A worthy Costa winner - Rated 
This is one of the most beautiful and evocative novels I have read in a long time. Gussie's honesty and naivity, her simple desire to live her life to the full, is powerful and captivating. She is precocious and engaging. This is a worthy winner of the Costa Children's Award, but do not be put off, this is a book that will appeal to adults and children a like. Gussie's narrative voice shows a candour that would spark a smile in any hardened grown-up. I think Gussie's zest for life can teach many people a thing or two about living.
A real gem, poetic and beautiful - Rated
I was attracted to this little book by the grainy, almost melancholy monochrome cover - the sea and a lowering sky - and then noted the recommendation by Helen Dunmore. I'm a fan of Helen Dunmore so decided to see what was inside.
I liked the writing - poetic, with beautiful descriptions. For instance, on the first page of Chapter One, 'The lights of the little town are twinkling below me, and there is a nearly full moon - its blue-white wedding veil draped across the bay.' I love descriptions like that, so I bought the book.
The narrator is Gussie Stevens, a twelve-year suffering from a congenital heart condition from which she will die unless she undergoes major surgery - a heart/lung transplant. But will the organs become available in time? It sounds morbid and depressing, and nearly put me off buying the book, but it isn't like that at all. It's a gem of a book, bright, positive, and amusing. As Helen Dunmore says, Gussie is a wonderful character. She has an infectious zest for life (although at times I wondered if she seemed rather more mature and better informed than a twelve-year-old would be). And in the early chapters I began to wonder if her interactions with her three cats and their interactions with each other were going to become rather tedious. But they didn't. Gussie's observations on her mother's new relationship, on her parents' failed relationship, on the beautiful, flirty girl who seems to have attracted Gussie's own special friend Brett, and on life in general, are a delight to read. I really felt I knew her, and it seemed very important that she live.
There isn't really a storyline, it's more a snapshot of a few months in a short lifetime and Gussie flits from subject to subject, sometimes veering off at a tangent, but she comes back to her point in the end. This all adds to the feeling that you are sitting listening to Gussie chattering, rather than reading a book.
The book was marred, in my view, only by one tiny factual niggle that jarred, making me stop and check that I had not misread the offending words. Towards the end of the book, Gussie refers to 'Mum's Concise Oxford Dictionary (it's huge and you can't read the words without a magnifier).' She must surely be referring to the Complete OED, the version reduced in size so that the twenty volumes fit into two, and sold with a magnifying glass? Although a very minor niggle, it spoilt the thread for several pages and lingered at the back of my mind.
If you like an exciting fast-paced adventure then this is probably not for you. But if you like a descriptive, character-driven tale you should give this a try. I loved it!
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