Good thought provoking book! Finished it in one sitting, like literally one sitting. A great social message against bullying. Felt really bad for both Daelyn and Santana but I think it finished too . I wanted to read some more!

I came across this tag on My Little Book Blog

I have linked each book I mentioned to their GoodReads page so you can check them out yourself!

 

1.) What was the last book you read?

The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

 

2.) Was it a good one?

It wasn't for me

 

3.) What made it good?

Well, I liked the idea of  the underground compound setting in the aftermath of a nuclear war. 

 

4.) Would you recommend it to other people?

It's not my go to recommendation

 

5.) How often do you read? 

Mostly everyday!

 

6.) Do you like to read?

I LOVE reading

 

7.) What was the last bad book you read?

The last absolutely horrible book I read was Storm by Donna Jo Napoli

 

8.) What made you dislike it?

I had really high hopes for it. Its a Noah's Ark retelling and I just could not get into the writing or any of the characters.

 

9.) Do you wish to be a writer?

Its something I have thought about, but then I think I have too many books to read to write my own. But sometimes i'll get a creative moment. 

 

10.) Has any book ever influenced you greatly?

Many, but only one comes to mind. By the Time You Read This I'll Be Dead by Julie Ann Peters Its about a girl who wants to commit suicide because of the way she is bullied. I read this when I was in high school and I think that's why it had an impact on me.

 

11.) Do you read fan fiction?

No

 

12.) Do you write fan fiction?

Negative

 

13.) What's your favorite book?

It changes. So far this year it's Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson The first in a trilogy. It made me want to travel. And its historical fiction!

 

14.) What's your least favorite book?

I know I have some but nothing comes to mind

 

15.) Do you prefer physical books or to read on a device (like kindle)?

Definitely physical books

 

16.) When did you learn to read?

Whatever age you normally learn to read at.

 

17.) What was your favorite book you had to read in school?

By far, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

 

18.) What is your favorite book series?

Always and forever, The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

19.) Who is your favorite author?

I cant pick

 

20.) What is your favorite genre?

I would have to say YA (and the branches that spring from that) and historical fiction. 

 

21.) Who is your favorite character in a book series?

At the moment, Lee Westfall from Walk on Earth a Stranger

 

22.) Has a book ever transported you somewhere else?

Every one.

 

23.) Wish book do you wish had a sequel?

I Think im going with Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

 

24.) Which book do you wish didnt have a sequel?

The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

 

25.) How long does it take you to read a book?

Anywhere from two days to literally forever

 

26.) Do you like when books become movies?

yes, if I actually read it

 

27.) Which book was ruined by its movie adaptation?

I dont think any that I have seen

 

28.) Which movie has done a book justice?

cant say

 

29.) Do you read newspaper

I think I have only read one newspaper. I bought it from a flea market and its from 1942

 

30.) Do you read magazines?

I like them, but not usually

 

31.) Do you prefer newspaper or magazines?

Magazines

 

32.) Do you read while in bed?

Thats where most of my reading is done

 

33.) Do you read while on the toilet? 

Im not going to say I never have.

 

34.) Do you read while in the car?

Yes but not often

 

35.) Do you read while in the bath

Id love to, but I dont have that kind of set up

 

36.) Are you a fast reader?

yes

 

37.) Are you a slow reader?

no

 

38.) What is your favorite place to read?

Anywhere that it is sunny, warm, and has natural lighting.

 

39.) Is it hard for you to concentrate while you read?

not usually

 

40.) Do you need a room to be silent while you read?

Id prefer it, but not necessary. 

 

41.) Who gave you your love for reading?

Im not sure, I think my grandmother.

 

42.) What book is next on your list to read?

Sounds funny but, I bought it while in a Disney World gift shop. Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson

 

43.) When did you start to read chapter books?

Whatever age you normally do

 

44.) Who is your favorite children's book author?

Barbra Park for sure

 

45.) Which author would you most want to interview?

Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

46.) Which author do you think you'd be friends with?

no idea

 

47.) What books have you reread the most?

I don't reread

 

48.) Which books do you consider "classics"?

I tend to refer to my childhood favorites as classics

 

49.) Which books do you think should be taught in every school?

Nothing in particular, but ones that make you reflect on your life or the world.

 

50.) Which books should be banned from all schools?

Nothing I can think of

 

And that's it! If you read through all of my answers I tag and thank you! 

Daelyn Rice is broken beyond repair, and after a string of botched suicide attempts, she’s determined to get her death right. She starts visiting a website for “completers”— www. through-the-light.com.

While she’s on the site, Daelyn blogs about her life, uncovering a history of bullying that goes back to kindergarten. When she’s not on the Web, Daelyn’s at her private school, where she’s known as the freak who doesn’t talk.

Then, a boy named Santana begins to sit with her after school while she’s waiting to for her parents to pick her up. Even though she’s made it clear that she wants to be left alone, Santana won’t give up. And it’s too late for Daelyn to be letting people into her life... isn't it?

National Book Award finalist Julie Anne Peters shines a light on how bullying can push young people to the very edge.

 

Suicide is a topic of immense fascination to me, but I just wasn't satisfied by the way this book was written. This story felt very contrived at most points.

 

Daelyn is fifteen years old and planning her third attempt at suicide, using a website that has her wait twenty-three days. I'm really not sure what this website was supposed to be, why 23 days was picked, or what happened to other users, but it seemed like a way to show how Daelyn was at the point where she was pretty selfish and felt like only the things that happened to her matter.

 

The methodical way she went through ways she could commit suicide was intriguing and shed light on her character. Hearing about her past through her posting on the forums was revealing as to her motivations and feelings, but I still just wasn't able to connect with her.

 

Santana and Emily were the only characters I really liked in this story. Santana ad his rat were a lot of fun, but I really didn't understand their fascination with a girl who wouldn't speak. It was very contrived. Had she given him any bones, I would have appreciated their budding friendship, but I just don't understand his motivations. Emily, on the other hand, was a breath of fresh air and I think she could do more for Daelyn than Daelyn for her.

 

In a way, this reminded me of a version of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, except that this book would only resonate with younger readers and Speak is timeless.

 

I won't talk about my frustration with the ending.

 

I recommend this for younger readers, but for me this just felt a bit too intentional.

To be quite honest, I hated this book. What Daelyn goes through is shitty but I mean it's just like almost every other YA novel that deals with depression, bullying, and suicide. Young girl hates herself, wants to die, one day she meets a boy that changes everything, blah blah blah, the end. The ending was particularly horrible. One second Daelyn is in her suicidal state and then the next page she's found her lust for life and the book ends. Literally. The ending was rushed to say the least. It was as if the author had lost whatever meaning she thought she had and just gave up.

Sometimes after wasting my time with a truly horrible book, I enjoy reading 1 star reviews for it on goodreads. So I was going over the reviews for this book and all I saw were positive ratings. In this situation I feel like you guys are wrong and so I needed to put up a review to set the record straight. It's probably the fault of all these 4 and 5 star reviews that I suffered through reading this book in the first place.

This book is just so bad. Poor writing, abysmal character development, dialogue straight out of a John Green fan-fiction written by an 11 year old... there is nothing positive I can say about it. The main character is so flat, boring, and one-dimensional that she isn't even a character; she has no personality beyond her exaggerated suicidality. She is a caricature of a depressed person. The male character written in here since every teen book has to have a love interest, is even worse. People like this absolutely do not exist. Our protagonist hardly says a word to him and only glares at him, but that doesn't stop him fulfilling his role for the book and following her around and magically being in love with her, and ultimately being there for her when she needs it. If this book was in any way meant to help someone that was depressed, the inclusion of this character is just baffling to me, considering most people won't have anyone like this; someone that cares and is understanding of their plight, especially not someone that will stay around when they consistently push them away. This is the character I was referring to when I made the John Green fan-fiction comment and you'll see what I mean if you make the grave mistake of reading this book; the difference is John Green is a good writer, and his dialogue is clever, whereas here it is mind-bendingly stupid. One comment the character made that I keep thinking about was when the protagonist didn't eat the crust of her pizza, the male character says something along the lines of "I don't like the crusts either, that means we're perfect for each other." I'm not sure in which universe that makes sense, as this just means nobody eats the pizza crusts and they get thrown away.

Every second I spent reading this was a complete waste of time, and it was honestly insulting to me, not because it was "depressing", but because of the way this book treated both its audience and mental illness. It's not going to teach you anything about understanding people who are depressed and want to take their lives. It's a cheap cash-in of popular titles about teen suicide, such as "Thirteen Reasons Why", which by the way was also a pretty bad book. If you're going to write realistic fiction about mental illness, you need to be able to write compassionately, and you need to understand your subject matter. This author takes the time to do neither.