Before I Go

SPOILER ALERT! This review contains information that reveals significant plot details.

I first read "Before I Go" in 2007, and recently reread it when I was sorting and cleaning my personal library. Like one of its main characters, skater Madison Henry, "Before I Go" doesn't QUITE qualify for the (literary) championship competition.

Prior to reading "Before I Go," I never followed the career of author Riley Weston. However, perhaps I should not have been surprised to learn she is perhaps best known for impersonating a talented teenager both onscreen and offscreen in Hollywood: Ms. Weston may have written "Before I Go" when she was nearly 40, but she wrote like a talented teenager who really needed good research skills and a skilled editor.

Aside from being a Poor Little Rich Boy with a deceased mother who rarely sees his father, Jackson is probably the most well-developed and believable character in "Before I Go." In her pre-cancer period, Madison is too much of a Jekyll (dedicated competitive figure skater with sometimes childlike innocence) and Hyde (often nastier-than-average adolescent, especially to her mother/coach, Annie). The overworked Annie, who may be even more sleep-deprived than Madison, is not a saint, but easily fulfills 90% of the qualifications and is therefore not really believable.

For plot reasons, it was clearly important to Ms. Weston that Jackson and Annie be the only two people Madison is especially close to throughout her entire life. The willing suspension of disbelief allows me to accept that Jackson is Madison's only CLOSE friend, but surely Madison would at least have other acquaintances. Even if they aren't competing at the national level like Madison, wouldn't other young people take regular figure-skating lessons at her hometown's only arena? Wouldn't Madison ever talk to other classmates at her public high school, if only in the few minutes between classes and at lunch (if she's always spewing her trademark sarcastic vitriol, perhaps they wouldn't talk to her). Don't any other teens besides Jackson and Madison live in their section of town? While Madison's lack of any adolescent relationships besides Jackson is difficult to swallow even when thoroughly chewed, it is absolutely impossible to believe that Madison's father (and Jackson) would leave his daughter's deathbed so Annie can be alone with Madison as she dies. No loving father or "love of your life" boyfriend would do this. Never. Ever.

Prior to the Wagner/Nagasu Controversy of 2014 (which underscored how extremely rigged and unfair the USFSA is), I used to follow figure skating somewhat closely since childhood, and know the names of several different skating elements: spiral, Biellmann spin, sit-spin, flying camel, toe loop, lutz, Axel. . .Ms. Weston claims she took skating lessons, planning to eventually play Madison in a movie (really, Riley? This time, literally act your age and opt for Annie instead). If so, then why does she usually refer to generic "jumps" and "spins" in her book? Her skating descriptions, which could have been exquisite, lack fire and all but literal ice.

I also question whether Ms. Weston had the manuscript of "Before I Go" reviewed by an oncologist, or even by a primary-care provider. Although not an MD, I have worked in a major medical center for several years and know how to research medical journals. The idea that a primary-care provider could initially and specifically diagnose a soft-tissue cancer like Ewing's sarcoma using blood tests alone seems VERY unlikely. In addition, it is even more unlikely that a patient being treated for any cancer with multiple chemo infusions would not be given a PICC, Hickman, or port instead of standard IVs requiring repeated needle sticks. . .even if her initial prognosis was poor.

Ms. Weston does have talent as a writer, perhaps especially with dialogue. However, "Before I Go" reveals her weaknesses in characterization and factual research. . .perhaps signs of too much confidence in her literary ability. If she wants to compete with the likes of Judy Blume and Judith Guest, she has work to do.