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The Short & Sincere Life of Ellory James
Seventeen-year-old Ellory James has six months to live. To appease her mother, Ellory reluctantly agrees to create a bucket list. She recruits her neighbor, Pete, to help her make it appear as though she’s carrying out ten life-dreams. Ellory is a bucket list faker—until she surprises herself by completing one item on her list and perhaps it’s the most important one of all.
What if life, however long we have left, isn’t so much about the things we do as why we do them--and who we do them with?
What if life, however long we have left, isn’t so much about the things we do as why we do them--and who we do them with?
- GenresNovella
Paperback
First published November 1, 2015
About the author
Wendy Paine Miller
7 books72 followersWendy Paine Miller has written over a dozen novels. Her passion for writing fiction stems from a desire to better understand others and the world around her.
Wendy’s novels have prompted thought-provoking conversations at book clubs all across the country. When she’s not working on her next book, she’s admiring nature, finding something to paint, or spending time with her family.
Wendy resides in California with her husband, their three girls, and their amusing dog in a home bursting with imagination and hilarity.
Wendy’s novels have prompted thought-provoking conversations at book clubs all across the country. When she’s not working on her next book, she’s admiring nature, finding something to paint, or spending time with her family.
Wendy resides in California with her husband, their three girls, and their amusing dog in a home bursting with imagination and hilarity.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 8, 2015
A moving novella for lovers of The Fault In Our Stars, Wendy Paine Miller has penned a story that captivates the reader. Ellory is full of life, even though her life is almost over, and her story draws you into her adventure in a way that makes you wish it could never end. Well written and absolutely lovely, this one is as much for moms as it is for teens.
January 7, 2016
Let me begin by stating that I received a free copy of the book through a Goodreads giveaway for an honest and unbiased opinion. With that being said, I will move on to my review. This was an excellent novella. I sat down late last night with only the intention of beginning the book, and ended up reading it all in one sitting (despite it being a work night). It's a short 133 pages, but it leaves you wishing it were double the length simply so you could continue within the story for a while longer. Due to its brevity, it amazes me how the author was able to elicit such a sense of pathos with so few pages. Many other books I've read twice this book's size have failed to evoke that heart-wrenching and sympathetic response that I received from The Short & Sincere Life of Ellory James. It was as if Miller whittled down all the normal fluff and filler to present only the most important and profound parts needed to impact the reader. It is beautifully written, lush with sensuous imagery, much of it written like lyrical verse.
The first chapter throws us immediately into the story. It's precise, and hooks you from the start. Our main character, Ellory James, is a 17-year-old girl experiencing the late stages of ovarian cancer, given the "expiration date" of six months. The book is told through Ellory writing down her story in order to complete one of her ten bulleted items on her "bucket list." A bucket list that she creates to pacify her mother, and subsequently fakes with the hopes of bringing a sense of peace and completion to her mom after her death. Ellory enlists the help of the acquaintance boy-next-door, Pete Rose (yes, named after the baseball player), to help her in the ruse. The Short & Sincere Life of Ellory James is also a surprisingly touching love story for a book that does not go beyond the physical connection of hand-holding. The emotion and devotion presented in the pages elevates what relationship the characters have to go beyond needing a physical element to make it a powerful love story.
Over the years, several of my family members have been diagnosed with various forms of cancer. The majority have succumbed to it, most recently my father-in-law just three short months ago. I know what that suffering looks like with the many unspoken horrors and humiliations that come with a disease that riddles the body with tumors. This book doesn't try to romanticize the illness like some books I've read where the main character has cancer. It does a decent job of laying out many of those unseemly details and symptoms. The puking, the weakness and weight-loss, the blood and stitches, the chemo ports, the tumors pushing on nerves and invading the organs, the constipation woes, the sleeping for days at a time, hospice...it's there. Granted, for good reason, it's not as gruesome as the reality, but it's still there for others to realize some of what cancer patients go through.
I mentioned earlier that this was a sensuous book. Miller taps into all of your senses, richly describing minute sights, sounds, and smells. You get the idea that Ellory is literally trying to stop and smell the roses with the last months of her life. She's savoring the beauty and the serenity of the things around her, trying to soak them up, and you are drawn in with her.
This is a very touching book, and I am very glad to have read it. I highly recommend it. It's a quick, but powerful read.
There were so many quotable passages from this book. Things that really grabbed me. I'd like to list a few:
The statement that best sums up the book: "'...life isn't so much about the things we do as it is about why we do them - and who we do them with.'"
The part where Ellory describes what cancer is really like, that it is not a battle that the patient has with the disease: "It's more like an uninvited, pushy relative deciding to move in. They slowly take over. Until one day you look around and realize you no longer recognize anything as yours."
At the beginning of the story, talking about her and Pete barely knowing each other: "We're the equivalent of two parallel lines with no reason to intersect."
Ellory talking about her body: "My limbs feel like noodles - loose, and as though they might stick to the ground if I accidentally fall."
The realities of dying and having to "live inside this crumbling vessel."
There's also some great juxtapositions and metaphors in the story:
Talking about the moon during the daytime, which in turn reminds you of Ellory herself and her resolve: "Faded, but still there. It's not showy like the sun. It's subtle. Faint. One might even call it weak. But it's there."
"'The whale flicking its tail out of the water - I got too quick a glimpse.'" That being juxtaposed with the shortness of the "majesty" of life that Ellory has lived.
The idea of "Neighbor Death" being unimposing and quiet.
The first chapter throws us immediately into the story. It's precise, and hooks you from the start. Our main character, Ellory James, is a 17-year-old girl experiencing the late stages of ovarian cancer, given the "expiration date" of six months. The book is told through Ellory writing down her story in order to complete one of her ten bulleted items on her "bucket list." A bucket list that she creates to pacify her mother, and subsequently fakes with the hopes of bringing a sense of peace and completion to her mom after her death. Ellory enlists the help of the acquaintance boy-next-door, Pete Rose (yes, named after the baseball player), to help her in the ruse. The Short & Sincere Life of Ellory James is also a surprisingly touching love story for a book that does not go beyond the physical connection of hand-holding. The emotion and devotion presented in the pages elevates what relationship the characters have to go beyond needing a physical element to make it a powerful love story.
Over the years, several of my family members have been diagnosed with various forms of cancer. The majority have succumbed to it, most recently my father-in-law just three short months ago. I know what that suffering looks like with the many unspoken horrors and humiliations that come with a disease that riddles the body with tumors. This book doesn't try to romanticize the illness like some books I've read where the main character has cancer. It does a decent job of laying out many of those unseemly details and symptoms. The puking, the weakness and weight-loss, the blood and stitches, the chemo ports, the tumors pushing on nerves and invading the organs, the constipation woes, the sleeping for days at a time, hospice...it's there. Granted, for good reason, it's not as gruesome as the reality, but it's still there for others to realize some of what cancer patients go through.
I mentioned earlier that this was a sensuous book. Miller taps into all of your senses, richly describing minute sights, sounds, and smells. You get the idea that Ellory is literally trying to stop and smell the roses with the last months of her life. She's savoring the beauty and the serenity of the things around her, trying to soak them up, and you are drawn in with her.
This is a very touching book, and I am very glad to have read it. I highly recommend it. It's a quick, but powerful read.
There were so many quotable passages from this book. Things that really grabbed me. I'd like to list a few:
The statement that best sums up the book: "'...life isn't so much about the things we do as it is about why we do them - and who we do them with.'"
The part where Ellory describes what cancer is really like, that it is not a battle that the patient has with the disease: "It's more like an uninvited, pushy relative deciding to move in. They slowly take over. Until one day you look around and realize you no longer recognize anything as yours."
At the beginning of the story, talking about her and Pete barely knowing each other: "We're the equivalent of two parallel lines with no reason to intersect."
Ellory talking about her body: "My limbs feel like noodles - loose, and as though they might stick to the ground if I accidentally fall."
The realities of dying and having to "live inside this crumbling vessel."
There's also some great juxtapositions and metaphors in the story:
Talking about the moon during the daytime, which in turn reminds you of Ellory herself and her resolve: "Faded, but still there. It's not showy like the sun. It's subtle. Faint. One might even call it weak. But it's there."
"'The whale flicking its tail out of the water - I got too quick a glimpse.'" That being juxtaposed with the shortness of the "majesty" of life that Ellory has lived.
The idea of "Neighbor Death" being unimposing and quiet.
February 4, 2017
I CAN'T BELIEVE MORE PEOPLE HAVEN'T READ THIS NOVELLA. IT'S INCREDIBLE. A WORK OF PURE GENIUS. I'M RECOMMENDING THIS TO ALL OF MY FRIENDS. READ THIS! I shamelessly, shamelessly cried at this masterpiece. I'm definitely going to be reading more Wendy Paine Miller in the future!
I just adored the relationship between Ellory and her mom! Ellory was super feisty and such a fun narrator, and her dynamic with Pete was so funny. This book is refreshingly unapologetically honest and I loved how Ellory's illness was not romanticized or watered down. With great characters and a fantastic story line this novella is extremely heartbreaking and wholesome- but totally worth the read.
I think Wendy Paine Miller nailed it. She created a world that was so easy to get lost in. Despite how short the book is, you really do connect with all the characters and get very attached. Good writing makes you *feel* something, and I'm so impressed at the effectiveness of this book despite its' length. This novella deserves all the awards and recognition. Give it a read and thank me later.
I just adored the relationship between Ellory and her mom! Ellory was super feisty and such a fun narrator, and her dynamic with Pete was so funny. This book is refreshingly unapologetically honest and I loved how Ellory's illness was not romanticized or watered down. With great characters and a fantastic story line this novella is extremely heartbreaking and wholesome- but totally worth the read.
I think Wendy Paine Miller nailed it. She created a world that was so easy to get lost in. Despite how short the book is, you really do connect with all the characters and get very attached. Good writing makes you *feel* something, and I'm so impressed at the effectiveness of this book despite its' length. This novella deserves all the awards and recognition. Give it a read and thank me later.
March 16, 2016
"I bust out laughing then clutch my belly so I won't break open, spilling out my insides like a cracked egg."
This story has no holds barred. The author tells the truth about cancer and what it does to a person and their family. My mother died of cancer in 2008 so much of this book I can attest to as truth. The ugly, honest, want to look away, truth. Tears prick my eyes now as I think about my mom, and I so appreciate this book and the voice it brings to anyone who has to face cancer at any level.
Of course, I wanted just one more paragraph in the story. Somehow a different than I knew what was coming, ending. But, it is perfect as is. The story was real and poignant and made you think, and smile, and cry, and appreciate life even the more and those that are in our lives for a moment or for, forever.
This story has no holds barred. The author tells the truth about cancer and what it does to a person and their family. My mother died of cancer in 2008 so much of this book I can attest to as truth. The ugly, honest, want to look away, truth. Tears prick my eyes now as I think about my mom, and I so appreciate this book and the voice it brings to anyone who has to face cancer at any level.
Of course, I wanted just one more paragraph in the story. Somehow a different than I knew what was coming, ending. But, it is perfect as is. The story was real and poignant and made you think, and smile, and cry, and appreciate life even the more and those that are in our lives for a moment or for, forever.
November 2, 2015
Once again Miller takes us into the head of an unforgettable character--this time, it's Ellory James. While this novella is a tearjerker, it's not handled so heavily I felt depressed at the end. In fact, many times throughout I was laughing-out-loud at Ellory's antics with her neighbor, Pete. The incident with parasailing springs to mind.
Inventive, lyrical, and rich, this is the kind of short fiction I love to sink my teeth into.
Inventive, lyrical, and rich, this is the kind of short fiction I love to sink my teeth into.
March 6, 2026
From the very first paragraph, The Short and Sincere Life of Ellory James struck me as one of those rare short books that feels much bigger than its page count.
The premise is simple and poignant: Ellory James is seventeen, terminally ill, and trying to figure out how to live a meaningful life in the six months she has left. In order to appease her worried mother, she reluctantly agrees to make a bucket list and that is where the real heart of the story begins.
What I loved most was how the writing does not shy away from the rawness of facing mortality at a young age. Ellory does not just brush aside her illness with a cliché or two. She lives inside it. The book portrays the realities of cancer honestly including the fatigue, nausea, and vulnerability without turning it into something pretty or romanticized.
There is a sense of gutsy realism in her voice that made me feel like I was alongside her as she confronted each day with both fear and resolve.
Take her relationship with Pete, the neighbor she ropes into helping her fake her list. On the surface it might seem like a standard teenage connection, but it quickly becomes so much more. The emotional connection between Ellory and Pete goes beyond physical moments. Their growing bond feels tender, sincere, and rooted in mutual respect and presence not just attraction.
There were moments that made me laugh out loud, especially Ellory’s wry asides when she is trying to convince herself that certain bucket list items are totally reasonable, and others that made me pause and nearly cry, especially when the narrative turns inward on Ellory’s reflections on life and legacy. One line that stayed with me is this: Life isn’t so much about the things we do as it is about why we do them and who we do them with.
That line tied to so much of what I felt while reading.
Another thing I appreciated is that even though this is a book about someday not being far away, it is ultimately a book about life. It does not preach. It simply lets Ellory’s voice be brave, flawed, funny, scared, and alive in equal measure. I think anyone who has ever loved someone or has tried to make sense of loss will find parts of themselves in these pages.
In short, this novella packs emotional punch and wisdom that lingers.
It is earnest without being mawkish, heartfelt without being predictable, and despite its title, long in feeling and meaning.
The premise is simple and poignant: Ellory James is seventeen, terminally ill, and trying to figure out how to live a meaningful life in the six months she has left. In order to appease her worried mother, she reluctantly agrees to make a bucket list and that is where the real heart of the story begins.
What I loved most was how the writing does not shy away from the rawness of facing mortality at a young age. Ellory does not just brush aside her illness with a cliché or two. She lives inside it. The book portrays the realities of cancer honestly including the fatigue, nausea, and vulnerability without turning it into something pretty or romanticized.
There is a sense of gutsy realism in her voice that made me feel like I was alongside her as she confronted each day with both fear and resolve.
Take her relationship with Pete, the neighbor she ropes into helping her fake her list. On the surface it might seem like a standard teenage connection, but it quickly becomes so much more. The emotional connection between Ellory and Pete goes beyond physical moments. Their growing bond feels tender, sincere, and rooted in mutual respect and presence not just attraction.
There were moments that made me laugh out loud, especially Ellory’s wry asides when she is trying to convince herself that certain bucket list items are totally reasonable, and others that made me pause and nearly cry, especially when the narrative turns inward on Ellory’s reflections on life and legacy. One line that stayed with me is this: Life isn’t so much about the things we do as it is about why we do them and who we do them with.
That line tied to so much of what I felt while reading.
Another thing I appreciated is that even though this is a book about someday not being far away, it is ultimately a book about life. It does not preach. It simply lets Ellory’s voice be brave, flawed, funny, scared, and alive in equal measure. I think anyone who has ever loved someone or has tried to make sense of loss will find parts of themselves in these pages.
In short, this novella packs emotional punch and wisdom that lingers.
It is earnest without being mawkish, heartfelt without being predictable, and despite its title, long in feeling and meaning.
October 3, 2017
LOVED THIS BOOK! Started reading it on a Friday afternoon and did not go to sleep until I finished it. Was not expecting a book about a teenager's death to be so much more about life and living it to the fullest.
January 4, 2016
As a mother of grown children I think anyone who is a mother, has a mother, or who has felt motherly toward someone else will be deeply moved by the relationship between Ellory and her mom. And, if I had boys, I would be proud to have sons like Pete and Cy. I think the author captured the emotions, the beauty, the struggles, and the bravery of all the characters. I love all of Wendy Paine Miller's books but think this is my very favorite.
May 23, 2016
This novella is a beautiful, heartfelt story about a teenage girl with cancer who has only a short time left on earth...her expiration date, as she puts it. With the help of the boy next door, Pete, Ellory embarks on a plan to complete a bucket list of 10 items. Ellory is so brave, but realistic, as the disease consumes her body. The author does a brilliant job of portraying Ellory, Pete, and the other characters in this book. You will love this poignant journey.
November 3, 2015
Another fascinating story from Wendy Paine Miller! This young adult novella will appeal to readers of John Green. Keep a tissue box handy because its bittersweet themes will leave you laughing and crying.
February 8, 2016
I always look forward to reading one of Wendy Paine Miller's books and The Short & Sincere Life of Ellory James did not disappoint. I was hooked from the beginning and couldn't put it down. I even read it twice in a row! I laughed. I cried. I loved it!!
January 19, 2016
Wendy Paine Miller has done it again. This novella is for anyone who liked Fault in our Stars. The cool twist in this story is the result of the main character's love for her mother and the special new friendships she develops. I definitely recommend this book.
January 28, 2016
I loved this book! It's The Bucket List meets The Fault In Our Stars. Delightful characters, a unique premise and a length just perfect for a winter afternoon.
March 23, 2016
It was just like every other teen cancer story I have read, but I couldn't connect to the characters in this one :( It was ok....
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews