Item: Playlist for the Dead
Rating: 4.00
Author: kozbisa

by Michelle Falkoff

A moving, poignant, compelling YA debut, as a 15-year-old boy struggles to understand his best friend's suicide through the list of songs he leaves behind.

Here's what Sam knows: There was a party. There was a fight. The next morning, his best friend, Hayden, was dead. And all he left Sam was a playlist of songs, and a suicide note: For Sam – listen and you'll understand.

As he listens to song after song, Sam tries to face up to what happened the night Hayden killed himself. But it's only by taking out his earbuds and opening his eyes to the people around him that he will finally be able to piece together his best friend’s story. And maybe have a chance to change his own.

Part mystery, part love story, and part coming-of-age tale in the vein of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Playlist for the Dead is an honest and gut-wrenching first novel about loss, rage, what it feels like to outgrow a friendship that's always defined you – and the struggle to redefine yourself.

I really enjoyed this book. I am not exactly sure why I felt "4 Stars" about it and not 5. I think maybe it was the ending or that I thought I should have felt more given the topic. Maybe it was because you think this is going to be a story about suicide, but it's a lot more. The first chapter is tough. Sam finds his best friend, really, his only friend dead. Then he finds the thumb drive with the playlist and a note from Hayden, saying it would explain everything. The bulk of this book is Sam trying to figure out why Hayden did it, but it is also a story of self discovery. Sam learns a lot about himself as he is trying to solve the mystery of Hayden's death. Each chapter is a song (great music, by the way). Each song is appropriately connected to different events in the story, some in real-time, some in flashbacks. I liked the variety of ways the past events were presented to us. The author did a good job of depicting many different types of characters, who defied stereotypes, but she also gave us those characters who looked like they had it all together on the surface, but were privately suffering. In my opinion, there is someone for almost everyone to identify with in this book.

Playlist for the Dead

by Michelle Falkoff

Reviewed by Sam@WLABB on Jun 4, 2015

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