Just re-read this for Teenage Scream podcast (lovingly dissecting the best and worst of 90s teen horror):
https://soundcloud.com/teenagescream 189 Didn't enjoy this as much as compared to other point horror books. The writing is clunky and all the events didn't really make sense chronologically. There wasn't much horror in this book as compared to others and the ending was kind of predictable. 189 Normally I hate it when people complain about telling instead of showing. I like to be told stuff! If somebody lives in a two-storey house and has a recently refurbished kitchen, how do you show rather than tell that information?!? And if it's so bad to tell rather than show, why do so many books tell me every single damn road the main character drove down to get somewhere? Anyway, I'm going off tangent here....
The big problem with Let Me Tell You How I Died was the very fact it told rather than showed. Rather than have an actual entry from the diary itself so we can see for ourselves, we're just told that Delia is acting like the girl from the diary, with nothing from the diary itself to back it up! I felt some entries from the diary would have given me some feeling for the girl who wrote it and how her personality was different from Delia.
Instead, there are a lot of filler chapters (the visit to the graveyard) and silly end-of-chapter cliffhangers. In typical Point Horror style, I guess! I love the title and the intriguing premise, which is why I suppose this one really disappointed me! 189 Color me surprised!
I didn't quite expect the ending of this book! Lately, I thought I had a knack for figuring out endings of YA vintage thrillers. However, this one blindsided me.
Imagine having a *past life* invading your present life. It sounds interesting at first, but when your past life is a mean b*tch, it isn't interesting anymore. I didn't like the main character all throughout the story. Instead, I found myself drawn to the mystery. It was quite clever! :)
I will definitely read more from this author. 189 Oh my gosh I loved this point horror! Don’t get me wrong, I know point horror books, are not going to be the star books of the year, they are just meant to be a lot of fun, and I rate these books based upon each other. I really loved this one, it’s super creepy, it’s got thriller and super natural elements, and that ending! I loved it! If your a point horror fan, definitely one to pick-up! 189
Read it when i was 12 or 13. It definitely counts!! 189 I really enjoy the 90's young adult horror books that I grew up reading. Very nostalgic for me to check out as an adult.
Badass cover design. It made me want to pick up this book sooner than usual.
Fast read. That's always a positive of these young adult horror novels that I like to check out from my childhood.
The plot did keep me guessing and I got the reveal completely wrong which is good because these novels can be predictable at times. Interesting idea which I thought could've been very good but the execution was a bit lacking although not bad.
The characters were ok, nothing special at all, quite common actually but it's one of the tropes of these novels so I find it to be a little charming.
The writing was fine, what I expected to see in these types of books.
I liked the small town USA setting. My favorite setting for horror novels.
NEGATIVES: The main character Delia got on my nerves after a while lol I just wanted her to shut up sometimes
It would've been cool to read some of the actual diary entries from the past girl but we just get told what was in it. It would've provided a nice contrast between Delia and the girl in the diary. Maybe I would've liked her better as well lol.
Rushed ending, that tried its best to tie up all the loose ends and piece everything together but didn't quite do that fully. I don't mind an author employing some form of ambiguity, I think it can work depending on the book, but this one just felt like it was very rushed and tried to end on a clever note that wasn't as clever as the author had hoped it would be.
Not a bad read by any means but it could've been better in my opinion. But, entertaining for what it was. 189 Out of the many Point Horror’s that I’ve recently revisited, it’s those that have a supernatural element that I’ve enjoyed the most.
I’ve always felt from memory that their were a higher proportion of them, it definitely is the case with Smith.
I like the idea of a diary that Delia soon becomes obsessed with and starts mirroring the life of the girls entries.
There was plenty of avenues that the story could have taken, but I liked how the plot resolved itself.
These books are always quick reads, but I found the writing somewhat lacking in this one.
I know they are kinda trashy, but I’m sure Smith’s other books have been more strongly written.
I think inclusions of diary entries would have helped!
I’m pretty sure I’d not read this one before, it was totally 90’s in tone and story.
The thought of someone writing a diary felt very nostalgic, I guess the modern day equivalent would be a blog?
Not quite Smith’s best work for the range, but I’m glad that I’ve ticked it off the list. 189 Eighteen-year-old Delia has kept a diary since she was a kid. Her English teacher Mr. Parrish suggested she write in her diary like she would write a novel---in case she wanted to be a writer some day.
Delia's best friend Jewel threw her a surprise birthday party recently and afterwards they had a sleepover with some friends. At the sleepover Delia's friends woke her from a nightmare she was having (in the dream she was reading someone else's diary, written in her own handwriting, and then she was dead and floating in water).
One day at school Delia finds a diary in her locker with a card that says Maybe this will help you remember. At first she is scared, thinking about the diary in her dream, but then she thinks it's just a prank pulled by her boyfriend Brock. But it isn't and there is writing in the diary. Delia starts reading the diary, but she feels scared and naughty, after all, you were never never supposed to read someone else's diary.
There are initials on the diary, LL. Delia has always liked the name Laura, so she names the author of the diary Laura. She also notices she is becoming more and more like Laura, the girl in the diary. She gets a new haircut, starts acting differently, eats different foods, and she now has bad traits (cuts class, steals, lies, cheats, etc...).
One day, after cutting class, she instinctively runs to a place in town she's never seen or been to before. There is a deserted house with a sign that says yard sale. An old man comes up to her and tells her only one person came to the yard sale and that person was Delia and she bought a diary. The old woman who lived in the house moved away years ago, after her granddaughter was killed. The old man tells her the granddaughter was killed by one of her friends. And the granddaughter looked just like Delia...
This was an enjoyable and captivating story that dealt with past lives, reincarnation, revenge, etc... It kept me turning the pages to see what was going to happen next. Pretty good and absorbing young-adult thriller. 189 I first read this book in 1994 or 95. I think this was my introduction to past lives. I liked it enough then to keep this book all these years. I was feeling nostalgic and this book won. upon re-reading this is my review:
it starts out ok. I'm a superstitious person so if I dreamed I was dead 3 nights in a row, I'd be kinda freaked out too. BUT once Delia gets the diary, she doesn't really try to resist much. she keeps saying she must resist but never puts any effort into it. there was a few things left unexplained. When she goes to the old neighborhood then mention's it to Rose, she says it's no longer there. was that a time slip or all in her head?
I can't say this book was as dear to me as it was when I was 12 or 13 but I've read worse. 189
Was she going to die...again?
Delia can't stop reading the old diary which mysteriously appears in her locker one day. Little by little, she starts to become more like the girl whose words she reads - even having her memories and seeing the world through her eyes. A dead girl's eyes. Soon Delia is convinced that she was the girl who wrote the diary - in a past life.
But the terror is about to come alive once more. For the girl who wrote the diary was murdered. And the killer is after her again... The Diary (Point Horror, #53)