All These Lives
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Sixteen-year-old Dani is convinced she has nine lives. As a child she twice walked away from situations where she should have died. But Dani's twin, Jena, isn't so lucky. She has cancer and might not even be able to keep her one life. Dani's father is in denial. Her mother is trying to hold it together and prove everything's normal. And Jena is wasting away. To cope, Dani sets out to rid herself of all her extra lives. Maybe they'll be released into the universe and someone who wants to live more than she does will get one. Someone like Jena. But just when Dani finds herself at the breaking point, she's faced with a startling realization. Maybe she doesn't have nine lives after all. Maybe she really only ever had one.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wylie's memorable first novel candidly addresses an impending death with witty, poetic language. Ever since surviving a car crash and a chest infection as a child, 16-year-old Dani has been told that she's a miracle. Dani interprets her fortitude as evidence that she literally has nine lives. But Dani's twin, Jena, is dying from leukemia, and Dani thinks her parents are acting disturbingly normal under the circumstances. Dani distances herself from her straight-talking best friend, bullies her nerdy crush, numbly attends therapy sessions, and parties hard, using her caustic sense of humor to disguise her helplessness. She persuades herself that by ridding herself of her extra "lives," she can transfer them to her sister. The striking prologue prepares readers for one of Dani's suicide attempts, which take place in each of the book's nine sections, creating an excruciatingly tense countdown. Though Dani's belief about having nine lives isn't fully developed, Wylie gives voice to a spectrum of emotions associated with grief, her heroine's indignation over the injustice of death lancing through any hint of sentimentality. Ages 12 up.
