Format: e-ARC
Source: Publisher via Edelweiss
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: January 27, 2015
My Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
A teenage boy tries to understand his best friend’s suicide by listening to the playlist of songs he left behind in this smart, voice-driven debut novel.
Here’s what Sam knows: There was a party. There was a fight. The next morning, his best friend, Hayden, was dead. And all he left Sam was a playlist of songs, and a suicide note: For Sam—listen and you’ll understand.
As he listens to song after song, Sam tries to face up to what happened the night Hayden killed himself. But it’s only by taking out his earbuds and opening his eyes to the people around him that he will finally be able to piece together his best friend’s story. And maybe have a chance to change his own.
Part mystery, part love story, and part coming-of-age tale in the vein of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Tim Tharp’s The Spectacular Now, Playlist for the Dead is an honest and gut-wrenching first novel about loss, rage, what it feels like to outgrow a friendship that’s always defined you—and the struggle to redefine yourself. But above all, it’s about finding hope when hope seems like the hardest thing to find.
My Thoughts:
The characters were so easy to relate to, which I feel is a must, especially with this type of book, Falkoff does it wonderfully though. I felt sympathy with what Sam was going through, and I wanted to figure out what was going on just as much as he did. I even felt a connection with Hayden, which is saying something about this author’s writing abilities since we never actually ‘meet’ Hayden.
Falkoff writes an emotionally gripping and thought provoking story and I was completely absorbed in Sam and Hayden’s story. I would definitely recommend this book to those who don’t mind books with tougher subjects.
Christy
Latest posts by Christy (see all)
- The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich - May 29, 2017
- One of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus - May 22, 2017
- Violet Grenade by Victoria Scott - April 24, 2017
Characters that are easy to relate to are the best, and I'm really glad that you liked this one! 🙂
Kim @ Divergent Gryffindor
Glad you really liked it! I didn't like it as much, I just couldn't get a connection to any of the characters (and like you said, it's a must for these types) and I didn't like Hayden all that much, I don't know if it's because I read a few similar ones in a row that I liked so much more before, or something else, just wasn't for me I guess.
My recent post Project Blue Monday: All the Bright Places
I did enjoy this — Hayden felt a bit young to me, and I felt at times that this story tried to go in too many directions, with the playlist and the revenge plot and the goth girl (whose name now escapes me) but I enjoy a story with a guy friendship — there aren't too may of those!
Jen @ YA Romantics
Ohh this is good news! I wasn't sure about this one at first. On one hand, the topic is important, and it sounds good in theory, but I was worried it'd be like Love Letters to the Dead, which I kind of hated. I am glad the characters were easy to relate to, that is an absolute must for me, especially when the book is supposed to have an emotional component. Great review, I will definitely be checking this one out!
I usually try and stay away from books with tough subject matters, but I do make the occasional exception. Should this one be that exception? Hmmm…not sure. Great review, glad you enjoyed it!
My recent post Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Auto-Buy Authors