Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Before I Die | 2007 | Jenny Downham | Buy |
| 2 | You Against Me | 2010 | Jenny Downham | Buy |
| 3 | Unbecoming | 2015 | Jenny Downham | Buy |
| 4 | Furious Thing | 2019 | Jenny Downham | Buy |
Jenny Downham’s standalone novels each feature a different young protagonist dealing with an intense emotional situation. Before I Die follows a terminally ill sixteen-year-old making a list of things she wants to experience before her time runs out. You Against Me tells a story from both sides of a sexual assault case through dual narrators. Unbecoming explores family secrets across three generations when a grandmother with dementia comes to live with her daughter and granddaughter.
Her most recent novel, Furious Thing, centers on a fifteen-year-old girl who struggles with explosive anger and gradually recognizes that her future stepfather is emotionally abusive. All four novels stand on their own with no shared characters. Downham’s work has earned the Branford Boase Award, the Waterstones Teen Fiction Prize, and a Costa Book Awards shortlisting.