this yourself than if it were written out.
I really liked this book for many different reasons. I loved Sam as character and the way he was written. The writing, too, is really good which only helps the book as a whole. This was Sally Nicholl's first book and I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for her future ones.
Sam is an eleven year old boy living with leukemia, it's the third time it's come back and he knows he's going to die this time. During "school", a class held at home consisting of himself and his friend Felix, a boy with cancer, he starts a writing project. He decides he's going to write a book about himself. It becomes a sort of log of all his thoughts, dreams and questions, consisting of lists, pictures and journal entries. He makes a list of the things he wants to do before he dies and a list of questions no one ever answers, he and Felix set out to make them happen and find the answers to those questions.
What I loved most about this book was the consistent, strong and original voice of the main character, Sam. Of course, this was obviously going to be a very sad book. But what makes it so affective is because of the way Sam tells us about it, the way he explains everything so calmly, as if it isn't anything to him because he's had to live with it his entire life. To us, it is something horrible and sad, but to him it's just his life and that's what hit home for me. I've read a few criticisms that say that the book is too sad and depressing, but I thought it was a really cool way to write a sad book. The author never "tells" us to think anything. She doesn't explain everything out to make sure that we feel the right feelings or think the right thoughts. She lets us make our own opinions, and I think that is the best way to write. The author shouldn't assume that every reader will react the same, it's up to the reader how they interpret the text. Like his classes, for example; Sam explains that their teacher always makes sure to keep Felix engaged, because he doesn't like to study. They get to do basically whatever they feel like doing, sometimes they just read for three hours or even blow things up for fun. Sam doesn't say the reason no one cares whether or not they study is because neither of them have very much time, so it doesn't matter if they learn math or not. It's much more heart wrenching when you realize this yourself than if it were written out.
I really liked this book for many different reasons. I loved Sam as character and the way he was written. The writing, too, is really good which only helps the book as a whole. This was Sally Nicholl's first book and I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for her future ones.