Review : Optimists Die First

Optimists Die First by Susin Nielsen

Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult, Comedy

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Purchase Links: Amazon | Kobo | B&N

Pages: 240

Published February 21st 2017 by Wendy Lamb Books

Life ahead: Proceed with caution.

Sixteen-year-old Petula De Wilde is anything but wild. A family tragedy has made her shut herself off from the world. Once a crafting fiend with a happy life, Petula now sees danger in everything, from airplanes to ground beef.

The worst part of her week is her comically lame mandatory art therapy class. She has nothing in common with this small band of teenage misfits, except that they all carry their own burden of guilt.

When Jacob joins their ranks, he seems so normal and confident. Petula wants nothing to do with him, or his prosthetic arm. But when they’re forced to collaborate on a unique school project, she slowly opens up, and he inspires her to face her fears.

Until a hidden truth threatens to derail everything.

After the death of her younger sister Petula pretty much made habits for herself to keep herself of dying. She obsesses over random freak accidents like her sisters and avoids situations all together to keep herself safe. In order to deal with her sisters death she goes to a therapy to work out whats going on, this group is has a interesting mix of kids and its the new guy with the bionic arm that she has her wry eyes on.

I really enjoyed this book, there was plenty comedic moments. I loved seeing the characters over time seeing how they dealt with the situations they were in. Seeing them grow over the span of the book to learn more about themselves and try to get past what life handed them. Like most YA book out there there is romance and I did enjoy that part. There was one point of view book that really surprised me though it was the mention of the gyno and them causally talking about it and I had never heard a book mention anything like that before. To me its like books and movies the mythical bathroom runs and girls getting periods kinda thing. I loved getting to know each characters and their stories. Overall this was a pretty great book and I really enjoyed it.