before i go by Colleen Oakley

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.

 

--Isaac Asimov

Daisy Richards has beat cancer in the past. However, after a few years, the news from Doctor Sanderson is far more difficult for her and Jack to handle. This time the cancer has spread throughout Daisy's body. She has only four to six months to live. The novel before i go by Colleen Oakley is about how Daisy, Jack, her mother and her friends react to this news. It's also about what will Daisy choose to do with the remainder of her life?

This novel will break your heart and mend it again. Daisy seems like a  real person. Many times I thought, "Well, I would react the same way as Daisy in this situation." I thought this way when she bought bunches and bunches of groceries she didn't need. I could also understand when she became so terribly angry with Kayleigh, her friend. Horrible feelings about Kayleigh flew out of her mouth like birds taking flight.

Daisy also decides to help Jack find a new wife. So, she begins looking on the internet and she goes to the dog park and other places to find the perfect woman for her Jack. At first, I didn't like this part of the novel. It seemed silly. What woman in her right mind looks for a wife for her husband before she dies? Not me, I'm too jealous to do such a good deed for my husband. But the author, Colleen Oakley, pulls the matchmaking game off well. Daisy wavers in her decision. She becomes extremely jealous, her imagination grows wider and wider. She misjudges Jack's feelings and where he is sleeping and with whom before she goes under the surgeon's knife.

This part of the novel became fun. It twisted my emotions all sorts of ways. I found myself angry with Jack and didn't know why. I hated the woman named Pamela for no good reason. I mumbled about Copper, Pamela's horse.

Taking a deep breath and calming down again, I suppose before I go is all about life. Its  never totally dark and never is it totally light. I suppose our lives are like the weather, a little bit of sun here, overcast here and rainy here. In the end, there is always a rainbow in the sky.  In the novel, Daisy learned the best way to handle it was just "to let go."  I know one thing my eyes are still wet from crying about what happened in the month of May. Is it really all about Jack, or is it still very much about Daisy-Bear? Gallery Books, colleenoakley.com/book/