aimxxgarcia's review
5.0
It was a suicide story, and not something I personally like. But it was beautifully written, I have to give it a high rating.
irrelahvant's review against another edition
4.0
I liked it tbh! Too lazy to write more but I wrote a brief review on my blog - http://awkwardainee.blogspot.sg/2015/04/book-review-1.html
ienzg's review against another edition
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
khairun_atika's review
3.0
Liz Emerson is a force to be reckoned with, a popular mean girl who intimidated everyone. She lived a luxurious life, is popular, and had loads of less-than-friends-more-than-acquaintances who admired her. Yet, she carefully laid out a plan to crash her own car to make it look like a suicide. This is yet another Young Adult novel dealing with teenage depression. It is not exactly refreshing, but I find it imperative in raising social awareness about bullying, depression and suicide. Liz is quite the anti-hero, but she is the bully filled with remorse and guilt, who needed guidance to face up to her mistakes. This makes her somewhat endearing to the reader, as we mourn her losses, and hope thay we do not mourn for her. She reminded me of Mia Hall from If I Stay, and from Sam Kingston Before I Fall. Both were brilliant novels as well. If you had enjoyed those stories, you would definitely like this. A brilliant read :)
somarostam's review
5.0
I have been hearing a lot about Amy Zhang and her debut novel, Falling into Place. And have you read the blurb? It's so intriguing and I don't know, I just kinda felt like this would be the kind of book I would like and it totally was!
One day, Liz Emerson decides to die. She plans it. She knows just the right way of dying. But when plans go wrong and life takes different turns, everyone is affected. Liz's best friends with their secrets, Julia and Kennie. And the guy who has been in love with Liz for as long as he remembers, Liam. And most of all, Liz herself.
The blurb really intrigued me. It's pretty clear that Liz tries to kill herself. But I didn't know if she succeeded (and this book was about the aftermath of her death) or she didn't (and this book was about consequences). It is good if you dive blindly into this book so I am not going to screw this up for the readers.
This book is told in now and before chapters. We have flashbacks, which are essential to the story. And we have Liz's friends and family in the now. I loved the flashbacks, they make us see Liz in a whole new light and connect with her. Liz is an angry person, she is not a quitter but it seems like she has finally had enough. I could see where she was coming from and all the expectations around her and her will to end it all. But I loved her best friends even more. Complicated, three-dimensional characters. They never failed to add tension and background. Julia was definitely my favorite.
She is such a great character. A loyal and true friend. Every character had their own puzzle to solve, their own problems and flaws to deal with. They felt real, and that really matters in a contemporary novel. This book is not fast-paced and i didn't think it should be. After all, this is a plot-driven story of loss and redemption and choice, the author needed time to build up the drama and the reasoning and she excelled at it.
I LOVED the ending. Specially the last chapter. Short and meaningful. Amy Zhang has powerfully expressed herself in the world of contemporary and she is definitely on the list of my authors to look out for in the future.
One day, Liz Emerson decides to die. She plans it. She knows just the right way of dying. But when plans go wrong and life takes different turns, everyone is affected. Liz's best friends with their secrets, Julia and Kennie. And the guy who has been in love with Liz for as long as he remembers, Liam. And most of all, Liz herself.
The blurb really intrigued me. It's pretty clear that Liz tries to kill herself. But I didn't know if she succeeded (and this book was about the aftermath of her death) or she didn't (and this book was about consequences). It is good if you dive blindly into this book so I am not going to screw this up for the readers.
This book is told in now and before chapters. We have flashbacks, which are essential to the story. And we have Liz's friends and family in the now. I loved the flashbacks, they make us see Liz in a whole new light and connect with her. Liz is an angry person, she is not a quitter but it seems like she has finally had enough. I could see where she was coming from and all the expectations around her and her will to end it all. But I loved her best friends even more. Complicated, three-dimensional characters. They never failed to add tension and background. Julia was definitely my favorite.
She is such a great character. A loyal and true friend. Every character had their own puzzle to solve, their own problems and flaws to deal with. They felt real, and that really matters in a contemporary novel. This book is not fast-paced and i didn't think it should be. After all, this is a plot-driven story of loss and redemption and choice, the author needed time to build up the drama and the reasoning and she excelled at it.
I LOVED the ending. Specially the last chapter. Short and meaningful. Amy Zhang has powerfully expressed herself in the world of contemporary and she is definitely on the list of my authors to look out for in the future.
novellearts's review
1.0
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I was hoping to. I had heard that this book was somewhat similar to Looking for Alaska, so naturally, I got my hopes up. I loved the timeline in Looking for Alaska but I was vastly disappointed by the timeline in this book. The timeline was not chronological like I had expected. Instead the timeline was choppy and jumped all over the place making it difficult to remember how everything fell into order. I was also rather annoyed with the amount of times that I had to read "Liz Emerson." Liz, in general was also very frustrating. You could see that she had a heart, yet she never showed it.. She did the exact opposite most of the time. Then when I reached the end, I wanted to know more about how everyone and everything turned out.. But as readers, we don't find out much.
Overall, this book was nowhere near my favorite but it also wasn't awful. If you're looking to read a book like this one, I would strongly suggest Looking for Alaska.
Overall, this book was nowhere near my favorite but it also wasn't awful. If you're looking to read a book like this one, I would strongly suggest Looking for Alaska.
babbieabbi's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I genuinely really liked this book. The writing was well done, the timeline was well done, and I really was on the edge of my seat to see what the ending would be. That said, I didn’t love the main character. I know you’re probably not supposed to, but she never tried to make amends. I guess that’s something that would come after the end of the book, but it was still a little bit disappointing. Overall this book was really good
emilyusuallyreading's review
3.0
What I Liked
Liz's story is told from an interesting perspective. This is an easy read, hard to put down, and compelling from the first page to the last.
What I Didn't Like
However, I just never could stand Liz. I never could understand why people loved her.
Liz's story is told from an interesting perspective. This is an easy read, hard to put down, and compelling from the first page to the last.
What I Didn't Like
However, I just never could stand Liz. I never could understand why people loved her.
katherinebel's review
4.0
Me es muy difícil decir lo que pienso sobre lo que acabo de leer. Al principio tenía una imagen de Liz muy parecida a la que tengo de Margo de "Ciudades de Papel" (personaje que odié completamente), pero a medida que avanzaba la historia iba cambiando mi percepcion de la protagonista. Comencé a entender lo que pasaba en su cabeza y se me hizo un poco mas fácil aceptarla. Hubo partes de su historia en las que la odiaba por hacer lo que hacía y la odiaba cuando se daba cuenta de que aquellas cosas eran horribles, y después decía arrepentirse y pensaba en que habia arruinado la vida de alguien, pero volvía a hacer lo mismo una y otra vez. La vi como un personaje de carácter débil, que lo tenia todo y a la vez nada, que se dejó llevar, que no tuvo la valentía de contarle a sus propias amigas lo que ocurría en su mente, todo por consecuencia de la falta de amor de su madre, y la culpa que sentía por perder a su padre de forma tan trágica.
Cuando empecé a darme cuenta de quién era el narrador de la historia, empecé a emocionarme muchísimo, estuve a punto de llorar pero me contuve. Comencé a pensar en las miles de personas que sufren lo mismo y no ven salida a los problemas, y comienzan a pensar en cómo no merecen vivir y que el mundo no los necesita. Cuando en realidad SI LOS NECESITAN, pero son incapaces de ver la realidad, dejan de confiar en que ellos pueden cambiar, de que la vida tiene mil cosas por las que agradecer y que realmente no estan solos.
Este libro cambió mi forma de ver el tema del suicidio, y creo que el darse cuenta de que una persona necesita ayuda a veces no es tan sencillo como parece.
Cuando empecé a darme cuenta de quién era el narrador de la historia, empecé a emocionarme muchísimo, estuve a punto de llorar pero me contuve. Comencé a pensar en las miles de personas que sufren lo mismo y no ven salida a los problemas, y comienzan a pensar en cómo no merecen vivir y que el mundo no los necesita. Cuando en realidad SI LOS NECESITAN, pero son incapaces de ver la realidad, dejan de confiar en que ellos pueden cambiar, de que la vida tiene mil cosas por las que agradecer y que realmente no estan solos.
Este libro cambió mi forma de ver el tema del suicidio, y creo que el darse cuenta de que una persona necesita ayuda a veces no es tan sencillo como parece.
danspilledmilk's review
5.0
I was in a whirlwind of emotion while I was reading. Right of the bat I was hooked and interested.
This book does have the topic of suicide so please be warned if you are triggered by that.
This is one of the first book that I read that was nonlinear. It gives you questions and at times where you don't expect it the answer is given to you. I also enjoyed how you, as the reader, get to piece the puzzle of the story on your own.
Now the story was all of the feels. Every teenager (being one myself) must have gone through some of the incidents in this story. It may not be the suicide but there are a lot of topics that have been glazed in this short book that us teenagers can relate to and/or even learn from. I would not recommend this book to the younger teenagers. Lets be cautious. But I do recommend it to every 16 year old up who has ever been through high school. And, CONTINUE LIVING. Its hard at some parts but living is worth it. Trust me.
This book does have the topic of suicide so please be warned if you are triggered by that.
This is one of the first book that I read that was nonlinear. It gives you questions and at times where you don't expect it the answer is given to you. I also enjoyed how you, as the reader, get to piece the puzzle of the story on your own.
Now the story was all of the feels. Every teenager (being one myself) must have gone through some of the incidents in this story. It may not be the suicide but there are a lot of topics that have been glazed in this short book that us teenagers can relate to and/or even learn from. I would not recommend this book to the younger teenagers. Lets be cautious. But I do recommend it to every 16 year old up who has ever been through high school. And, CONTINUE LIVING. Its hard at some parts but living is worth it. Trust me.