REVIEW: By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

[Adriana]

 

 

By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead by Julie Anne Peters

The story is about a 15 year old girl named Daelyn Rice who has had a rough life to say the least. She has never had any friends, and as a child she was overweight and constantly teased, at one point even sexually assaulted. Her parents move her around from school to school and take her to different therapists to help her out however nothing seems to help. She has also attempted suicide at least a couple of other times, and in the story she is unable to talk and wears a neck brace because her last attempt consisted of her drinking ammonia and bleach. Because of all this her parents are very involved with her life, unable to trust leaving her alone and trying to do anything to reach out to her. When we meet Daelyn she has recently joined an online community about suicide which tells her she will die in 23 days (through suicide). She then slowly starts preparing for this, determined not to 'fail' at killing herself again. She slowly makes herself invisible, even slowly getting rid of all her possessions. However, the monotony of her life is broken up when a guy her age starts trying to talk to her while she waits for one of her parents to pick her up after school. Daelyn tries her best to ignore him however, refusing to feel anything. After time he manages to break her shell and they even begin dating. A girl in her school also befriends her, and we see Daelyn becoming closer to her parents as the novel reaches her end. All of these changes build the story up and really make one wonder what will happen in the end and if she will end up killing herself or not.

To begin with the story is told from Daelyn's POV, following all her thoughts and fears thoughout the story. The novel does not really take away parents, they play a large role in the story however Daelyn still manages to break away and accomplish things on her own. The story also seems very fast paced as each chapter is not very long and is titled with the days Daelyn supposedly has left to live, adding to the suspense and making time seem like it is flying by. The story is not very varied in terms of themes however it does deal with very important ones such as suicide, bullying, body image, and cancer. The story is also not very varied in terms of diversity in characters, highlighted especially with Daelyn feeling like a complete outsider. In the the novel we do not see a lot of optimism however towards the end when things start looking up for Daelyn and she is coming out of her shell the reader cannot help but hope that her recent changes lead to her not committing suicide. Finally, we do see a lot of strong emotion especially sadness, terror, and frustration.

Here is a Youtube clip which helps explain a little more about the website Daelyn constantly checks throughout the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUo-Fv3pVQQ

Here is another link written by the other explaining why the author chose to write the story:
http://julieannepeters.com/files/InspirationBTT.htm

As much as I enjoyed the novel I'm not sure I would teach it in a classroom. It is a bit graphic in talking about suicide and it honestly makes me nervous that someone will find this book inspiring and commit suicide themselves. However, at the end of the book there is a section filled with discussion questions and information about bullying and suicide for teachers, and if I had to teach this book I would definitely only teach it at a high school level. This book reminded me a bit of Speak, as the protagonist goes through a lot of the same things Melinda did and in the end we see that speaking about her traumas does help. I think what is best about the book however, is the honesty with which it was written. The fact that it is graphic I feel would help draw students as it seems very real.