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    Playlist for the Dead
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    Playlist for the Dead
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    Playlist for the Dead
    Audiobook6 hours

    Playlist for the Dead

    Written by Michelle Falkoff

    Narrated by Davis Brooks

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJan 29, 2015
    ISBN9780008110680
    Author

    Michelle Falkoff

    Michelle Falkoff is the author of Playlist for the Dead, Pushing Perfect, and Questions I Want to Ask You. Her fiction and reviews have been published in ZYZZYVA, DoubleTake, and the Harvard Review, among other places. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and currently serves as director of communication and legal reasoning at Northwestern University School of Law. Visit her online at www.michellefalkoff.com.

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    Reviews for Playlist for the Dead

    3.5/5

    97 ratings12 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Little bit formulaic and a little bit twee. Plus, the playlist is not very good. I was listening to it running and I thought Oh, I can see how the kid killed himself. I would prefer death to this.
    • 3/5
      3.75- the last part of this book was amazing. I don’t know how to feel about this book actually. It was nice being able to see the representation of a guy who committed suicide. But it was sad. Some part of this book was a bit confusing. Gezzzz! I almost cry at the end of this book but tried to hold back my year because I don’t want my sister to see me crying.
    • 4/5
      This was a good read, quick and held my attention. I liked the actual playlist that each chapter referenced. Still not sure why the kid offed himself, but whatever.
    • 4/5
      PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD tells the story of a young man coming to terms with the suicide of his only friend. Both Sam and Hayden were misfits in their school. They banded together because of similar interests in music, comic books, and video games. Sam was the one who found his friend and is the one who is trying to decipher the messages Hayden was trying to convey in the playlist he left him.As Sam explores the playlist he also starts to see that others around Hayden had their own burdens of guilt. Hayden's older brother Ryan and his two good buddies were Hayden's chief tormentors. Sam and Hayden called them the bully trifecta. Now things are happening to the trifecta and Sam is afraid that he might be the one doing them.Sam also meets a girl - Astrid - who seems to know things about Hayden that Sam never knew. She and Sam become close until Sam learns that she is keeping secrets too. Sam also meets some other people like his sister's boyfriend Jimmy who, having experienced his own loss, helps Sam deal with his. This was an engaging story about coming to terms with loss and using that loss to grow and change. Fans of contemporary fiction will enjoy Sam's story. Readers who are familiar with the songs that are the chapter titles may gain some insight that I did not simply because I wasn't familiar with any of the songs.
    • 5/5
      Not a book to be read quickly. This must be savored. A 16-year old commits suicide and leaves his friend a playlist to discover why he committed suicide. Listen to the song at the beginning of each chapter and see how it fits. Listen more than once. Make sure you know what is being sung. I only knew one of the songs but found a lot of them I enjoyed. Listening caused me to read slower but I wanted to be able to put the clues together to figure it out as Sam (the friend) was figuring it out. I liked Sam. Started out hating some of the characters while loving others I met throughout the story. The ending changed my feelings towards some of the characters but not all. Some are just jerks and you can't change that. Some seemed cool but had feet of clay. Others were hurt just as much by the popular kids but managed not to lose their integrity. Read this book for the experience.
    • 5/5
      It's books like this one that keep me hooked onto the YA genre and prove how awesome it really is.

      Playlist For The Dead was an unputdownable read about a boy named Sam losing his best-and only-friend Hayden and blaming himself for his suicide.

      The book is so on the spot about suicides and how much a person's suicide affects those who were near him.

      As the story goes, Sam realizes that he's not the only who blames himself for Hayden's death.

      The book shows just how many people blamed themselves for Hayden's death, the boy who had just one friend.

      I absolutely loved Playlist For The Dead, and it's another book that's going to be very close to my heart and read multiple times more!
    • 3/5
      This book follows the aftermath of suicide as a result of severe bullying from the perspective of his best friend. I gave this book a 3 out of 5 because I think the subject being so taboo, the author could've went more into detail. Otherwise the book was a written well and I loved the plot line.
    • 3/5
      Review courtesy of Dark Faerie TalesQuick & Dirty: A suicide playlist.Opening Sentence: All my years of watching TV made me think it was possible you could find a dead body and not know it until you turned the person over and found the bullet hole or stab wound or whatever.The Review:Playlist for the Dead is told from Sam’s perspective; a teenager whose best friend has committed suicide and he’s the one who found him. This was a decent read, especially since May is Mental Health Awareness Month. The story dives into Hayden’s deep rooted depression, which ultimately results in his demise.Despite the core subject of suicide and the events that led to it, what I found more interesting was reading the story from the best friend’s perspective. Sam feels responsible for Hayden’s death, especially as their last conversation was in the form of an argument.Who needed a group? What was so bad about having one best friend, anyway?I missed Hayden as much as I had since he died. I missed him so much I finally didn’t even feel bad thinking about it; I just sank into it, let it roll over me in waves. It was the closes I’d come to crying and if I hadn’t been like two feet away from a field full of people I mostly didn’t know or couldn’t stand, I might have just said fuck it and started bawling.In this book, each chapter begins with a song from the playlist Hayden left Sam; basically his suicide note. Sam listens to the playlist almost obsessively trying to figure out why Hayden resorted to such a measure. I enjoyed listening to each of these songs via YouTube as I started each chapter and found that, despite the overall ominous taste, I quite enjoyed a few! It was an interesting way to engage the reader, that’s for sure.The only concern I had with this story was how similar it was to some of the YA books I’ve already read, in terms of depression, suicide and the resulting guilt. I feel like this subject has been explored a lot recently. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, we need greater awareness around mental health, but at the same time it’s becoming a leeetle repetitive.“See?” Rachel said. “Don’t judge a book by its cover, Mom.”“Guilty as charged,” she said. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who was finding people surprising thse days. It made me wonder whether everyone had these secret lives, these aspects of themselves that didn’t match who they seemed to be.The moral I took from this story was how many lives a suicide can affect and it’s not just the immediate family and closest friends that are hurt. It also highlighted the seriousness of depression and how important it is to try and listen to other people; sometimes even the smallest act of kindness can help. Sam, Astrid and a lot of other people felt responsible for Hayden’s death and the truth is that they all had a part to play but there’s no singular person that can be blamed. Sometimes it’s best to just accept what has happened and live your life the best way you can, and try to positively engage with as many people as possible. At least, that’s what I’m going to try and do.Notable Scene:“Can you describe your friendship to me at all?” he asked gently.What did he expect me to say? That we were both socially awkward misfits? That we’d saved each other from loneliness for a really long time, and now that was over? “We were friends. What else am I supposed to say?”FTC Advisory: HarperTeen provided me with a copy of Playlist for the Dead. No goody bags, sponsorships, “material connections,” or bribes were exchanged for my review.
    • 4/5
      "Playlist For the Dead" was a quick, engaging read about loss, friendship, bullying and growing up. I really liked Sam's narration - it was nice having a boy's perspective for a change. Sam was a compelling character, with the genuine voice of a teenage boy struggling to solve the mystery of his best friend's suicide, whilst also trying to cope with his anger, his guilt, his sorrow and his confusion. I didn't bother listening to the playlist, however, I don't think I lost anything by not doing so. I think the ending was done well. Not all the threads were tied together neatly, instead they were left slightly messy, but it still left this reader satisfied. Overall, a touching read.
    • 4/5
      Sam’s best friend Hayden commits suicide. He leaves a note and a playlist for Sam so that he will understand why he did it. Hayden was a victim of bullying, especially by his older brother and his friends, all athletes, the complete opposite of Hayden the “computer game nerd.” While Sam tries to figure out what the defining moment was that caused Hayden to take his final step, he meets some interesting people. He also comes to the conclusion that while everyone could have, should have, it was ultimately Hayden’s decision to end his life.
    • 5/5
      The jacket copy of PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD by Michelle Falkoff compares this novel to YA favorites like THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER and THIRTEEN REASONS WHY. The jacket copy is dead on. This debut novel tackles the tough topic of teen suicide with unexpected humor and a flash drive full of music -- music left by Hayden as something of a suicide note for his best friend Sam. Naturally, Sam is distraught. He's not only Hayden's only friend (honestly, Hayden was his only friend, too), but he found Hayden on the night after they had a fight at a party. At the funeral, Sam is upset at the fakeness of everyone there -- mostly the Bully Trifecta, which includes Hayden's older brother.But Sam isn't sleeping much -- he's mostly listening to his playlist and (possibly in insomnia-fueled hallucinations) talking to someone who might be Hayden on Google Chat. When he's awake, he's trying his best to just get through the day. Which has lead him to finding a new friend in Astrid, a girl he's never talked to who goes to his school. Crazy from lack of sleep and grief, and with someone seemingly out to get the Bully Trifecta, Sam starts to look for clues that might tell him why Hayden killed himself. And, slowly, the night of the party is revealed -- both to the reader and to Sam, who only knows half the story.PLAYLIST FOR THE DEAD is beautiful and articulate and funny and everything YA readers -- both teen and adult -- crave in a juicy, tear-jerking contemporary novel. Michelle Falkoff, much like Rainbow Rowell, is an author to watch, and I certainly can't wait to see what she does next.
    • 3/5
      Sam and Hayden were best friends, they did everything together, they relied on one another and they told each other everything. Until they didn't. When Hayden commits suicide Sam is left alone, lost and racked with guilt, he can't stop blaming himself for the events that led up to Hayden's death. All Hayden left behind is a flash drive and a note saying that it will explain everything. When Sam opens the files on the drive he realizes that Hayden left him a playlist in way of a suicide note. On the playlist are songs Sam has listened to countless times and songs he's never heard before. But each one takes him one step closer to finding out the truth and one step closer to finding himself. I'm on the fence about this book. I wanted so badly to like it, and don't get me wrong, there were some parts I really enjoyed, but for the most part it left me feeling very underwhelmed. I hated the way that Hayden was treated and that he felt like the only way out was taking his own life but other than that this book left me feeling, well, nothing.Even when the bullies who had made Hayden's life a living hell were being taught lessons and getting tastes of their own medicine I couldn't help but think that the author could have amped it up a little bit and pushed it a little further. I like books that twist my insides up and grab at my heart strings and leave me sobbing my eyes out at 3 o'clock in the morning. While Playlist For The Dead had all the ingredients for that type of book I feel like it fell short.Until next time, Ginger In compliance with FTC guidelines I am disclosing that this book was given to me for free to review. My review is my honest opinion.