Forgive me, Leonard Peacock

This book definitely took you on a journey. The constant tug of war - will he go through with it? Will he not? It was very heartfelt and it definitely hit me at a time where I probably needed to read about Leonard. I kind of wanted more in the end but that's my downfall. Always wanting more. I do recommend this book. I almost think it should be required reading in highschool these days. Help is available if you need it. The kids need to know Leonard's story.

Stephanie Boisvert

I received this as a gift on my birthday lmao I'm grateful though

indri

I think this book is really honest with the portrayal of depression. It actually gives depth into how much bullying and bad upbringing can do to a person's mental health. 

I read people's reviews and some said that just because he has a sad past, doesn't excuse him to act like that, which is true, but if the only thing you get out of the book is how it's trying to justify Leonard, then I think you kinda missed the point.

Of course, there are some disturbing thoughts from Leonard that I totally don't agree with, and if I ever see Leonard in real life, I would probably think he's weird and would go away from him immediately. But at the same time, this book makes me see why he plans, thinks, and acts the way he does. It gives you something to think about instead of blaming it full on the weird kid that is Leonard Peacock and his inexcusable behavior. Remember that we're reading about a character whose mental health is not the best here. 

The only thing I wish could be done better is the ending. I think it could be done longer, just another chapter to let us see a glimpse of what comes after the worst has passed, but that's only because I'm a sucker for a happy ending, lol. So I guess the current ending is okay too because maybe things in life just don't get better that quick. Hope all the best for Leonard I guess.

Melissa Palmer

Book #20 Read in 2014
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick (YA)

This is a gritty, emotionally powerful young adult novel detailing the mental ramblings of Leonard Peacock, a teenager who decides to kill a classmate and then himself on his birthday as a way of putting himself out of his misery. Leonard is highly intelligent and highly messed up. He does try to reach out for help in his own dysfunctional way with limited success. His parents ignore him, his classmates avoid him and he really has no connection with anyone except his Holocaust Studies teacher and his elderly neighbor. 

This book was a hard one to read and a hard one to put down. It is a raw, inside look of a mentally ill person. Readers will hope that Leonard is saved in time and given help. This was my first book by Quick and I enjoyed it.

http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

Jeannette Ordas

Oh, I liked this book immediately and it took a few dips and unexpected turns and had me tearing up into blubberhood.

Really depressing to read, but I get that it's also inspiring in the end. But I don't really like our main character. I need to read something nice to cheer me up after this. :-(

Fleur van Ravesteijn 

A relevant story about trauma, feeling irrelevant, different, weird. Not the most captivating story of all time, but oddly relatable in a way. Matthew’s writing style (or was it Leonard’s thought process/storytelling? I’m not sure) wasn’t very appealing to me and the ending left me quite dissatisfied.

Ofelia

** spoiler alert **
           Carino.
Mi è piaciuto non trovare il lieto fine forzato alla fine, della serie 'e vissero tutti felici e contenti' perché sarebbe stato troppo irrealistico. Insomma la madre di Leonard è una grande stronza ed una grande stronza rimane. Alcune cose erano un po' facili da capire, o ero solo io? Insomma io avevo capito che Leonard era stato violentato dall'amico ed anche che l'insegnante era omosessuale (anche se questo molto dopo, solo quando Leonard lo chiama prima di suicidarsi), non sto dicendo che le cose non funzionassero nel libro solo che io non ho avuto proprio nessun colpo di scena in tutto il libro.
E' un libro che non tutti leggerebbero volentieri, mi viene in mente ad esempio che dipinge i bigotti come degli stupidi (per carità, io sono pure d'accordo!) ed anche un po ipocriti (il pezzo dell'opuscolo sul 'parcheggiare' mi ha fatto morire dal ridere, la cosa triste è che di opuscoli simili ne ho purtroppo visti). 
Bel libro comunque, che scivola via piacevole e si legge davvero volentieri. Non è un capolavoro secondo me ma è un bel libro per passare il tempo.

Rachel

I enjoyed the book. I thought the characters were loveable and relateable. The overall plot to the book was a bit extreme for my taste. I couldn't read this book to a ten year old. I didn't think the ending was too satisfactory, but I understand why the author left it open. If he had written a completely happy ending, then it would have been entirely unrealistic. Overall, I believe the book was good but not what I want to read on a bright, sunny, summer day.

Nadine 

I wanted this book to be better than it was as it’s a more hopeful type of “13 reasons why” but I’m afraid I found the protagonist so annoying for the first half that I nearly abandoned it several times. And then you find out the real reason behind his mission (apart from the dysfunctional parenting) and things start making sense. 
Good book for examining homosexual identity, rape and caring through different lenses / characters.

Georgia Carr

This just wasn't as good the second time round, now that I'm older and have learnt a lot more about the world. I thought this book changed my life but I'm not sure it did, I think I just read it at a very vulnerable time and thought it was speaking to me. In reality, it's quite confusing (the letters from the future) and there are a whole ton of crossed boundaries that I am not okay with. Disappointing.

Jen Estrella

“My life will get better? You really believe that?" I ask. 
“It can. If you’re willing to do the work.”
“What work?”
“Not letting the world destroy you. That’s a daily battle.”


Actual rating: 3.5/5 Really conflicted about this one :( I need to think about my rating some more.

Morgana

** spoiler alert **
           Bel libro, solo il finale mi ha un po' 'delusa'. 

Mi aspettavo che alla fine Leonard non avrebbe ucciso nessuno ( quindi nemmeno se stesso ), mi aspettavo però che le cose sarebbero cambiate. 
Ovviamente non potevano cambiare di botto, però una volta snocciolata tutta la verità al professore, cosa succede? Andrà da uno psicologo? Linda non sembra disposta a farlo, Linda se ne frega di lui! Pensavo che avrebbe capito il suo errore messa di fronte alla situazione, che avrebbe non dico detto qualcosa tipo 'Oddio scusami Leonard sono stata una madre terribile bla bla' ma almeno ammesso che un problema c'era, ed invece niente! Tutto fa pensare che le cose resteranno esattamente come sono ora.
E' vero che il professore sembra disposto a fare qualcosa per Leonard, ma quanto può fare? Mi sembra già abbastanza incasinato lui. L'amico? Da quel che sembra non gli succederà niente, continuerà la sua vita da bullo come prima? wow. 
I 'cattivi' di solito almeno nei film e nei libri di solito alla fine perdono, pagano e cose così.

Cameron Austin

This review is long overdue. It's so long overdue, that I don't even know what I really want to say about this book. 

	For one, I would like to say that I loved this book, but I didn't love it enough to give it five stars instead of four. There was only one minor thing that made me give it four stars: the footnotes. To me, footnotes in a story just throws me off (I am looking at you, An Abundance of Katherines). This story, Forgive me Leonard Peacock didn't have a lot of foootnotes, but when they would some would come, they would be long and possibly go over into the next page. At first I only ran into maybe two, and I vowed to give this book a 4.5, but when I came across another, I was all, "Fuck it I'm giving it a four!"

	That's not to say that I didn't enjoy them though. They were a nice addon, just not enjoyable on my end. 

	The characters were one of my favorite parts in the story. I loved reading about them, especially Herr Silverman. I wish I had a teacher like him; someone who cared about the students and went out their way to help them. Leonard, too, was a fun person to know. He was always brutally honest in everything he said, but was he like that always, or just because he was hurt? And his mom. I did not like that woman one bit. I just wanted to smack her, or for Leonard to smack her, but you don't get everything you want in life. 
	I don't know where I'm going with this review. If I had wrote it the day after, it would be more well thought out, but since it's been a while, it's all weird and stuff. What I want to say is that, in the end, this is one of the most brutally honest books I have ever read in my seventeen years of living. It made me feel things I have never felt before or care for a character like I have never cared before (well, besides in Perks and Aristotle & Dante). This has easily become one of my favorite books ever, without a five-star rating, too. It's just that good.

Destiny J Tamayo

While I thoroughly enjoyed Leonard's character I found myself disconnected from the plot itself.

Mollee Clingenpeel

I didn't really like this book that much. I get that it's supposed to show you the feelings and the reasons behind why someone might want to kill themselves (and someone else I guess). But I just could not get behind Leonard as a character. I did not sympathize or relate with him because killing someone is wrong. I don't care what they did. I also really hated the love interest. I don't even remember her name that's how much I didn't like her. I also hated the way Leonard treated her and wouldn't respect her. I had heard things about this book. Never good or bad, just things. I guess this book just wasn't for me. Also those letters to the future had me all confused for like the first and second one, I was like what the hell is happening and what are these? One last thing. Footnotes are the worst and the interrupted my reading and I hated them.

Rebeca 

** spoiler alert **
           3.5 stars 

Leonard Peacock wants to kill his formal best friend and then himself on his 18th birthday. And even though this book has a great plot behind it, I just couldn't give it 5 stars. 

The way the story was written at first was good, but I did not like the footnotes at the bottom of some of the pages. I felt like they were a waste of time and were not necessary. Also I didn't enjoy the "Letters from the Future" too much either. 

Now, Leonard going through his "last" day and saying goodbye to everyone really hit me. I didn't want Leonard to commit suicide. I wanted to understand why Leonard had come to such decision and what the hell Asher Beal did to him. When reading what Asher did to him SHOCKED me. I was astonished and scared. Asher's childhood had been ruined, just like Asher ruined Leonard's. He was HIS BEST FRIEND and for Asher to have raped him broke my heart. Leonard didn't deserve that. Asher didn't deserve to either. A problem I had though was that as he was acting strange and everyone asked him "Are you okay?" or "What's wrong Leonard?" NO ONE DID ANYTHING EXCEPT HERR SILVERMAN. 

His mom is a another problem I had with this book. She is his mother and for her not to even pay attention to him OR realize that he was suicidal OR TO FORGET HIS BIRTHDAY made me so mad. 

Something that I did enjoy and that was well-written in the book was Mr. Herr Silverman's character. WOW! Oh how I love Mr. Herr Silverman. What a wonderful, beautifully written character. He broke rules and did whatever he had to do to save Leonard. If only more people in the world could be like him. He was THE only character that actually gave a shit and did something about it. Honestly without a character like Herr Silverman, I probably would have given this book about 2 stars.

Yeldah Yousfi

“I'm trying to let him know what I'm about to do.
I'm hoping he can save me, even though I realize he can't.”
I felt really … “I don’t know how to explain the feeling” emotion. Angry. Pain. Sadness. They were all there when reading this book. 
In my opinion you should read this book, not because it was great or anything but because I really loved the whole theme/meaning behind this book. 
On the other hand I didn’t like the main character, Leonard, he was just too much like the protagonist in The Catcher in the Rye (wow I even forgot his name). He was sarcastic and cynical, thinks himself better than most. Yeah he has a sad past, but that doesn’t really excuse how he acts. 
What I did like about him was he thinks differently than his classmates and that he loves the play Hamlet (which is awesome and I suggest you read it if you haven’t). 
I did sympathize for him though, to me family means a lot and when I was reading this book it made me feel lonely as well. And as much little family he has, Leonard’s mom doesn’t really care for him, if she did she wouldn’t have left him alone like that and he wouldn’t have been in such a horrible situation. 
My favourite character was Herr Silverman, he was just amazing (another reason to read the book I guess). The writing style and plot were interesting enough to keep me reading, and I liked the order that the events were in (we know what Leonard is planning to do within the first chapter). I felt like Quick did a lot of research on the topic of mental health and suicide, everything was accurate and it didn’t have me question much on the subject. 
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, they they fight you, then you win.”
Overall: Even though I was expecting to cry while reading this book (I usually do), I didn’t because I didn’t really feel sorry for Leonard, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an amazing novel which tackles a subject (mental health & suicide) that more people should read about. 
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Forgive me, Leonard Peacock

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