Wylie, Sarah. All These Lives.

Wylie, Sarah.  All These Lives.  Macmillan/Farrar Strauss  245p  $17.99 978-0-374-30208-5 hs    VG-BN   Realistic fiction     

Dani’s twin sister Jena has cancer and requires a bone marrow transplant, and no one in the family is a match ... not even her twin sister.  Dani’s mom has always told Dani that she has nine lives, since she has survived some harrowing events.  Dani thus decides that if she actively goes about ridding herself of her extra lives, perhaps one of them will find its way to Jena.  As time passes with her family, and a new, unexpected friendship develops, Dani begins to wonder whether she is doing the right thing. 

This is a compelling story about the love between sisters, and the toll that cancer can take on a family.  Dani’s inability to donate bone marrow to her twin sister Jena tears her apart, causing her to push everyone in her life away and embark on a path that has her attempting to take her own life multiple times.  For each time that she survives, Dani believes that a life has been released to find a way to her sister.  The author uses Dani’s friendship with a school acquaintance, Spencer, as a pivot point for Dani to recognize that her approach is not healthy for either her or Jena.

The difficult subjects of cancer and suicide are brought to light in this YA novel that has the reader empathizing with all of the characters, and feeling satisfied with the conclusions reached at the book’s end.    Featuring the twin topics of cancer and suicide, this book will really engage YA readers in high schools.  It should also be included in public-library collections.     

Cancer-Fiction, Twins-Fiction, Suicide-Fiction                     -- Lynn Fisher