5 Parts Dead

Title: 5 Parts Dead
Author: Tim Pegler
First Published: 2010 by Penguin

Dan is 15 and had just dodged death for the 5Th time. his friends weren't so lucky. just weeks after the accident, he goes on holiday to an island on South Australia, staying in the lighthouse keeper's old cottage with his parents, twin sister, and sister's friend. angry and grieving he discovers the old lighthouse log book and a mystery that's gone unsolved for over a century. add in ghosts, romance and the 'twin thing' and you get a powerful story about friendship, death and family.

Quick Review
I LOVED it. the two time lines flow together seamlessly, making for easy reading, except for a few of the boring captain's reports about weather in the log book. this story will get inside your mind so easily it's almost scary and leave you full of questions, wondering about horrible things. the description of the car crash was literally breath-taking, i stopped reading and clutched my throat, read and you'll understand why. the description of how people reacted was perfect, though horrible and the characters were realistic and lovable. you'll fell so sorry for Dan, yet you understood what rested on his shoulders. the ghost story was a great parallel, and the romance sweet, yet sturdy. A MUST READ ESPECIALLY FOR TEENAGERS.

Babble
i feel that my quick review sums it up pretty well.
i want to talk more about the brutal honesty of this book, at least that's the best way i can think to put it.
death in books is pretty much always sad, yet it's so much more than that in 5 Parts Dead. you almost feel Dan's pain and confusion. the feeling that he is, in the smallest way possible, responsible. you know he's going to fight that for the rest of his life. the talk about death, responsibility, and just how people react was so powerful I'm still thinking about it.
it's a sign on an amazing book when you're still thinking about it 6 hours later.

i also just want to say how much I love Pip, she's so strong. she reads Markus Zusak, you guys know how much i love him. her relationship with Dan is so tender, they just need each other. she's individual, but for once that didn't mean really weird.

i also love how the book showed the effect on Dan's family as well.

all in all an amazing book, very powerful and informative. it was sad, yet the ending left me hopeful. i really want to know what happened to Dan once he went back to school, which shows just how much i love him.

please read this book-give it to all the teenagers you know.
you'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll leave with something.