Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Survivor Wants To Die At The End by Adam Silvera

21 reviews

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Wow, Adam Silvera really hit it out of the park with this entry in the DeathCast Universe. 

Alano and Paz’s stories being so intertwined was so shocking. Learning more and more about their past just made the ending so much more heartbreaking 

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Adam Silvera I will knock you door down

Finished this book and just had "What do you mean?" repeating in my head as if I'm in one of Paz' spirals

Best plot twist I think I've ever seen
Setting up a series where you spend the whole time preparing yourself that someones gonna die to then have the plot twist be "Everybody lives! Just this once, everybody lives!"


Now I need the next book so I can have some facts, please and thank you 🙏😊

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I went in with high expectations considering it was tackling such heavy subject matters and providing more insight into life intertwined with the Death-Cast company. However, my expectations were exceeded by far by providing: (1) awareness of lesser discussed mental health disorders, (2) demonstrations of how healing is not linear, (3) a mixture of tense and sweet moments between the characters, especially when the people in Paz & Alano's lives meet. The complexity of relationships between friends and family ultimately left me wanting to love louder and bolder. The previous Death-Cast books have a lot of paths crossing, but in this book Silvera creates so much more depth that strengthens the themes present. The only thing that was challenging for me to grasp was a certain aspect in regards to learning more about Alano towards the end. There was a piece about him that required me to suspend my belief a little, but it did not affect the rating considering Death-Cast in itself is a concept I've bought into since the first book. Overall, this was a six star book! This is the first book this year that moved me in a way that broadens my perspective on how to love someone in need of professional help. NATIONAL SUICIDE & CRISIS LIFELINE: 988

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I have no words for this. While, for obvious reasons, this was a very heavy book, it may very well be, thus far, my favorite of this series.
I loved the cameos and mentions of characters from the other books, and often found myself squealing when my favorite characters made guest appearances.
More than that, though, I loved the way the relationship between Pas and Alano grew. It felt more natual than the others, but that is also likely due to the nature of it not being limited to a single day. Generally, I loved Pas and Alano and how genuinely and heartbreakingly relatable they are. I was so very emotionally invested in each of them, very close to the beginning — but I'm uncertain as if if that was from just this book or how I binge-read all three Death-Cast books consecutively (which I would not recommend for the weak of heart).
All in all, I loved this book and its characters so much it was heartwrenching.

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dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

unfortunatly this book reads like a first draft of a fanfiction that noone bothered to edit and contains a lot of serious topics that are at times described in very triggering ways or in ways that feel like bad representation 
maybe it‘s a very personal story or a way to reflect for the author, but to me some parts seem almost harmful 

it was catchy enough for me to want to finish reading it though and it‘s fun to find all the little hints and references to other characters and events from the series
i‘m curious to see what the next book will be, especially with
that cliffhanger at the end

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dark emotional sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The First to Die at the End was a fantastic five-star read and They Both Die at the End was at least 4.5 stars, so I was wicked excited for the next installment in the series. I was even more excited when my library’s copy came in and I saw how big of a book it is—my chief complaint with the other two books is the whole 24-hour love story trope. Maybe it’s just because I’m demi, but the idea of falling in love that fast seems ludicrous. The sin is of course forgiven given the circumstance the characters are in, but I often wondered if their love stories would have lasted if somehow, despite their books’ title, Rufus and Mateo and Orion and Valentino had all survived. Unfortunately, The Survivor Wants to Die at the End was 707 pages of disappointment. 

My first issue is the whole concept of Paz needing Alano to love him and rescue him and give him a reason to keep living. I have personally had someone trap me into an extremely toxic relationship using that kind of mentality, and it is not healthy. Maybe it works out okay for Paz and Alano, but it’s setting a dangerous example for all of the real-life young adults who might be reading this and thinking that if they really love their partner, then they should be like Alano and become both lover and therapist, and blame themselves every time something goes wrong.

Second, why does the whole world hate Paz so much? Some of this is his skewed perception of the world because of the MDD and BPD, but a lot of it is real. It just seems highly unlikely to me that so many people would believe that a nine-year-old boy is a vicious murderer, even when all evidence and a full blown trial prove it was self defense and to save his mom. 

Third, Rio and Joaquin are both major assholes, and Ariana isn’t too great, either. Rio and Joaquin in particular seem to oscillate wildly between being decent people who have made some mistakes but who love Alano, to being absolute monsters. It strains my credulity and felt contrived to hype up the drama. 

Fourth, it has become abundantly clear that Silvera really struggles to write women as anything more than briefly mentioned side characters. In this book, both Gloria and Naya get their own chapters sprinkled in, and literally the entire time we’re in their POVs, all they can do is obsess about their children, their miscarriages, their pregnancies, etc. Other side characters like Rolando and Joaquin get to be real people with depth, agency, and a wide breadth of concerns, but the mothers in this book only ever get to be mothers. Even Andrea Donahue doesn’t get to be greedy and out for self-gain—everything she does is for her daughter. It’s like Silvera can’t imagine another motive for literally any action ever if the character is a mother. And also, apparently Silvera thinks it’s worth suffering through 12 miscarriages and literally almost dying to have a child?!? Major yikes. This is why adoption exists, people…

Finally, the entire end sequence felt jarring. To avoid spoilers, let’s just say that the jump from Alano’s discovery about his alerts to where he ends up was way too sudden and way too extreme, and once again, the only solution that worked was true love and the whole “you jump, I jump line” (which was great in the movie Titanic but is super effing toxic IRL).  

The takeaways from this book seem to be: 1. If you’re suicidal, the only way out is to find true love, and 2. If you’re a mother, you lose your personhood to the role. So what started out promising ended up being a huge disappointment, and I’m not sure if I’ll be picking up the next book 4, which really is a shame because I loved the first two so much. 

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dark emotional sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Theories for the future:
  1. It was his mom that signed Alano to Death Cast again. 
  2. I knew Alano was the reason for the Decker Dozen and his dad knows. 
  3. Alano is probably going to get the call. Or maybe it is Paz but one of them is going to get the call. 
  4. This book focused a lot on mental health. I think it felt more mature than the other two. I’m assuming he’s going to destroy us in the next one. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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