Really sorry but I knew it was never going to be great when I saw the main character was called Petula. Just couldn't get in to this at all.

I think that Susan Nielsen will slowly but surely become one of my all time favourite authors of middle grade and children's book. Her writing style is so seamlessly perfect and it is a pleasure to read her stories. The characters are always well developed and relatable. Optimists die first was no exception!

I've read other books by Susin Nielsen and I really like them. That's also the case with this book. I love that Petula slowly realizes that the world is not as scary as she thinks. You can read my review (in Dutch) on my website Ikvindlezenleuk (translating to 'I like to read'): https://ikvindlezenleuk.nl/2019/01/nielsen-optimist-die-first/

When I first started reading it, it was impossible to put down and I managed to read the first half in a matter of hours and when I woke up the next morning I grabbed my Kindle to finish reading the book.

In Optimists Die First we meet 16-year-old Petula who suffers from anxiety. I can relate to Petulas anxiety as I also suffer from it, and it was quite nice to see this aspect in YA literature.
Even though she is quite the loner, in the beginning she is soon joined by Jacob who has a prosthetic limb and is dyslexic. They are both very interesting characters and I really enjoyed their story.

Read as part of a campaign for Maximum Pop! Content, reviews etc can be found there. :)

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.
I will, however, notify you if I decide to pick it up at a later time.

Unfortunately I didn't finish this book, as I couldn't get into it - nothing against the author or book, just not to my personal taste. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

I didn't write a blog review for this one but I did really enjoy it. The protagonist is lulled out of her overly safe life and learns to live a little. It had a nice nod to another Susin Nielsen book too which I enjoyed.

I loved this novel!
This was super close to being five stars. Susin Nielsen has also written the novel We Are Made Of Molecules which I liked.... but didn't love. So, I was a bit wary going into this one but I loved it! The protagonist was super- I can totally relate to pessimistic and cynical characters. The plot was deep, layered and insightful. And I also have a full-frontal appreciation for the last couple of lines in the novel... it felt like such an accomplishment for the protagonist. Beautiful!
A full Book Talk will be up on my blog soon!

Losing someone is never easy - it can be even harder if you hold yourself responsible in some way.
Petula De Wilde has found life quite difficult since her family faced a tragic situation. Her method of dealing with grief is to take on the world as a true pessimist - constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop, knowing that the world is full of disaster.

Being a teenager is never easy and being a sixteen-year-old girl who prowls the internet for stories of unexpected accidents and disasters definitely makes it even harder to fit in with your peers. Petula has developed a number of phobias and has to deal with the world through thorough planning and complete avoidance of everything from germs to strangers. At the request of her school, Petula attends weekly Art Therapy classes, a place where she is surrounded by peers who have as many if not more problems than she does. It is here that she becomes friends with Jacob, a young man who has a bionic hand and a mysterious past. At first, Petula wants nothing to do with him but before long romance is blooming and some of Petula's quirks are becoming smoothed out by his care and attention. The path to true love is never east and Jacob is not quite the person he appears to be on the surface. A happy ending may not be waiting for this young couple.

I really liked this story for the humour and the sense of believability that each character conveyed. The situations rang true and the reality of what was happening for these young people was not shied away from which made it an easy story to read. I do think the issues were treated with a degree of sensitivity by the author and I would have no hesitation in recommending to a young adult that this is a book worth indulging in. There were some light moments which helped to develop the story, after all, who doesn't love a good cat video. The crew at the Art Therapy classes are highly entertaining and you become quite attached to them. I thought the story was well developed and didn't just give in to a trite finish.

I wasn't a huge fan of this book, unfortunately. i found the characters hard to relate too, Petulia especially. Thank you to the Publisher for review copy though!

After reading Susin Nielsen's We are all Made of Molecules a year ago (and not particularly loving it - or hating it), I decided to give Nielsen's next book a go: Optimists Die First. After reading the first few chapters, I was very intrigued and I thought that this would be an amazing book. Alas, there were a few things that let this book down.

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 the 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.

Ok, let me just get a few rants out of the way first because I feel like I need to vent. I finished reading this book about ten minutes ago, so I've got all of the feels building up inside of me just waiting to burst out. The one thing that just really, really annoyed me about this book was that, yet again, a boy makes someone's mental illness all better. Because IT REALLY IS THAT EASY, FOLKS! *sarcasm* Petula doesn't really go on her own individual journey of discovering how to help herself. She relies completely upon Jacob to make her feel better about herself, and I just think that's a completely unhealthy portrayal to have in a young adult book. Granted, quite a lot of young adult book use this trope of a girls mental illness or troubles being suddenly made easier because of a boy, and I'm sick of it. But reading this book - I guess - was the breaking point. Instead of Jacob and Petula getting back together after that big reveal, I wish that Petula would have just stayed single, showed us some strength... Instead, she went back into her comfort zone. I just want to see female characters in young adult novels who don't have to rely on men to make their mental health better...





"Always expect the worst. That way, you might stand a chance of protecting yourself and the ones you love."

- Susin Nielsen, Optimists Die First






Also, at the beginning of the book, Petula calls Jacob the Bionic Man for like... 3/4 chapters? Yeah, because someone with a disability isn't anything else but that. *again, sarcasm*. I found it really offensive that she called him that. Petula couldn't see past the fact that he had a prosthetic arm so just gave him a nickname instead. Nice. Well done, Petula.

Ok... I think that might be my rant over... But I can't really promise anything because I'm on a roll right now. Let's just move onto the good things about this book though. I really did love the writing style in this. I could tell that Nielsen had grown as a writer as it was much better than We are all Made of Molecules. The writing style seemed to flow better, the characters were more developed and the plot was more interesting. I especially loved how the YART group made short movies to portray how they were feeling and used the movies to help themselves face their fears. I thought it was very clever of Nielsen to do this as it created a bond between the students that was absolutely amazing. Even the secondary characters were very three-dimensional and written really well. I loved the

I loved the relationship development between Rachel and Petula - I thought that it was healthy for Nielson to convey a female friendship that wasn't all about bitchiness. She showed both of them growing as people and forgiving and accepting. However, one part of character growth that I really didn't like was Petula at the end. Her attitude was very me, me, me, and she didn't stop to think how Jacob was feeling after that big reveal. I thought that she was very selfish, to be honest, and it just completely put me off her.

Overall, this book definitely has its problems, but it was still an enjoyable read for me and I definitely liked it more than We are all Made of Molecules. It'll be interesting to see what Nielsen's next book is like.

Warning: this book contains triggers for death, depression, substance abuse.

Disclaimer: this book was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

I'll start by saying, overall I thought this was a fun, cute read - on the surface. If I were to really get into the nitty gritty of the story and characters, I probably wouldn't call it fun or cute.

Now, I'm a fan of Susin Nielsen's previous work - The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen is great - but this one I found to be one of her weaker books. I think my main "issue" with it, if you will, is that anxiety is a serious mental heath issue, and I just found that this book didn't tackle it as something to actually take seriously. In fact, I occasionally felt like anxiety was quirked up, or made to seem cute, in this book - especially when the character was with a boy.

I don't know if others felt this way, but it was a thought that kept popping in to my head as I was reading it, and it had a negative impact on my reading experience with this book. I will say though, that I do think it's wonderful and important to have books on these topics for this age group, but I do feel like there have been better ones written.

This was a charming, pleasant read. I particularly enjoyed the humor in the book: there were several funny situations and the sarcasm was just spot on. This is certainly a book that attempts to treat very serious issues, like grief, guilt and mental illness, in a light way. Petula is definitely already on her way to improvement, even though her anxiety at the beginning of the book is starting to spiral out of control again. But, it seemed to me, she actually wants to get better, and Jacob's arrival is just what she needs to get out of her shell again.

The characters were kind of hit and miss. I adored Petula: she really has her own voice and stands out from the background. She has been through hell, yet she still somehow finds the energy to come out on top of it and support her parents in the process. And that's another thing I liked: Petula has a good, healthy relationship with both of her parents, and actually talks to them, especially her mom, about important stuff for a teenage girl, like her love life. It's incredibly refreshing to finally see a teenager that doesn't keep a load of secrets from her parents, but actually asks for advice and talks about herself. Of course, this being a YA novel, the parents don't need to take up too much space, but they still manage to be a felt presence throughout. As for the rest of the cast, Jacob was... ok, I guess. He's charming, friendly, and hides a dark secret. Aside from this, I didn't really find that much more to him. The rest of the cast is incredibly varied and colourful. The guys in art therapy, in particular, were pretty amazing, and I would have loved to see some more of them throughout. Still, I enjoyed their evolution in the book.

The one thing that really let me down in the whole book is the fact that, after doing an amazing job of showing Petula's progress, right towards the end, everything is brought down to Jacob having "saved" her.
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This is the only thing I really couldn't get past: getting over trauma and healing from anxiety cannot be reduced to a boy falling for you. Just, no.

This last point aside, I quite enjoyed the book. Its light tone, humor and short length made it a perfectly relaxing read in between other more "intense" reads.

Petula de Wilde suffers a family tragedy that makes her shut off from the world. Once she lived a happy life crafting her days away. However Petula now sees a danger in everything from crossroads to construction sites. When her art therapy group is forced to do a group project things in her life begin to change.

I read Susin Nielsen’s “We Are All Made of Molecules” last year whilst on holiday in just one day. One of the reasons for this was I was so immersed in the book I could not put it down. So, as soon as I saw that Susin Nielsen had written a new book I was desperate to give it a read. I waited until I had a couple of free days and dove straight into the story. Within two days I had finished the book. I again, could not put the book down and got extremely involved with the story.

I know a lot of people will have issues with the way that Susin Nielsen deals with mental health issues and grief. However, this is to be expected for any book that deals with these issues. Yes, this book doesn’t portray mental health perfectly, but everyones experience of mental health is different. Petula has extreme paranoia disorder which at times can seem a little fake but it is authentic for what Petula has been through and where she is at.

I loved the characters in this book. Jacob and Petula both made me smile throughout the book. I could somewhat relate to Petula’s anxiety but mine is nowhere near the extent of Petula’s. I enjoyed Jacob’s character, I think this was mostly down to his love of filmmaking and creativity. As well as bring able to learn a little more about amputees. Oddly, the character I could relate the most to was Petula’s mother. Her love for fostering cats and not being able to leave one behind is exactly how I would be when it came to fostering dogs. I enjoyed that each cat Petula’s mother brought home was named after a book character. It was a nice touch to bring in the cats as a way for Petula’s mother to deal with grief.

The only issue I had with this book was that the characters seemed a little too immature for a young adult book. Obviously, for the younger side of young adult readers this is perfect. It just felt a little bit too old for me given the subject matter.

Overall, I enjoyed this heartfelt story. All the characters are interesting and the story builds perfectly. The story isn’t as heavy as I expected but works really well. A brilliant book for anyone looking for something to dive into quickly.

Thank you to Netgalley, Susin Nielsen, Andersen Press and Penguin Random House UK Children’s for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Petula has a lot of issues. Top of her list is coming to terms with guilt over what she sees as her role in the death of her younger sister.
Similar in style to 'We Are All Made of Molecules' this is an entertaining read, though it's all rather obvious.
The group of characters that Petula interacts with are quite entertaining, but this will probably be more appealing to younger teen readers.

When reading the blurb for this book, I was immediately drawn to it because it felt like the main character was me. She's basically afraid of everything and isn't really live life to the fullest because of this.
Unfortunately, that was where my connection with this story ended. It took me almost an entire month to get through this book because nothing about was holding my attention. Very average, classic YA tropes everywhere, secrets, lies and betrayal. But at least there were cats. So there's that.

Optimists Die First had a premise that I found super intriguing, and elements that I adored. I mean, CATS, and friendships, and a sweet family dynamic and a representation of mental illness. BUT, it didn't live up to my expectations and the representation of anxiety (maybe OCD?) was poorly done. It was very romanticised in my opinion, and almost seemed to disappear by the end, because of a boy (surprise, surprise). As someone who suffers from anxiety, I didn't really like the way Susin Nielsen portrayed it, however, I have to point out that everyone's experiences with anxiety are different, and I've read reviews where people thought it was accurate, and others (like mine) who didn't think it was portrayed well. It is a personal opinion, linked very much with personal experience, and maybe this was why I didn't enjoy this book as much as I expected to. I enjoyed Petula's narration to some extent, although at times found her quite annoying, and as a pessimist myself, I appreciate the title.

Personally, I'd go into this story being aware that the representation of anxiety may not be for you, but I would definitely try it out as it was an entertaining read for the most part.

“Optimists die first” is a story about grief, mental health, disability and guilt but it is also a story about the willing to take back the control of your life.
I have been dragged by Susin Nielsen’s words that I didn’t even realize I was at the end of this book: the writing is so simple and funny, it never gets to heavy even if “Optimists die first” portraits a story of grief and guilty but Petula’s cynicism gives a fresh tone to the entire story.
This story follows Petula who blames herself for the death of her baby sister and from that event she developed anxiety, guilt and her new motto “Optimists die first”. This book has a few elements for a good diverse book but I wish that the author would have gone deeper with representing them.

I loved this! I found it so easy to relate to the main group of characters- they're all so different [and all suffering with mental health issues. Amazing!] but so realistic. I loved how their friendship flourished throughout the story and that they went through ups and downs together. This is the kind of friendship group that I would have LOVED to have when I was really suffering with my depression.

I'm sure that there will be plenty of people who don't really like the relationship in this book. I see reviews all the time about a wide range of books talking about how meeting a boy/girl doesn't cure your mental illness and these always wind me up- it's time to get personal!
I was in a terrible place with my mental health when I met my boyfriend and never imagined that one person could have such a huge impact on my life and the way I viewed it. I'm not saying that he alone cured me or that a relationship can cure anybody, but he helped me immeasurably and was such a massive part of my recovery that I can't even begin to imagine getting better without him. In the years we've been together, he has absolutely been a huge part of keeping me well- and on the occasions that I've struggled and relapsed, he has been there and helped to make it better.

A relationship like mine is not one I see in fiction particularly often and it's a huge part of why I loved this book. Their relationship is healthy (although I do find it odd that Petula was able to turn off her OCD when she was with him, I don't have OCD but this feels very unrealistic) and they struggle with their mental health issues together. It's not an immediate cure, it's not a ridiculous fairy tale happy story, it's real and they help each other but not without any problems. I think this book does a wonderful job of showing this kind of relationship. Although it's not a perfect relationship, it is a pretty real one.

Also this is so sex positive it's amazing! Teenagers have sex and it should be included more in YA literature. I loved the support Petula was offered by her mum when her relationship became more serious.

There were some issues with the book though, Petula's anxiety often felt a bit OTT. It sometimes felt like somebody who doesn't understand anxiety trying to explain it and not doing a particularly good job. I also felt that Petula's voice was a little juvenile, although considering her situation I think that's understandable and it wasn't too much of a stretch for me.