Before I Go

Colleen Oakley's debut pulls off something genuinely difficult: making a story about dying funny and warm without cheapening either the humor or the grief. The central relationship between Daisy and Jack is the real engine here, and it earns most of its emotional punches. The premise of wife-hunting strains plausibility for some readers and the ending ties a little too neatly, but Booklist and Kirkus both caught what makes this work — it glows.