Author: Julie Halpern
Publisher: Squarefish
Published: March 2015
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Rating: 3/5
Summary:
Alex and Becca have always been best friends. But when Becca does something nearly unforgivable at Alex's dad's funeral, Alex cuts ties with her and focuses on her grieving family.
Time passes, and Alex finally decides to forgive Becca. Then she's hit with another shocker: Becca has cancer. It also turns out Becca has a bucket list, one she doesn't know she'll be able to finish now. That's where Alex comes in, along with a mysterious and guarded boy who just may help Alex check a few items off her own bucket list.
Julie Halpern writes about illness, loss, love, and friendship with candor and compassion. Here is an unforgettable book about living fully, living authentically, and just . . . living.
Review:
So I think I had higher expectations for this book. Mostly because I had read another book that was similar to the fact that there was a character who had cancer and was trying to find ways to live as if they had no time at all (Obviously with the hopes that they would fight the cancer and win). To me there was so much going on and at the same time, nothing at all...
From the beginning you get the aspect that Alex is kind of a Debbie Downer. Like she forgives Becca, but now she thinks that there are so many wrong things happening in her life when in reality they are things that she has no control of, aren't entirely effecting her as a person, and it's all in her head. Like she was just stuck in this mindset that there was nothing that would or could make her life better.
Let me tell you when it got to this "mysterious" boy coming into Alex's life I was really interested. You see this relationship start to develop even though they both have this significant baggage and I was so rooting for them the entire way, and then a bunch of stuff happens (Which I can't explain cause spoilers....duh!) and it left me like...
I honestly thought that the idea of having this bucket list to get done was an amazing idea. Personally I think that it would have been way better had it actually been from Becca's point of view. Not only would you have the aspect of her friend finally reconnecting with her, but then you would also have more to the side of what it's like living with the cancer, yet also trying to live your teenage life.
I do think that there were many laughable moments throughout the book. Some of the dirty and witty banter between Alex and Becca was pretty awesome. Also if anyone has read the part about the Home-school boy next door...wasn't that scene epic or what?!
"I imagined I was Alice through the looking glass, filling the floor with my giant tears, the absorbent books sopping them up until the pages floated along like soggy cracks and I floated away with them."
Overall this book had some great funny moments. Personally for me I just could not connect that well with Alex, because it just seemed like it was her life that everything was wrong, but in reality she couldn't handle what everyone else was going through. It's like her past was holding her back really hard from finally letting go the pain she had been suffering. I also felt like the Bucket List itself fell into the background for many moments in the novel. It just seemed to take too long to finish because I couldn't relate.
That's all for my review of the Bucket List, I hope you enjoyed it, and honestly if you loved it, leave a comment because I'd love to hear another person's perspective on what they thought!
So until the next time, Keep Reading!
Your Graduated Bookworm!! :)
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