This book was one of the 2011 Abe books, but I delayed reading it because it concerns a dying teen - emotional stuff. But in the hands of a writer like Chris Crutcher, there are themes worth the inevitable tears here. The main character, Ben Wolf, learns he has terminal cancer during a routine sports physical at the opening of his senior year. Being 18, he refuses to let his doctor tell anyone else and refuses treatment. Instead, he sets about making his last year count for a whole lifetime. In the hands of a lesser writer this could be unbearable. But there is no sentimentality, no unnecessary pulling of heartstrings as smart-ass Ben meets his mortality on his own terms and touches the lives of everyone around him.
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