A Bucket full of Awesome by Zainab T. Khan
Genres: Young Adult
Published Date: February 14th, 2015
Pages: 208
Format: Ebook
Rating: 5*
Synopsis:
"You know, Blake, even though we all know that cancer is a heartless dragon who wants to take everything and everyone into its fiery pit, we still fight with it. We still hope. And we clash again and again with its fire, and even though we get burned, we don't accept defeat. Humans are the most fragile yet the strongest beings on earth."
"And they are the most stubborn."
I laughed, "Right. They are stubborn."
*
Summer Wallace is a wild, crazy girl who simply couldn't care less about her appearance. She strongly believe in the saying, "You Only Live Once", in teenage subculture also known as YOLO. She plays basketball like her life depends on it. Well, it sort of does, she loses one game and there's a dent in her ego, not a small one either.
Meet Blake Walker, her best friend and her partner-in-crime. Although he is just like his childhood best friend in acting-like-a-kid department, he can be a bit saner than her. Though, at times, he can be crazier than her. But a day changes both of their lives which leads Summer to make a bucket list and complete it before her whole life takes a 180 degree. Whereas, Blake is determined to keep her as long as he can. And he is perfect for the job. After all, he knows her more than anyone else. And they have no room for regrets. As Summer Wallace says, "There shouldn’t be any space for regrets in our beautiful lives.”
Review:
This book, oh this book... Where do I even start?
First of all, like my best friend said to me: ''Not all books are perfect and you have to stop getting so hyped and write a review where you point out the negative parts and what you didn't like''. And yes, it is very true what she said but (there is always a but), I actually don't have anything that I didn't like about this, except that it could be bigger because I loved it.
So... *composes herself into a professional person* The book is written in the first person and in the point of view of Summer Wallace, though almost at the end it changes into Blake Knight's POV and then again into Summer's POV.
Summer's almost 20 years old and getting to read her thoughts at that right moment, her actions, you get into her skin like if you were her. The writing was surprisingly simple in a way but also complex (in a positive way). Since it was Summer's mind that we were reading, the way she speaks/thinks is actually like a teenage girl from nowadays, for example when she says: ''make-out session with the concrete floor.''; ''Awesome. Please note the sarcasm.'' or ''Seriously, dude?'', these expressions that sound like something a girl of her age would say made me get even more attached to Summer and the story because even I speak like that so it made feel like I could relate to her.
SPOILERS
The fact that right in the beginning she denied receiving treatment and why she did it sounded quite realistic. She feared death but feared more if she died while missing all the things in her life that she loved to do like playing basketball for indeterminate hours with Blake. I think that her strong personality made all the story even more interesting because she tried to show her strong side even though that in the inside she was actually scared and didn't want to make anyone suffer because of a stupid disease (Summer's words).
Blake is a very important character here since besides being Summer's best friend, he's her pillar, the one who's beside her all the time and through all her life and obstacles that somehow she tries to avoid them like if they don't exist but Blake knows it, he knows how she feels even if she doesn't say a word about it.
If it wasn't for him, Summer wouldn't be doing the treatment and would probably die and then not truly enjoy her life.
There's a lot more that I can say about these two characters and the others like Luke, Lucinda or even Cameron. They all supported Summer and tried to make her see that with just a little effort everything would be okay and in the end she would be healthy and beside the ones she loves and cares for.
For me it was obvious that Summer and Blake had feelings for each other but because they were best friends since always they didn't even think about that, but with time Summer started to get more scared about her condition and if she would survive and the talk she had with Cameron about why was she avoiding Blake made her see that avoiding him, so he didn't get hurt if she died, was actually hurting him more. Cameron opened her eyes to reality and so did Blake with a letter she wrote to him where she exposed her true feelings.
I think that the whole story was well structered and it's timeline was consistent. We got to see several stages of Summer's illness and all the learning she did while doing the things she had in her ''bucket full of awesome'' (bucket list).
I did actually cried a couple of times and laughed a gazillion of times. If you read this book (I hope you do), count on a gazillion of funny moments.
The last thing that I want to point out is the inspirational side of the book.
You see Summer struggling with her disease but also you get to see what she learns with it and with all the adventures she has while trying to finish her bucket list.
To finish, here are some parts that I thought were inspirational and beautiful:
''You are no princess. You are a warrior. You don't own a tiara or create peace and harmony. You wear spiky shoes and create caos. You, my darling friend, are a firecracker. A bomb which can explode anytime. You don't go for dresses, but jean shorts, leather belts, and spiky boots. Princesses are just too main stream whereas you, darling, are the only one of your kind. One and only.'' - Blake
''It's a given that we'll face difficulties and breaking points in our lives but with them we'll also have lots of positive moments. We only have to recognise them and let them be. We shouldn't burden those few positive moments with the negatives in our lives or we're going to just ruin them. Life is full of drama, competition, difficulties, and God knows what else. But that shouldn't rule out the love, happiness and joy we feel by being around the things we love and the people who love us. That's how life is. It's supposed to be bitter, but you have to sweeten it.'' - Summer
