Smart-mouthed, funny, and sometimes crude, Richard Casey is in most ways a typical seventeen-year-old boy. Except Ritchie has cancer, and he’s spending his final days in a hospice unit. His mother, his doctors, and the hospice staff are determined to keep Ritchie alive as long as possible. But in this place where people go to die, Richie has plans to make the most of the life he has left.
Fifteen-year-old Sylvie, the only other hospice inmate under sixty, has plans of her own. What begins as camaraderie soon blossoms into love, and the star-crossed pair determine together to live life on their own terms in whatever time they have.
Hollis Season has created one of the most original voices in young adult literature, narrating a story that is unflinching, graphic, heart-breaking, funny, and above all, life-affirming.
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“Narrator
Noah Galvin doesn’t hold back on Richie’s dark, sarcastic tone, especially as
he sneers at the sappy harpist whose music ‘seems a bit premature,’ especially
for dying teenagers like him and Sylvie. When fifteen-year-old Sylvie tells him
she doesn’t want to die a virgin, a smile hovers in Galvin’s voice as Richie
realizes it’s never too late to turn into the popular guy and life is ‘all
about surprises.’ Galvin also portrays the tender Sylvie and the nurses who
care and grieve for the dying, but they form an emotional backdrop. Galvin
keeps Richie in the foreground, noting his wonder, and anger, with
heartbreaking intensity. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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AudioFile