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3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I DNF-ed this before, but I’m glad it I picked it up again. This time, the book resonated so much to me. I felt sad and even cried on some parts. This book is like a hug, to all who were left behind. It is comforting, but somehow painful. Each one of the has a sad story to tell. There’s no redemption arc or anything, but you’ll just understand everything. I’m glad i gave this book a chance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
When his best friend, Hayden, dies, Sam is left with a playlist and the instructions "Listen and you'll understand.". He is angry at Hayden for killing himself, and even angrier at himself for not preventing it and not seeing it coming. So he goes around, listening to the playlist on repeat.
PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD IS NOT TRIGGERING. NOT TRIGGERING. At least it wasn't for me. For me it was reallt quite the opposite. It showed me a lot of the result suicide has on the people you leave behind - How they blame themselves for not being able to prevent it. And this book really pictures it well. Sure, there were times where I understood certain plot points were coming before they happened, but in my opinion, that's how it is with every good mystery. Right?
So five stars from me, absolutely the best YA book i've read this year.
PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD IS NOT TRIGGERING. NOT TRIGGERING. At least it wasn't for me. For me it was reallt quite the opposite. It showed me a lot of the result suicide has on the people you leave behind - How they blame themselves for not being able to prevent it. And this book really pictures it well. Sure, there were times where I understood certain plot points were coming before they happened, but in my opinion, that's how it is with every good mystery. Right?
So five stars from me, absolutely the best YA book i've read this year.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
I’m going to start off with the positive things here- because even if I didn’t love this book, I still really enjoyed it.
Playlist for the Dead was a complex story. It dealt a lot with how a lot of the time, people aren’t really what they seem at first glance. Almost every single one of the characters had more to them than Sam initially realized, which was something that I really enjoyed. The novel seemed quite shallow at first, but as the story progressed, you started to realize that everyone had their own motivations and struggles.
Also, I actually recognized quite a few of the songs and the bands they mentioned! Sam and Hayden’s musical tastes were pretty similar to mine. They brought up Paramore, The Ramones, Vampire Weekend, Blink-182, Florence and the Machine, and even Fabulous Killjoys/ Umbrella Academy (not sure which one, just that it was “a comic book series written by the lead singer of My Chemical Romance”). That was a nice surprise.
I also really liked the writing style. It was concise and not all purple prose and pointlessly confusing metaphors (I’m lookin’ at you, We Were Liars).
But now on to the not-so-good stuff. Because it was definitely there.
The ending was a ginormous disappointment. It felt like the entire book was leading up to something that just… didn’t happen. The playlist was just a McGuffin. It had absolutely nothing to do with the mystery? Sam spent the entire book trying to figure out what it meant, and then there was just… nothing. And the Athena “plot twist” was completely predictable. I know who Athena was from the start. I guess I kind of get it- the point of the story was mostly that Sam needed to stop dwelling on the past and learn to move forward- but I think that needed to be hinted at throughout the story, instead of treating it like a mystery and then suddenly spinning around and completely forgetting the playlist. It was frustrating.
I think that was partially because of another difficulty with this book- it didn’t have anything specific it wanted to accomplish plot-wise. It was a romance, a mystery, a coming of age story, and a bunch of other stuff. I feel like it would’ve been a lot more heartfelt and meaningful and stuff if it had just decided what story it wanted to tell.
Anyway, one last thing I’d really like to discuss, because I have very mixed feelings about it as well- the book’s treatment of suicide.
On one hand, it did a very, very good job of pointing out the fact that even when it seems like you’re completely alone in the world, there are people who care. Hayden’s death pretty much shattered the worlds of the people around him, even though he made it pretty clear that he felt as though he was alone and didn’t matter.
But then, on the other hand… the fact that it’s told from Sam’s point of view instead of Hayden’s gives it a sort of emotional distance. And there was the fact that it gave a huge impression that there’s always a reason for suicide. Although I’ve never been in that position myself, from my understanding, there isn’t always a set in stone reason. I dunno. I don’t feel completely qualified to discuss this, but Feminist Fiction does a very good job with it.
Anway… a good book that had a heck of a lot of potential but just didn’t really accomplish everything that it could have.
Three stars out of five, but definitely recommended to people who like three dimensional characters.
Playlist for the Dead was a complex story. It dealt a lot with how a lot of the time, people aren’t really what they seem at first glance. Almost every single one of the characters had more to them than Sam initially realized, which was something that I really enjoyed. The novel seemed quite shallow at first, but as the story progressed, you started to realize that everyone had their own motivations and struggles.
Also, I actually recognized quite a few of the songs and the bands they mentioned! Sam and Hayden’s musical tastes were pretty similar to mine. They brought up Paramore, The Ramones, Vampire Weekend, Blink-182, Florence and the Machine, and even Fabulous Killjoys/ Umbrella Academy (not sure which one, just that it was “a comic book series written by the lead singer of My Chemical Romance”). That was a nice surprise.
I also really liked the writing style. It was concise and not all purple prose and pointlessly confusing metaphors (I’m lookin’ at you, We Were Liars).
But now on to the not-so-good stuff. Because it was definitely there.
The ending was a ginormous disappointment. It felt like the entire book was leading up to something that just… didn’t happen. The playlist was just a McGuffin. It had absolutely nothing to do with the mystery? Sam spent the entire book trying to figure out what it meant, and then there was just… nothing. And the Athena “plot twist” was completely predictable. I know who Athena was from the start. I guess I kind of get it- the point of the story was mostly that Sam needed to stop dwelling on the past and learn to move forward- but I think that needed to be hinted at throughout the story, instead of treating it like a mystery and then suddenly spinning around and completely forgetting the playlist. It was frustrating.
I think that was partially because of another difficulty with this book- it didn’t have anything specific it wanted to accomplish plot-wise. It was a romance, a mystery, a coming of age story, and a bunch of other stuff. I feel like it would’ve been a lot more heartfelt and meaningful and stuff if it had just decided what story it wanted to tell.
Anyway, one last thing I’d really like to discuss, because I have very mixed feelings about it as well- the book’s treatment of suicide.
On one hand, it did a very, very good job of pointing out the fact that even when it seems like you’re completely alone in the world, there are people who care. Hayden’s death pretty much shattered the worlds of the people around him, even though he made it pretty clear that he felt as though he was alone and didn’t matter.
But then, on the other hand… the fact that it’s told from Sam’s point of view instead of Hayden’s gives it a sort of emotional distance. And there was the fact that it gave a huge impression that there’s always a reason for suicide. Although I’ve never been in that position myself, from my understanding, there isn’t always a set in stone reason. I dunno. I don’t feel completely qualified to discuss this, but Feminist Fiction does a very good job with it.
Anway… a good book that had a heck of a lot of potential but just didn’t really accomplish everything that it could have.
Three stars out of five, but definitely recommended to people who like three dimensional characters.
For a first novel, this has been surprisingly good. At first, I thought it's going to be like Looking For Alaska but backwards. With LfA, Miles met Alaska, she died and his whole life's changed. In PftD, Hayden dies, Sam meets Astrid and his whole life changes. It's also a lot like Thirteen Reasons Why, but you probably knew that already. By the way can I just say I love the character names Michelle Falkoff comes up with? - Hayden, Astrid, Trevor - awesome.
Anyway, yeah, that's the story. Sam finds his best and only friend - Hayden - dead on his bed with a flash drive and a note saying, "Listen and you'll understand." The flash drive contains a playlist that somehow is supposed to explain Hayden's death. On Hayden's funeral, a girl, Astrid, talks to Sam claiming she's friends with Hayden. Sam, of course, couldn't believe that Hayden has other friends. Hayden's father talked about Hayden but Sam thinks it's all bull, when the priest called on other people who wants to talk about Hayden, Sam couldn't believe that Hayden's brother, Ryan, would get in line to speak. He went to Ryan to give him a piece of his mind but Ryan's ever present bestfriends were there, (together Sam and Hayden calls them the Bully Trifecta) and they pushed Sam off Ryan.
Anyway, Sam tries to continue his life despite no longer having anyone to talk to but bad things started happening to the bully trifecta and Sam thinks he's the one doing it.
The story, by any means, isn't unique. There's been a lot of stories about teens grieving over their bestfriends who kills themselves, about bullying, at home or at school. But there's something about this book that made me want to finish it as soon as I started it. There's something different with Sam. The way he kept his allegiance to Hayden despite Hayden being dead, to be fair, unlike other stories, Hayden seemed to be a really nice, really good person without evil underneath. I also liked how he remained resolute in his principles. It's kind of hard to explain without spoiling anything but you'll just have to read the book.
Anyway, yeah, that's the story. Sam finds his best and only friend - Hayden - dead on his bed with a flash drive and a note saying, "Listen and you'll understand." The flash drive contains a playlist that somehow is supposed to explain Hayden's death. On Hayden's funeral, a girl, Astrid, talks to Sam claiming she's friends with Hayden. Sam, of course, couldn't believe that Hayden has other friends. Hayden's father talked about Hayden but Sam thinks it's all bull, when the priest called on other people who wants to talk about Hayden, Sam couldn't believe that Hayden's brother, Ryan, would get in line to speak. He went to Ryan to give him a piece of his mind but Ryan's ever present bestfriends were there, (together Sam and Hayden calls them the Bully Trifecta) and they pushed Sam off Ryan.
Anyway, Sam tries to continue his life despite no longer having anyone to talk to but bad things started happening to the bully trifecta and Sam thinks he's the one doing it.
The story, by any means, isn't unique. There's been a lot of stories about teens grieving over their bestfriends who kills themselves, about bullying, at home or at school. But there's something about this book that made me want to finish it as soon as I started it. There's something different with Sam. The way he kept his allegiance to Hayden despite Hayden being dead, to be fair, unlike other stories, Hayden seemed to be a really nice, really good person without evil underneath. I also liked how he remained resolute in his principles. It's kind of hard to explain without spoiling anything but you'll just have to read the book.
Very rushed nearly dissatisfying ending. Wanted more of a drawn together finish.
I wasn't expecting much, and it’s exactly what I got. The story followed Sam who tries to figure out why his best friend killed himself. It follows Sam’s acceptance of his only friend being dead and new friendships that arise. Sam tries to figure out what happened to Hayden by the playlist that he left him.
I liked the idea of the playlist, I was hoping more clues were left there. It all seemed very far-fetched and the songs didn’t mean to much to Sam. Having suicide playlist I was expecting the songs to refer to more than just a feeling he once had but more to do with his friendship with Sam. I tried to listen to the songs after reading the book to see if I could get a better feel of Hayden’s character, apart from the songs being great it did nothing to bring me closer to this character.
“If there’s one thing I learned from the playlist, it’s how important listening to people can be.”
I did find it interesting to watch Sam deal with his grief, but there wasn’t much to it. It was a very standard book on grief that has been done over and over again. Sam’s character wasn’t that easy to connect to.
I would recommend this book; it was nice to see Sam actually making some friends and getting out of his depressed shell.
I liked the idea of the playlist, I was hoping more clues were left there. It all seemed very far-fetched and the songs didn’t mean to much to Sam. Having suicide playlist I was expecting the songs to refer to more than just a feeling he once had but more to do with his friendship with Sam. I tried to listen to the songs after reading the book to see if I could get a better feel of Hayden’s character, apart from the songs being great it did nothing to bring me closer to this character.
“If there’s one thing I learned from the playlist, it’s how important listening to people can be.”
I did find it interesting to watch Sam deal with his grief, but there wasn’t much to it. It was a very standard book on grief that has been done over and over again. Sam’s character wasn’t that easy to connect to.
I would recommend this book; it was nice to see Sam actually making some friends and getting out of his depressed shell.
I'm not sure if I'm missing the point, as I thought the playlist was supposed to give him clues to lead him to the cause of his friends suicide, but it just felt as though he would have found the answers without it? I'm not sure. Anyway not a bad read, but nothing that will leave a long lasting impact and to be honest I found the playlist on another app and enjoyed listening to the songs more than that read itself.