Before I Die by Jenny Downham

ONE OF THE SADDEST BOOKS EVER. Hands down. I mean, all books where the main characters are set to DIE are undeniably sad, just look at Deadline by Chris Crutcher or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But seriously, this book? So devastating.
16-year-old Tessa is perfectly normal except that she has a very limited time left to live. Why? Because cancer is robbing her of a healthy life. So she makes a list of things to do "before she dies." There's all the usual stuff teens always want to try but can't because of self-preservation instincts and morals, but now that she's got nothing to lose, Tessa's up for anything. The thing is, her list is also full of other stuff that will be harder to get, like falling in love or getting her estranged parents back together. And sometimes, when she does get something crossed off her list, it leaves Tessa feeling emptier than ever.
Tessa's best friend Zoey also comes into this story quite a bit. Zoey is the wild one who's up for anything, anytime... until a bad night leaves her pregnant. Tessa wants her to get an abortion, but Zoey, wild, uncontrollable, dance-club Zoey decides to keep the baby and name it Lauren Tessa.
Meanwhile Tessa's cancer is progressing, just when her life starts to get meaningful again. She can't bear to see everybody else in her life move on and watch her wither away while she's stuck, and it turns into a race against time to squeeze all she can out of her short life.
This is the part that really tears me up: near the end, when she knows there's not much time left, she writes notes for her whole family, instructions for each of them, and her best friend and her boyfriend. (Oh yeah, she does get a boyfriend, successfully filling the "Fall In Love" requirement on her list.) For her dad's instructions, she tells him exactly how she wants to be buried, the song she wants playing at her funeral, how she wants them to use her savings to eat lunch after the funeral and buy a huge dessert, and how she says it's fine if they don't visit her, but if they can, would they bring a picnic and sit by her grave?
I was bawling. This book is so good, and it shows how life continues even as parts of it end in tragedy. I'm forever going to miss Tessa, and I only knew her for the four days while I was reading this book.