Shuan David Hutchinson
3
Pub. Date: June 15th, 2010
Pages: 240
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Synopsis: The clock is ticking?
Ollie can't be bothered to care about anything but girls until he gets his Deathday
Letter and learns he's going to die in twenty-four hours. Bummer.
Ollie does what he does best: nothing. Then his best friend convinces him to live a little, and go after Ronnie, the girl who recently trampled his about-to-expire heart. Ollie turns to carloads of pudding and over-the-top declarations, but even playing the death card doesn't work. All he wants is to set things right with the girl of his dreams. It's now or never?
I had high hopes for this book, I just thought the synopsis sounded AMAZING, but this book just did not live up to my expectations. I did enjoy this book, but I really thought the focus of the book would be completely different. I was hoping the book would focus a bit more on the Deathday Letters, but I was disappointed. I really liked the idea of knowing when a person would die; this ensured you did everything you could to bring closure to yourself and your friends. Overall, I did think Ollie took advantage of his last day, but there were parts of his experience that were just a major let down. I don't want to say what they were because that may be a bit of a spoiler, but you would be able to figure this out if you read the book. I guess the story flowed more realistically without exploring the Deathday Letters, but it just left the book feeling a bit flat for me.
Part of my problem with this book is that Ollie came off as kind of a jerk to me. I did not hate him, but there were times where he was really hard to like. He is probably a realistic portrayal of a teenage boy, but as a female I kind of wanted to slap him a lot of the time. At the same time, Ronnie was kind of a pain in the butt. The only character I really liked was Ollie's best friend, Shane. He is a great balance for Ollie and without him the book may have completely flopped.
I will say that I absolutely loved the ending, which still seems weird, but it just was perfect. I understood Ollie and Ronnie's relationship better so their fighting made a lot more sense. I just wish this had been addressed sooner because I was getting very annoyed with the pair. So in short, this book was good, but not great. I think this is a book that might resonate more when guys, they might appreciate Ollie's humor more than I did. The biggest problem for me was that I expected this book to be different. I thought it was going to be more serious with less one-liners, but some people may enjoy the tone of "The Deathday Letter".
