The F-It List

Gr 10 Up—Alex and Becca have been best friends since third grade. Then Alex's father dies at the end of their junior year, and Becca sleeps with Alex's boyfriend the night of the funeral. Hurt and angry, Alex stays away from her all summer. On the first day of school, she plans to make up with her and learns that Becca has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Because Becca doesn't know if she will live much longer, she asks Alex to take her bucket list, which they rename the F-It List, and carry out the items on it. Alex reluctantly accepts and fulfills a few of the assignments, such as eating a hot pepper and masturbating. The story chronicles Becca's illness and Alex's acts of friendship, which are performed primarily out of guilt that Becca is sick and she isn't. Alex is also trying to deal with a complicated relationship with a new boyfriend as well as the loss of her father. The characters have a limited vocabulary of curse words but use them constantly and gratuitously. Both girls have casual, unprotected sex with all of their boyfriends without any thoughts of taking precautions. The plot is predictable and the teens arouse little or no sympathy from readers.—Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC