By The Time You Read This I'll Be Dead

This is difficult read, but certainly griping and in a way enjoyable. I bought because I sometimes have to teach 'difficult topics' to teenagers and am always on the look out for potential resources. BTYRTIBD gripped me much more than I was expecting and was really moved by reading it, so much so that I was reluctant for the novel to come to the end. The main protagonist Daelyn Rice is very convincing and I was on her side almost at once. Seeing the world though her eyes could be difficult at times.Warning potential spoilers latter on in review.I found it hard going at times, naturally enough because of the topics covered and how powerful Peter's prose is. There are some useful educational resources at the back of the book, so if you too are looking for a resource about self-harm and suicide that's a plus.But mainly BTYRTIBD works as a story. With believable characters and lovely prose. The only reason I gave it four stars and not five is because of the ambiguity of the ending. (I can see why a clear-cut ending wouldn't have worked but by the time I reached the end of the book I really really wanted Daelyn to have a happy ending). Indeed so ambiguous is the ending I got into long discussions online about what actually happened which again might well be a positive thing when it comes to using it as a teaching aid.So on balance maybe 4.5 stars.I'm certainly going to look at other books by Julie Anne Peters to see if I can use them with Young Adults as well.

By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead (abbreviated to BTYRT for ease of typing) was never going to be anything other than an intense, sad book. For some reason, I'm always drawn to tough books that pull at my emotions and have me glued to the pages, hoping that something better will happen for the characters, and BTYRT was no exception.Bullying is something that many of us have experienced as children and teens, from schoolyard taunts through to actual physical abuse, and whilst reading BTYRT, Daelyn's story felt so very real, I wanted to grab all the people that had made her so miserable and shake them. Interwoven with the bullying there are also struggles with body-image and an overwhelming need for acceptance.Daelyn is so isolated, so lonely and so very bleak that it was impossible not to feel a huge sympathy for her. The back-story gradually reveals itself, rather than having a huge information dump at once, which makes it all the more haunting and sad as fragments of her teen years come together to form a very disturbing, cruel picture.Ms. Peters strikes the perfect balance of parental involvement, something often missing in YA books, without having them overshadow Daelyn's very private thoughts and actions. Their actions portrayed an overwhelming love and concern for their daughter, but it was also easy to see where they had missed the signs of things going very wrong, despite everything they were doing to try and help her live a happier life.Santana was certainly a bright spot in BTYRT - his outlook on life was so very different to Daelyn's, and the gradual revealing of his own story perfectly juxtaposed with Daelyn's own journey through the past few years of her life.The website that forms the backbone of the plot was a great catalyst for the story. I won't say much about it for fear of spoiling it, but it is mysterious, disturbing and really pulls some of the underlying themes together.This is an intense book, folks. It's haunting, shocking and almost ethereal and Daelyn's story is one that isn't easily forgettable. A quick read but one that is very very worthwhile.And if you're wondering why four stars instead of five? Although I really liked this book, I didn't love the ending - it just didn't work for me, but it does fit the tone of the book.

The book is very easy to read but i was slightly disappointed with the ending, its kind of a 'cliff hanger' and so i didn't quite understand. But leading up to that i could relate and was instantly compelled to read this book. Great for the price also!

Couldn't even get past the first couple of pages; such a boring read

The language is understandable but it was difficult to read at times due to the themes involved in this book. That said, I read it within a day and I liked it.