Regine's Book: A Teen Girl's Last Words (review)

In August of 2008, Regine Stokke, a seventeen-year-old Norwegian girl, was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, a rapidly progressing form of bone marrow cancer. In November of that year, Regine began a blog to chronicle the progression of her treatment. Her goals were to educate people about what it is like to live with a serious illness on a day-to-day basis, as well as to raise awareness for the need for blood and bone marrow donations. By the time Regine died in December of 2009, her blog had attracted thousands of followers, and she and her parents had committed to turning it into a book so that her story could be shared worldwide. With photos of Regine and photos taken by Regine, who aspired to be an artist, writer, and photographer, this gripping true story documents her physical and mental state as her health progressively deteriorates. Regine shares factual information about the disease and the various treatments she received, as well as detailed accounts of how she feels and how she spends her days. Selected comments from her blog are also provided; most are understandably supportive, but also included are some surprisingly negative responses from people who viewed her as a publicity hound and still others who were inappropriately macabre. Regine herself is honest about her highs and lows, her high points being her time with her family and meeting the bands she loves at concerts, and her lows becoming increasingly frequent as her pain worsens daily and it becomes clear that she will not survive. Deeply moving, this is not for the faint of heart; the medical tests Regine endures are unflinchingly described, and her sadness becomes palpable the closer she comes to the end. Most often this sort of plot is rendered through fiction; avid fans of morbidity literature who brave Regine's powerful saga will likely have to confront their fascination in the same way her favorite black metal band, Ulver, did on their website after meeting her: "Our burdens are nil compared to yours. . . . Forgive us our pathetic coquetry with death. We don't know what else to say." Indeed.