Matthew (2014) Paperback - Leonard Peacock by Quick

Matthew Quick has presented us with Leonard Peacock, in a story that is emotionally gripping to the last ambiguous page. Leonard lives alone in his suburban New Jersey home: drug addled ex-rock and roller father and model mother selfishly pursuing her own life and dreams that do not include Leonard. Intelligent, Leonard is a philosophical thinker desperate to find hope and happiness in adulthood as his childhood hasn't been full of laughs. His former best friend, Asher, is portrayed with a sociopathic bent: while we are never fully told the reason for their antipathy, the result is all too clearly apparent in Leonard's anger, and vengeful fantasies.

What is special about today is that it is Leonard's birthday, and not one person has made an attempt to acknowledge the day. But, his plans for making his 18th birthday special have been building for a while now. Told in short chapters much like journal entries, much of the story is told in first person point of view: we actually see and feel Leonard's disenchantment with the state of the world, after the journey to find a positive reason to becoming an adult. We hope, as he takes us along his journey that he is able to find a reason to continue, and find some hope to soothe his troubled thoughts. That he is highly intelligent and thoughtful, and perhaps even a bit elitist in his beliefs about the mental capacity and functioning of others is clearly evident. In fact, despite his wish for a painful end for his best friend, and his apparent willingness to embrace his own death: this is not a kid who is mean or vengeful.

His self-proclaimed new best friend is his neighbor, Walt, an elderly and infirm man that shared his fondness for classic films, especially Bogart, with Leonard. Much of their conversation is peppered with, if not wholly consisting of quotes from films, although deeper conversation between the two nearly brings Leonard to tears before he flees.

His further attempts to say goodbye, and make those moments important, and to reassure others of their capabilities and goodness as human beings is touching and thoughtful: he carefully evaluates each person he encounters with an adult sensibility that far belies his years. The most touching goodbye is with his Holocaust teacher Herr Silverman, who makes a concerted effort to get Leonard to open up, to be hopeful for a future: in fact he even set him an assignment to write letters to himself from people in his future, as a reminder that things can and will be different and better. We are treated to these letters in the story, there is that hopefulness contrasted against the post-apocalyptic world in which they are set, all written in Leonard's hand, there is a beauty in that assignment and the hopefulness that sets them apart from his other journal entries.

Totally engrossing and utterly gut wrenching, despite the darker overtones, there is no ghastly conclusion with his suicide, it is left to the reader to find a meaning in the complete work: and therein lies the beauty. Leonard's entire day is snippets of thinking over the past weeks, months, and years as he searches for a reason to continue on. Far from being a conclusive `why they do it' sort of story, this is one of the many different postulations on possible reasons, issues and places where individuals can and do make a difference in a troubled life. With ample literary, philosophical and classic movie references, readers are treated to new perspectives and viewpoints, and are invited to expand their own horizons and reevaluate their own opinions.

While this is set in the genre of teen reader, I also would encourage adults to pick this book up and read it: far from simply laying out a direct correlation from cause to event, this book takes many short chapters to wander and absorb positive and negative experiences, imagery and input and leave the ending undefined and nebulous, much like life.

I received an eBook copy from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is an exceptional book. I'm at a loss for words. Matthew Quick's grasp on a lonely, depressed teenager "at the end of his rope" is realistic and incredibly sad. Getting to the core of Leonard Peacock broke my heart and I felt for him so deeply.

"I like to pretend I'm a prisoner kept in a dark, dank cell who's only allowed fifteen minutes in the yard, so that I remember to really enjoy looking."

I loved Leonard Peacock. I loved him from the first page. I loved him, knowing of the hurt he was going to inflict on someone else and on himself. You're probably thinking, "How in the world can you feel that way towards someone who is so seemingly unlikable?" I was able to like him because Matthew Quick made me understand why Leonard felt the way he felt. Why he had the thoughts he had.

"Because you start a revolution one decision at a time, with each breath you take."

Leonard Peacock's own account of his life is filled with his own brand of witty dark humor, his narration colored with a level of intelligence and awareness that is far beyond his years. Yet, Quick stays true to the voice of an 18-year old high school student. One who's likely had a lot of time for introspection due to his mother's neglect, a lack of social support, and a heavy, tangible pain. He's experienced more pain in his short life than I can even imagine.

Even though the subject matter is very dark, Leonard's sharp wit and humor made it less bleak. I even found myself laughing in several parts, but my laughter was outweighed by my sadness. The way he saw other people and interpreted the scenes around him was born from a level of maturity his peers lacked. He related to others differently and we was acutely aware of how different he was from others, which only seemed to alienate him further.

"It's a really depressing reality, how my classmates make love to their ignorance, and I mostly tune out and wait for class to end so I can give Herr Silverman his present and be closer to the Leonard Peacock finish line."

The format of the story is unique, one that only seems to accentuate his mental state. It's told in first person but Leonard often uses footnotes to expand on the points he tries to make, uses one word on a page, and even includes thoughts that are tabbed to the right for when he is most troubled.

"I feel like I'm broken—like I don't fit together anymore. Like there's no more room for me in the world or something. Like I've overstayed my welcome here on Earth, and everyone's trying to give me hints about that constantly. Like I should just check out."

The moments in the book that hit me hard emotionally were the "Letters From the Future," of which the significance to Leonard's story is not revealed until after you've read several of them. In every single one of those letters, I cried. [1] The contents of these letters were some of the most enlightening pictures into Leonard's heart, and I couldn't hold in the tears.

"You have no idea how many interesting people you'll meet after high school's over. Your life partner, your best friend, the most wonderful person you'll ever know is sitting in some high school right now waiting to graduate and walk into your life—maybe even feeling all the same things you are, maybe even wondering about you, hoping that you're strong enough to make it to the future where you'll meet."

One of the best books I've read this year. I will remember Leonard Peacock.

[1] When I say I cried, I mean it. I don't throw around the "This made me cry" as a way to convince you that this is good or some crap like that.

* I purchased this book myself, but not from the store.

This book was sad. Morose. Depressing. Heartbreaking—whichever word you use to describe it. I knew it was about a guy named Leonard and the P-38 handgun that he took to school to kill his ex-best friend and then himself. I knew that he had four gifts to give before he would unwrap the gun and proceed to do what he had sought after when he woke up that morning. I didn’t know, however, just what this book was about.

If you’re looking for a book on a school shooting, this isn’t the book to read. Sure, Leonard carried the gun in his backpack all day, but he also let the reader in on why he was giving the gifts to those four people. To be honest, half of those people didn’t impress me all that much. I read in another review that it would be difficult to gauge what kind of people they truly are because the readers had only seen what Leonard thought about them. Nevertheless, I found it fitting how he gave out the gifts, the order in which he introduced us to the four most important people in his life.

Leonard had a quick-witted and gruesomely honest voice. My mom ordered a copy of the book after hearing me rave about the audiobook, and I love how the physical copy is formatted. Half of Leonard’s thoughts are in the footnotes. Since I listened to the book, those were read along with the rest of the story and are necessary to understand him as a character and what he was going through. He was mad at the world and hated with a ferocity that was frightening. The reasons behind his hatred broke my heart and sent chills up my spine. I understood him and where he was coming from. His inner dialogue went from jaw-dropping to tear-inducing.

While I loved this book, I hated the last chapter of the book and the absence of closure. I want to know what happened to Leonard, if the last chapter eludes to what I think it could. (I hope not.) Nevertheless, it was a wonderfully crafted book.

This is the first novel that I’ve read by Matthew Quick, and Silver Lining’s Playbooks remains a movie that I see occasionally while picking something to watch on Netflix. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock exceeded my expectations and will not be the last Quick book that I get my hands on.

Leonard Peacock just turned 18 and he wants to celebrate by killing his ex-best friend and himself. Before he does this, he plans on delivering some gifts to four people in his life that really that matter to him. Each person represents something special to him, and their reactions to the gifts were pretty mixed, and this was the first thing I found pretty heartbroken about this book. It's his birthday and no one remembers. No one knows. And instead of receiving well wishes and gifts, he's planning his would be last hours on other people.

I usually have a hard time getting through books dealing with heavy topics such as teen suicide and abuse. I'm not sure if it's Matthew Quick's insanely talented way of crafting a story, or if I could just deal with it in this particular book, but Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock was such a wonderfully sad read. Quick was was able to delicately balance some intensely heavy material with some lightheartedness which kept me from going over the edge emotionally.

Leonard's has been through a series of pretty crappy incidents which is what leads him to this life altering decision. We have a boy who's been neglected by his mother, who's lost a once great friend thanks to a very horrible incident, and doesn't really fit in anywhere in life. Quick's ability to interweave Leonard's present and past events was remarkable. I felt like I was right there with Leonard throughout the story, which is something that I'm not always able to do while reading a book.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is a story that left a mark on me, and won't be soon forgotten.

If I ever question the importance of good parenting or having an adult in the life of a child to love and support them, I would just need to reread this book. Forgive Me Leonard Peacock is an easy to read story but don't let that fool you. The subject matter is deep and important as it shows how an individual can slip through the cracks and become alienated to such a degree that they lose all hope and lash out against themselves and others. The book treats this matter with seriousness yet it never becomes heavy or morose. Instead, we are on this ride with Leonard as he seeks to fight his way through all the pain and abuse he has suffered at the hands of those he trusted, hoping that someone, anyone, will reach out to him and give him a reason to believe in his future enough to hold on. I loved Leonard's relationships with Walt, his neighbor as well as with Herr Silverman, one of his teachers at school or even that with his AP English teacher which again makes me appreciate that a helping hand or a port in the storm can come from the most unlikely places. I strongly recommend this book for any parent, any teen, any adult as a powerful yet not at all ham-fisted treatment of a critical subject. In the letter from your future self -- you will thank yourself for doing so!

I found this book about a suicidal/homicidal teen quite powerful. I loved the angry, world-weary voice of Leonard, and I loved the narrative device whereby Leonard’s big day is broken up by imagined letters from his future friends and family. I loved Leonard’s strangely poignant (or poignantly strange) habit of following random grownups to work, hoping to find someone whose adult life isn’t as miserable as he feels his teen life is. I loved the language of the text, as in this snippet from one of the future letters:

"I know that you really just want everything to end--that you can’t see anything good in your future, that the world looks dark and terrible, and maybe you’re right--the world can definitely be a dreadful place.

I know you’re just barely holding it together. But please hold on a little longer. For us. For yourself. You are going to absolutely love Outpost 37. You’re going to be the keeper of the light."

I wasn't crazy about the story’s resolution, which seemed both overly neat and overly ambiguous. As my wife, a social worker who’s worked with suicidal teens, pointed out, there’s a lot more to teen suicide than this book managed to capture, and maybe the impossibility of capturing it all led to the semi-collapse at the end. Nonetheless, I found Quick’s novel daring, affecting, and ultimately life-affirming.

This is one of the many audiobooks in my collection that I either got for free (thanks to Sync) or bought in a random bundle (because how can you resist a bundle of audiobooks for less than $10?!). So, the point is, it wasn’t high up on my list.

I’d gotten to the end of my urgent queue and wanted something new to listen to, so I picked this one almost on a whim. BUT, it was when I browsed the reviews on Goodreads and one of them particularly recommended the audio version, that I knew I was going to listen to it.
And dang, damn, diddly-DUDE. This book was freaking AWESOME.*

A subject like depression — to the point of suicide (that’s alllll planned out) — can definitely be heavy. Matthew Quick handled it masterfully by providing Leonard with a very… personable? …voice. He was easy to listen to. Leonard is the kind of person that I just wanted to KEEP listening to, because he had all kinds of fascinating observations to share (he reminded me so much of my husband sometimes that it just squeezed my heart!).

Leonard is smart. He’s observant and he thinks things through, much more deeply than the majority of his classmates. He appreciates things that nobody else cares about. He befriends people because he’s genuinely curious about them, when everyone else avoids them. He’s got SO MUCH to say, and he’s SO FRUSTRATED by the seeming barriers between himself and others.

The thing is, you listen to Leonard telling you about all kinds of things, and you sort of fall in love with him a little bit. You find yourself nodding along with his observations, tearing up at the beautiful interactions he has with other people. You hear the passion in his voice (omg the narrator is brilliant), and you find yourself rooting for… a guy who plans to kill someone and then himself? —screeeeeeeeech!

Yeah. This book is freaking… intense. But entertaining as hell. And eye opening, and beautiful, and thought provoking in so many ways (I swear, I read this book weeks ago and I feel like I’m writing my whole review in Leonard’s voice. It’s THAT distinct.). If you were to listen to only one audiobook ever… I suggest it be this one.

*And I don’t even care what a total dork I just sounded like…

Lenny Peacock is a high schooler with a dreadful secret and a serious shortage of self-esteem. He's not a bad kid, but he's as popular as a waterlogged dog at a Sunday social. Today, he plans to murder a former friend and kill himself.

I bought this short novel when it was on sale because I really enjoyed the author's Silver Linings Playbook. "Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock" is geared more toward teens. While I used to be one, and thus both appreciate and hate that place of awkwardness and angst, if magic made a time machine, I'd go back to 21, not 16.

I should have read the signs, and known I would find this book mediocre.

'Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock' by Matthew Quick is my first novel by him. As a fan of the film adaptations of his work, I recognize some similarities.

Leonard Quick is having a bad day. Maybe even a bad life. His father is out of the picture, and his mother is too absorbed in her business to care. It's his birthday and he's got a plan. Leonard chops off his long hair, and wraps a bunch of gifts to hand out to the people in his life. the final plan involves using an antique Nazi pistol to kill his best friend, then himself. First we follow Leonard as he delivers his gifts to his neighbor Walt, that he watches Humphrey Bogart films with, and his friend Baback who plays violin. He gives a gift to Lauren, who is a Christian girl he likes, and to his favorite teacher, Herr Silverman. Along the way we learn that he likes to dress like a grown up and see if adults are really happy. We see him hoping someone will remember his birthday. We see him reaching out, and turning away attempts to reach him. How will it turn out?

It's a day in the life and it's quite the day. At first, I didn't seem to have much sympathy for Leonard. As the book moves along, I had more feeling for him. I really liked most of the supporting characters in the book. Lauren felt a little too one-dimensional to me, and I couldn't figure out why Leonard would be attracted to her. Still it's a powerful read, and probably not a bad one to put in the hands of a young person that you want to convince that things will get better. I liked Matthew Quick's writing style and I plan on reading more by this author.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this fine ebook.

It's Leonard Peacock's 18th birthday and his mother, who has long ignored him, has forgotten. Leonard Peacock is bitter about a lot of things, and plans to kill himself today. But he has some bits of business to take care of before he goes. He has gifts for his neighbor Walt, a favorite teacher, and the girl he's had a crush on for a long time. His fourth gift, a bullet, is destined for the boy who's violently bullied him for way too long.

Parts of the book are very bleak, and Leonard has a lot to be disturbed about. But there are also helpful, hopeful moments, and the ending certainly holds the promise of "It gets better." Most of the book is Leonard's first person narrative, and Quick also chooses to intersperse some imaginary letters that teenage Leonard has written to his future self. Quick does a good job of capturing the despair of this young man. I didn't expect to like this book, and I'm not quite sure who I will suggest it to, but if you think it sounds interesting, and you are up for some "in your face" "life's not a bowl of cherries" reading, give it a try. And may every young person find a Herr Silverman when they need him.

About me: I'm a middle school/high school librarian
How I got this book: advance reading copy from the publisher

Two words describe Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock for me: life changing. It's a book that ruins the books that follow because there's no way they could live up to the standards it created.

Leonard Peacock is a just-turned-18 high school boy and the bulk of the book happens on his 18th birthday. He wraps four gifts at the breakfast table for other people and prepares himself to endure not being told "happy birthday" by anyone, even his parents, as he believes those he knows either will forget, won't care or don't know it's his birthday. He plans to end his birthday by murdering his ex-best friend before committing suicide. It's an incredibly heavy topic to swallow.

Going into the book, my main focus was finding out exactly what the ex-best friend did to warrant being killed and why Leonard believed no one would acknowledge his birthday, an extremely exciting and important day to most, especially young people. Throughout, though I did still want to know what happened to Leonard to make him feel so lost, I became more interested in just getting to know Leonard.

The book is told first-person so the reader sees life through his eyes and hears his thoughts. I started having English-class discussions inside my head as I took breaks from reading to really let the novel set in before continuing (though I'll admit I read the book cover-to-cover in one sitting). The person Leonard showed to others was so different from the person I was getting to know through his inner monologue, almost like two separate boys. As I got to know him, I wanted to find him, help him, tell him all the reasons he shouldn't commit suicide. I also wanted to throttle some of those in his life for not knowing the "real" Leonard (including, but not only, the ex-best friend) even though it wasn't necessarily always their fault.

I've always been very much against suicide (although I've let in some grey area), feeling like it was a completely selfish thing to do to your loved ones. But what if you truly felt you had no loved ones? Felt there was no one to whom you felt close enough to express these inner suicide thoughts with, no one you felt would care if you were gone? It's changed my mind completely on suicide and, though I've always felt empathetic towards those who commit suicide, wondering just how bad life had to be to end it, I closed this book feeling that there's more grey area than I believed there to be before.

Quick truly takes his readers into the mind of someone contemplating suicide and I wiped tears away on more than one occasion as this fictional boy I was quickly growing to love expressed his innermost fears and heartbreak. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is like a long letter written just for you to read. It is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

I can honestly say Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick took me by surprise. I downloaded this via the SYNC Free Downloads event and had no idea what the book was about. Interestingly enough, I had also read The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb, which deals with some of the same issues. I also listened to this novel right after Code Name Verity so you can imagine my shock when the novel starts off with a kid handling a P-38 WWII Nazi handgun.

This novel is a tough, honest look at bullying. Right from the start the reader knows what Leonard's plan is, but the reasons are not totally clear beyond perhaps the usual teenage angst and lack of belonging. When it is finally revealed why Leonard is considering the extreme measure of murder/suicide, I was shocked and immediately heartbroken. I wanted to take Leonard in my arms and give him solace.

The issues this book deals with are quite hard-hitting and may not sit well with all readers. It certainly takes a unique view and gives voice to the person being bullied. There's also a brief glimpse of why the bullying was happening in the first place. For me, the saddest part was not Leonard and his decision, but the lack of involvement from the parents. For me, it says a lot about our society when parents are not connected to their kids and ignore the changes the Leonard saw in himself and Asher.

Overall, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick receives a thumbs up. It's a solid book that deals with some hard-hitting issues that some readers may find troubling, but those issues definitely receive an honest examination.

This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews (secondrunreviews.com).

Leonard Peacock is very angry because today is his 18th birthday and no one remembered, including his own absentee mother who moved to New York and left him alone in New Jersey. To celebrate he cuts off all his hair, and wraps presents to deliver to four people who made a difference in his life. He plans to end the day by killing his former best friend with his grandfather’s old World War II gun then killing himself.

Through Leonard’s first person accounts, letters written to himself in the future, and copious footnotes, readers see someone who is highly intelligent, misunderstood, hurt and confused. His next-door neighbor Walt, and World War II Holocaust teacher Herr Silverman are the only ones with whom he can be himself. With Walt he can watch Humphrey Bogart movies and disappear into a fantasy life, while Herr Silverman challenges him creatively, making him feel like a real person who matters in life.

Gradually readers come to see why Leonard is so desperate, and gain understanding into the person he was forced to become by those in his life who hurt him. The pain he suffers, and the solutions he chooses to ease that pain, are explored in detail and will give readers food for thought. Hopefully Leonard’s story will enable teens suffering through this kind of pain to realize there is hope, and that suicide isn’t the answer to their problems.

Recommended for ages 14 and older.

Listed on the ALA (American Library Association’s) Best Fiction for Young Adults list (compiled by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

The similarities with Catcher in the Rye are abundant in Matthew Quick's latest novel, and if Holden Caulfield were going to college in America today, I suppose his personal crisis might indeed extend to bringing a Nazi P-38 gun to school with the intention, as Leonard Peacock does here, of blowing away one of his classmates and himself. Quick's take on the subject of teenage alienation and the danger of being an outsider in an increasingly bland and uncaring world of appalling mediocrity may be a little too meticulously researched and case-study perfect in comparison to Salinger, but there's still a lot to like in it.

There's Leonard Peacock himself, who is such an intelligent and witty protagonist that your heart can't help but go out to him. He likes Humphrey Bogart films and identifies with Hamlet. He's a little too sensitive and caring however to really be convincing as a potential high-school killer, his favourite lessons at school being those given at the Holocaust class by Herr Silverman, even if he is disdainful of the rote and unthinking responses that the subject provokes from his Übermoron classmates. Having watched too many Bogart movies, he behaves a little strangely around girls and has an unusual hobby of partaking in "practice-adulthood" days, where he dresses in his funeral suit, takes an empty briefcase and imagines how soul-destroying life must be in the future if the expressions on the faces of the people he follows are anything to go by.

His behaviour might be strange - and with all the little footnotes, it's often hilariously funny - but you can at least can sympathise exactly with Leonard's sentiments and see where he is coming when he comes to the conclusion that he has nothing to live for. Particularly considering his unsatisfactory home life, his lack of friends and the fact that it's his 18th birthday and no-one seems to care, but most significantly it becomes increasingly evident that Leonard has a terrible secret that he believes that he can't live with.

The Catcher in the Rye references also extend to Leonard's witty and imaginative "Messages from the Future" where he is a post-apocalyptic Lighthouse keeper. Despite the references to old black-and-white movies and Shakespeare however, Quick's novel is definitely written with a contemporary audience in mind and takes a fresh look at a modern world that would have utterly appalled Holden Caulfield (and probably at least driven him to become a recluse). Matthew Quick's summation of it all feels a little too neat and text-book in places, but he doesn't avoid the harsh realities or pretend that the path Leonard must take is going to be an easy one.

This book opens on Leonard Peacock's 18th birthday. He decides he will check out on the day he arrived. His plan is to shoot his former best friend Asher Beal and then himself. Prior to doing so, he has some gifts wrapped in pink paper that he wants to distribute to some chosen people. Each one of them has a significant place in his life.

Leonard's mother Linda is a selfish, self involved and shallow woman who majored in looks. I admit that I really could not abide her. She is, to use Leonard's word completely oblivious to her son and his needs and does not listen to him. Her communication skills are nil at best, absent/lacking at worst. She spends most of her time out of the family home in New Jersey with her lover, Jean-Luc who lives in Manhattan. Leonard's father is a former rock star turned drop out who is almost never in the home. He is a specter or a shadow who leaves no lasting imprint and who has no real influence on his only child.

One of his gifts goes to his elderly neighbor, a man named Walt who shares Leonard's love of Humphrey Bogart movies. The two trade lines from classic films and love wearing fedoras and waxing nostalgic about life in the 1940s when Bogart was a bankable star.

One person I just loved was Leonard's Social Studies teacher, Herr Silverman. An unusually kind and perceptive man, he has given his pupils a very thought provoking assignment which is to write to people in the future and to set their sights ahead. He just might have some insights into what makes young Mr. Peacock tick. I will add that I was sorry that Leonard left him at one point in the story.

This was a book I just could not put aside. The story was riveting and so were the characters. In digging deeper in to Asher's character, it became apparent fairly quickly what caused him to change to the point where Leonard grew to hate him. Asher has a horrible secret and Leonard unfortunately shares it. The secret mutates into something.....quite deadly.

This book will stay with me. Billy Joel's song "Pressure" and "I've Had Enough" by Paul McCartney could well be Leonard's theme songs.

This book was emotionally hard to read but at the same time I couldn't stop reading it. When I found out what Leonard was planning to do, I almost put the book down. It made me rethink if I wanted to read the book or not. But then the more I read, the more I didn't want to put it down. Leonard is so so charming that it made me forget that he was depressed. He's personality made me love him and made me wonder why didn't everybody love him, especially his mom. I detest bad mothers, in books and in real life. And Leonard's mom was the worst kind of mom. I will stop, because my whole review will be about how big of a bitch that woman was.

I enjoy Matthew Quick's writing. It's very realistic and hard breaking but at the same time humorous and smart. The pacing was equally as good. There're some flashbacks here and there, and I usually don't enjoy those, but it was so well done. The book really needed to go back for us to see the whole picture and understand the way Leonard was acting. I wanted to hug him so bad!

I loved everything about this book, but my favorite part were the Letters from the future. Those letters made me happy, laugh and the last one made me cry. I still get a little emotional when I think about it. I still can't get Leonard out of my head, he was such a strong character that it just makes it hard to forget him. If you are looking for an emotional and kind of funny read then Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is the book you should read next.

Leonard Peacock is eighteen, and he's planning a murder-suicide. He's going to shoot his classmate and former best friend Asher Beal, and then blow his own brains out. But before he goes, Leonard has a few gifts to deliver to the few friends he will be leaving behind--an elderly neighbor, a musically gifted classmate, a special teacher, and a girl he met on the subway.

This book just broke my heart, particularly the flashback passages describing how Leonard and Asher were transformed from close friends to bitter enemies. The true villains in Leonard's life are mostly off-stage and unseen, but their carnage is nevertheless palpable.

Great, emotional read.

Leonard Peacock is just a boy that nobody understands. He just wants what everyone wants, friendship, love, loyalty. Those things that some others take for granted.

Reading about Leonard really made my heart race. At every point in this book I was wondering if he would go with his plan of attack. He really wants someone to talk him out of it, anyone, and I think he is even really trying to tell people that he is upset, but no one will listen!

I listened to this on audible and I have to say the narrator, Noah Galvin, was fabulous. I believed every single word he said. He put inflections in exactly where I would expect a sarcastic teenager to. He read this narration with such feeling that I had a huge amount of empathy for Leonard Peacock, even with his dastardly plans.

The entire book had me moving closer and closer and closer to the edge of my seat. The way Matthew Quick wrote this was amazing and although to the point, he adds in some backward and forward movement for Leonard so the reader really gets a sense of who he is by the end of the book. Secrets were revealed that I would never have imagined.

The future tense parts of this threw me off for a minute but those are even explained further along in the book. Everything is explained. This is a read where when you read the synopsis you may think that this will be a tear jerker, and to a point it is, but it is also so much, much more than that. In this is a smart kid trying to figure out if life really is worth living. He’s asking that pivotal question about existence and if he will be able to survive it all.

In the end, absolutely amazing.

Received from the author for an honest review.

This and more reviews at The Book Bar.co

Rating: Top Shelf a beautifully tragic happenstance.

You're immediately taken back to the toughest times in your life, the awkward stages. Maybe you were bullied, maybe you were ostracized because of they way you acted or dressed. Maybe you had your own personal demons and still had to deal with life. I instantly fell in love with this book. The moments of breath above water, the letters from Leonard's loved ones, are inspiring and uplifting, even when you feel Leonard drowning.

If my classmates put as much effort into making our community better as they give to the college application process, this place would be a utopia.
Appearances, appearances.
The great facade.
How to Live Blindly in a Blind World 101.
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. Quick, Matthew. Published August 13th 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Kindle edition. Loc 630

So many terrible things happen to Leonard that leave him with only one option to stop the pain. Leonard's parent's 'hands-off' approach to loving their only child cause Leonard to bottle up most of his feelings. A best friend, who is sexually abused, becomes Leonard's living nightmare. Feeling and understanding beyond the socially acceptable top layer has fellow classmates pegging him as a freak.

I heard other kids in my class whisper all sorts of things about me afterward, saying that I had justified killing children and suicide, but my classmates just didn't get it, because they are spoiled teenagers living here in America at the beginning of the twenty-first century. They've never had to make any real decisions at all. Their lives are easy and unremarkable. They're not awake.
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. Quick, Matthew. Published August 13th 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Kindle edition. Loc 439

But it's not all gloom. He has a few 'friends' that want to help, or at least understand, but they don't know the best way to approach the situation they all fear is about to take place. Baback helps Leonard escape everyday school life by listening to the beauty of Baback's violin. Lauren, inadvertently, helps him believe in the idea of Love, even if religion gets in the way. These two are just kids themselves and only accept Leonard up to a certain point, then insist that there is something wrong and he needs help.
Walt, his elderly widowed neighbor, lends an ear even but the two can only communicate emotionally through Bogart statements.
And Herr Silverman taps into Leonard and tries desperately to keep him around, just a little longer.

Show me it's possible to be an adult and also be happy.
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. Quick, Matthew. Published August 13th 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Kindle edition. Loc 476

For me, the most moving parts of this book are the letters from Leonard's future. At first I didn't understand where the book was going but they were so fun to read. After Herr Silverman let's the reader in on the concept, the fun letters become more beautiful and then heart breaking.

Mom says you never thought you'd find her when you were my age, but you did.
You probably never thought you'd find me either, and now I need to find the people in my future too - because that's just the way of the world maybe.... I've watched you sleep for over an hour, just because.
And the whole time I wished your mind was a sea we could scuba dive in together because I'd like to see the LOVE statue that sits at the bottom of your consciousness.
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. Quick, Matthew. Published August 13th 2013 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Kindle edition. Loc 2816

I felt emotionally altered after reading this book. I highly suggest it to everyone, because no one had a perfect life growing up.

I downloaded this book through Sync Audio files for free. They have a really great program that runs during the summer for people to download 2 books per week. One is generally a classic, and the other is something more recent. You have to sign up, and those titles are only available for download for one week, but its really great! I was able to listen to this book on my phone while I was crocheting (: It was a pretty relaxing weekend to say the least!

I really enjoyed this book. The writing was great, it was easy to follow, and there was so much depth to Leonard Peacock. I felt like throughout the story I really got to know him as a character and why he planned to commit suicide. It's a sad book because you can see how little things can really mean so much to people, and how sometimes one event, or a series of events, can change your life forever.

I couldn't stop listening to find out what was going to happen. Leonard plans out his 18th birthday to say goodbye to 4 people that have greatly affected him. While he's doing this, there are flashbacks to events that happened that ultimately led him to his decision. I couldn't wait to find out what actually happened; did Leonard kill Asher Beal? Did he commit suicide? What happens?!

Overall, it was a great book and I highly recommend reading/listening to it! Most people will thoroughly enjoy this book, even if it is a little sad. I laughed at times... felt like crying at others... It was truly well-written and worth my time.

Pagesofcomfort.blogspot.com

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is all sorts of amazing. Intelligent, poignant, witty, provocative and deeply touching - I freely admit it made me cry big fat ugly tears while I was reading the final chapters on the train home from work.

Leonard Peacock is a self-absorbed and highly unlikeable character yet I sympathised with him immensely and through author Matthew Quick's raw and honest portrayal of his main protagonist I came to understand what could drive Leonard to such extremism. I don't condone his choices nor do I believe it is ever the solution, but I did came to feel greatly compassionate towards him. After all, as Herr Silverman in the book says, we can simultaneously be human and monster - both those possibilities are in all of us.

At the heart of the novel is the very sensitive subject of suicide which could have easily made this a melancholy and emotionally draining novel, and while there were certainly occurrences of that it was also surprisingly witty and humorous. Furthermore, Leonard is highly intelligent and his fascinating and depressingly accurate perspective of the world, his existence and that of the drones around him made for a riveting read.

The book was also incredibly thought-provoking. Not just about the more obvious topics such as suicide and the immense impact bullying can have on a person, but also about subjects that are covered in Leonard's classes such as Shakespeare and the holocaust; these were less touched upon but equally attributed to making this such a unique and brilliant piece of writing.

Quick has a magical way with words and I relished each and every one of them within this novel, they conveyed so much in their simplicity. For example:

"It's a depressing reality how my classmates make love to their ignorance."

"You're different. And I'm different too. Different is good. But different is hard. Believe me, I know."

After this nothing short of brilliant introduction to Quick's writing I'll be sure to check out his other novels as well, because I definitely need to read more books of this calibre and which are both emotionally and intellectually stimulating.

It's been a while since a piece of fiction has reduced me to incoherently gushing over its contents, but Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is all kinds of special and I cannot seem to find the right words to do justice to just how much it has touched me and made me think.

Beautiful and utterly brilliant this simply one of the best books I have ever read. Thank you Matthew Quick, thank you very much.

Matthew Quick and his Silver Lining Playbook was an instant hit with me, so I was anxious to try this book even though I don't read very much YA. What a roller-coaster ride; it's a terrific story.

It's a story that is both poignant and heart-breaking. It follows a troubled,teenage boy by the name of Leonard Peacock. It's Leonard's 18th birthday and he is planning on killing another boy at his school named Asher Beal, who Leonard feels is just plain evil. Tired of the constant bullying, once Asher is dead, he then plans to kill himself. Before he acts he wants to give a few special people a gift so he won't be forgotten. There's Walt, Leonard's next door neighbor who has taught him an appreciation for Bogart, Baback, a violin prodigy classmate, Herr Silverman, a teacher who shares his knowledge of the Holocaust, and Lauren, a girl Leonard has a crush on.

This book is so well done and full of ups and downs and just so emotional at times as well. My heart went out to Leonard. Absentee parents: his father was a rock-star wanna-be, and his mother, totally self-absorbed and obsessed with clothes and image. She moves to NYC and leaves Leonard alone in their suburban home, (she says for his own good),so that he can finish high school.

As tough as this story was to read at times, it's a story parents with young kids and teachers should not pass up. So well done, but sorry you'll have to read it for yourself to find out more. READ IT

I have to admit, my first thought when I finished this book was, "hmmm, that was interesting." In fact, I wasn't really sure what I was going to rate it, much less how I was going to review it. The one thing that I knew was that it was different from any other book I have ever read. In the two weeks since I finished the book, it hasn't gotten any easier to define my feelings, except to say that this was a book of contrasts for me. It was filled with moments of clarity and confusion, profound quotes and wasted words, important insights and trite excuses and a jumbled mass of Leonard's present and past.

Perhaps it is easiest to start with an overview of the story. It is Leonard Peacock's birthday, and for his birthday he has decided to kill his former best friend, Asher Beal, and then himself. Before he can do that, though, he has a present to give to the 4 people that he considers the most important in his life. Sounds straightforward, doesn't it? But nothing about this book is straightforward. Not the writing style that Quick uses, not the motivations of the characters, and certainly not the mind of Leonard Peacock. To say that Leonard is damaged goods is an understatement. From the beginning it is apparent that he is one of those kids in high school that just don't fit in anywhere, but the why is a lot less clear. As Leonard tells his story, we are given a lot of the events in his life that led to this point. What we don't get much of is the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the characters that lead to these events.

One of the most interesting things about this book was the writing style that Matthew Quick used to tell the story. The basic events of the story are told by Leonard in narrative form. As such, this part of the book does not give much insight into what the characters are thinking or feeling. We are treated to the inner workings of Leonard's mind, though, in the form of footnotes to the narrative. These are mostly the rambling of Leonard's inner mind and, as such, they have a more conversational and intimate tone. It is here that we get more of a feel for Leonard's emotional well being and state of mind. Then there are the letters. They appeared out of nowhere, leaving me confused as to their purpose at first. In the end, I was left wondering whether all these contrasting story devices and the confusion that are their result are a the mark of an author who has lost control of his story, or the result of a genius who is using them to illustrate the contrasts and confusion of the character that is Leonard Peacock. It would be easy to dismiss them as the former, but that would be doing the book a disservice, I think. In the end, I found that using the various devices worked for a couple of reasons. First, I thought they worked to show the different facets of Leonard's character. Secondly, they allowed me to feel some of the confusion that Leonard's life had become and the conflicting emotions he had about himself.

What I found most disturbing about the book, was the lack of awareness of any of the adults in Leonard's life. In fact, of all of the adults that we encounter in the story, only one seems to have any idea that things in Leonard's life are about to spin out of control. The rest of the adults, from Leonard's absentee mother on down through the school administrators and teachers, seem determined to let Leonard down. The ones that are not incredibly self-absorbed, seem bent on pretending that everything is normal and either there is nothing to worry about, or if there is, there is nothing they can do about it. Admittedly, the story is being told from the viewpoint of a student, who is likely to see the adults as shallow and self-absorbed. Even so, I felt that there was an important lesson for adults here.

Bottom line, this is not a book for everyone, that is for sure. As a reader, though, I found that it elicited strong feelings and for that reason I am giving it 4 stars. Some readers may find the jumble of story telling devices confusing, or Leonard's attitude either too whiny, to wrapped up in excuses, or just not realistic. I found that those items were the ones that made me think and ultimately to question what I was reading. Given the subject of this book, I think that is an important outcome. My one caveat is that I was left feeling that this book could be either a positive influence on a teenager, or a negative one, depending on the reader. I actually told one friend I was not sure how I would feel about my sons read it if they were a teenagers, but I could certainly see it starting some good discussions. My advice as a parent is to look at the book yourself, and then determine if it is right for your teenager.

My thanks to Little, Brown, and Company and Netgalley for making this book available to me in exchange for a review.

Today is Leonard Peacock's 18th birthday, and no one seems to remember or care - not his dad, a criminal he hasn't seen in years, and especially not his mom, who cares more about her career and boyfriend than her only son. It seems fitting, then, that today is the day Leonard will pack up his grandfather's old gun in his backpack and kill his former best friend then kill himself immediately afterward. Before going through with it though, Leonard has gifts for the four people he cares about most that he wants to deliver as a way of saying goodbye. This includes: his elderly neighbor, the girl he has a crush on, a musical genius classmate, and his Holocaust teacher. In his meetings with these four people, the mystery of Leonard's past and motives are unraveled and revealed.

I really liked Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, even though I had an idea of what would happen very early on in the story. I really love controversial stories like this because they stir up emotions and make you think. No one can really truly imagine what it must be like to want to commit these heinous acts, and no one can really understand the state of mind one must be in to want to try, but this story does a good job of attempting to show this. We are always left wondering "why?" in these kinds of situations, and this starts to answer the questions that can never be fully answered.

I also liked the cast of characters. They were very diverse and distinct, particularly the four "friends" that Leonard is gifting and saying his good byes to. And while Leonard isn't really all that likeable, I did have a lot of questions about him and I wanted to know his story so that I could try and understand. I certainly felt bad for him too.

I'd definitely recommend this one for contemporary YA fans who enjoy books that tackle big, scary issues. I also must mention that Matthew Quick is the author of Silver Linings Playbook, one of my favorite movies and a book that I am dying to read!

The blurbs on this YA novel are pretty impressive: "riveting", "harrowing", "beautifully written". And with a starred review in Publisher's Weekly and a movie deal in the works, I worried the hype was too much. But I read it. In one sitting. Yep--it was that good.

The book opens with Leonard Peacock looking at himself in the mirror after he has chopped off the long hair that has curtained him off from the world. "How long as this guy been hiding under my hair? I don't like him. 'I'm going to kill you later today,' I say to that guy in the mirror, and he just smiles back at me like he can't wait. 'Promise?'" Chills. Then he wonders whether or not the P-38 WWII Nazi handgun sitting beside his bowl of oatmeal just might be modern art ... so he snaps a photo of it.

The boy, simply put, is not all that likable--he's sarcastic, rude, and dismissive of just about anyone outside of his small circle of acquaintances. Not friends (in the true sense of the word) because Leonard doesn't really have any. But he does attempt to date Lauren, a home-schooled Christian girl evangelizing outside the train station. And there is Baback, the Iranian immigrant who allows Leonard to listen as he practices violin in the auditorium every day at lunch; Herr Silverman, the young Holocaust history teacher who can see through teens' nonsense; and Walt, the elderly neighbor he watches hours of Bogart films with.

Leonard Peacock's parents are absent (Dad left the country to avoid drug charges and Mom--or Linda, as he prefers to call her--lives in New York, busy with a career in fashion) and so he's on his own, physically and emotionally. Leonard is also pretty darn smart, and he knows it. He has memorized extensive lines from both Hamlet and Bogey films, he takes Advanced Placement classes, and he's expected to ace the SAT. But he's a teenager for whom school is a burdensome formality and so he spends most of his day challenging his teachers, being a smart ass, and alienating himself from just about everyone.

Leonard also has a secret that has tormented him since he was twelve. While we don't immediately know what happened to isolate him, we can guess pretty accurately. So after years of pain Leonard decides on his eighteenth birthday he'll put an end to it. Literally. He plans to murder the object of most of his fury and then commit suicide. The story covers what is to be Leonard's last day on earth as he gives good-bye gifts to his four friends.

This novel is not for the feint of heart. It's raw, profane, and sexually explicit at times. But it's powerful stuff. Although Leonard Peacock may not be a very clinical look at a school shooter, the book gives great insight into the mind of a troubled teen.

AT A GLANCE REVIEW:

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock was definitely an unsettling, raw kind of book that made me think twice. Leonard Peacock is a voice that you won't soon forget as the voices of thousands of Leonard Peacocks resound all around us. The unraveling of the pain that Leonard held so tight, a deep pain that would motivate him to want to kill someone and then end his own life, made my heart so, so heavy. I closed the pages ultimately with hope and it made me think a lot about our interactions with people that we may think are meaningless.

FULL REVIEW:
This was definitely an interesting, powerful novel! Pretty heavy as we are following a narrator who has revealed right from the start that his plan for the day is to kill his former best friend and then himself. That alone definitely got my attention -- like WAIT WHAT? PUT DOWN THE GUN, KID. We don't know the reason why he is going to kill this boy but everything is slowly revealed throughout the day as we follow him say goodbye and deliver gifts to four people who have seemed to really make an impact on him. As the story unraveled and the motive was revealed, my heart broke for all the Leonard Peacocks of the world.

Have you ever had an experience following a character that is just so unsettling for most of it that you have to take breaks? This was my experience with Leonard Peacock. It's just a strange experience to be following a main character who wants to kill someone and then kill himself. On top of that, you can just feel the pain of Leonard Peacock just emanating from the pages. He's so lonely and pushed off to the side that it just hurt my heart. But at the same time you just feel some inner rage that he thinks this is the answer. But then you feel so badly for him again. I was just so scared the whole time -- like wanting to plead with him NOT to do it. I was pretty unsure about what was going to happen until I got to a certain point.

What made this book so powerful and raw was Leonard. I felt this cloud of sadness just settle around me for a good chunk of this novel. His story is so, so devastatingly sad and I wanted to just hug him hard and buy him a cake for his birthday. His voice was incredibly memorable with the way it made me feel a weight in my heart like really sad songs or the way his pain was just so visible like a painting on a canvas.

It's definitely a bit of a slower novel as it takes place in one day and most of the day he is meeting with these four characters who have impacted his life in some way and revealing a lot about his life and why these people have been deemed important to him. Despite the fact it's a bit of a slower novel, it's so emotionally charged because you can feel his state of mind and you are kind of reading in a sort of flinched manner with your hands over your eyes but peeking through to read it. You are just waiting to see if he is going to pull the trigger all while reading Leonard's really painful story. SO INTENSE.

My one and only complaint that I remember thinking that, at times, some of the other characters seemed a little bit like caricatures. I did really love his elderly neighbor and the teacher though! ALSO, I don't know what the finished copies or ebooks will be like, but I read an e-galley and there are footnotes in this novel that I didn't see until the END. I did read them after and I felt like they would have distracted me with their length but some were actually important. I think maybe something I didn't see coming was said in one of those footnotes so MAYBE his motive won't seem as shocking because it seemed to hint to it.

I began listening to author Michael Quick's dark novel, FORGIVE ME LEONARD PEACOCK, with a bit of trepidation.

It is, after all, a story about a teenager en route to school where he plans a murder/suicide. However, after listening to this riveting story, I would highly recommend it, especially to parents and anyone dealing with teenagers.

Narrator Noah Galvin does an excellent job bringing these complex characters to life, particularly the troubled teen, Leonard Peacock. Galvin's cadence holds your attention as the story deals with tough issues for teens. His vocalizations emphasis the emotions and struggles presented throughout the story.

Leonard Peacock is going to school with four presents and his grandfather's loaded souvenir Nazi-issue P-38 pistol in his backpack. It's his 18th birthday and he plans to kill his former best friend, Asher Beal, and then himself. But first, he has to deliver the presents to a few people who matter in his life. These people are: Walt, his elderly Humphrey Bogart-obsessed next door neighbor; Baback, a musically gifted classmate; Lauren, a Christian home schooled girl he has a crush on that passes out religious tracts at the train station; and Herr Silverman, the teacher of his Holocaust studies class.

With the deliver of each gift, readers/listeners learn more about Leonard's background, his emotional state, and why he feels he must do what he has planned. You also discover he wants to belong and be cared for and about. Leonard is suffering from a dark secret he's been hiding that is destroying him. He has tried to seek help with little or no response. As Leonard draws nearer to his goal, you find the ruthless killer is a scared, lonely boy in need of help and love, who has an amazing outlook on life.

Feeling abandoned by his worthless parents, let down by the adults around him and out of place among his classmates, Leonard sees only sadness and pain ahead for himself. Can he find someone to show him there is hope and possibilities past the pain he feels now?

This story moves at a steady pace and can be a bit confusing at first when seemingly unrelated letters from the future are woven in. However, as the story unfolds the letters play an important part of the story. Quick does an excellent job stressing there are possibilities beyond present pain if one just holds on and looks to the future.

The characters are well-developed, memorable and alarmingly realistic. Quick pulls you in to feel the emotions of these characters as the story builds to a dramatic conclusion. The activities at Leonard's high school and with the students could be any school in the nation making this a must read novel.

FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK is a fascinating story that will tug at your heart strings with elements that could have been pulled from today's headlines.

FTC Full Disclosure - This audio book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

The central character of this book told in the first person, is a young man, on his 18th birthday.

It has always seemed to me that teens are a time, curiously, of great conservative conformity - the group conformed with of course being one's peers. It's a time of not really being sure of who you are, and the trying on of all sorts of masks to see which ones might fit. Peer pressure at this time is intense. Pretty well everyone is mask wearing, but some seem happier with wearing the same masks as everyone else than others are

The sensitive, and those who are least comfortable with the accepted mask, whatever that is, will have a particularly hard time of it

And our narrator is one such. He has grown up with an absent, disappointing father, and a mother who is unusually self-obsessed and forgetful of her child. He is highly intelligent, thoughtful, disturbed, self-reflective, wry, mocking, sometimes unintentionally witty, and forms a few, unlikely, friendships with other rather odd people - an elderly neighbour who watches Bogie and Bacall films, a thoughtful, humanitarian teacher attempting to make his pupils think rather than be fashion-thought sheep, and a boy and a girl of his own age who, for different reasons, are also outsiders.

At times this book is almost unbearably dark and hopeless. In fact, most of the trajectory is towards violence and destruction, the gradual revealing of the sources of despair.

And yet - our narrator, fractured, damaged and suffering though he is, has this ability to connect with the other side of sensitivity and empathy - which not only brings an awareness of pain - but also of joy.

The author talks about his rationale for writing the book, being to demonstrate to those on that difficult place between childhood and adulthood, that there is a little bit of hope which makes life worth pursuing, however dark that place of transition may be.

The hope in this dark and also at times darkly funny book (as our angry, pained young man is also mordant in his humour) is provided by imaginative writings, where he projects into the man he might be, and imagines the people who might be in his better life, writing letters to him, and about him, to help the boy of today be healed. His ability to imagine is not only his cross, but also his salvation.

At times within the book there are slightly strange games played with typography and arrangement. Real book readers won't be phased by this, but initially, Kindlers might be, as till you realise this is integral and intentional, you think your ereader is about to expire! I would recommend the `real' rather than the Kindle/ereader format - interesting footnotes are scattered throughout the text, and though the links work perfectly, I think books with footnotes are easier to navigate on paper.

I received this as an ARC. It is marketed as children's and Young Adult fiction - it's the latter. I would suggest 14 and up. And definitely for adults too.

I was really interested in reading Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by author Matthew Quick the moment I finished reading the description of the novel. It sounded like a novel that would stir up emotion in me, thrill me and keep me on the edge of my seat. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock did all of those things and then some. I absolutely adored and loved this read so much I can't even put my thoughts or emotions into words.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock takes place on the main character Leonard Peacock's birthday, it's a very special day for Leonard because he is going to kill his ex-best friend with his grandfather's P-38 pistol and then kill himself. However Leonard first plans on going to see the people who matter to him most and give them a goodbye present so that when they learn about the crime he plans to commit after he commits it they won't have a bad final memory of him.

Leonard goes to visit the four people who mattered to him most: His neighbor Walt, one of his musically inclined classmates, the girl he has a crush on and his teacher Herr Silverman. As Leonard goes to visit each of these people (and times moves toward the moment when he will pull of his murder-suicide) Leonard begins to give away the plan he is will put into action and the events that led him to make this decision.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock was a novel that I fell in love with right from the start. It was a dark and haunting read that broke my heart, took me on an emotional roller coaster and had me hoping that Leonard would change his fate before it would become too late. The writing style stirred up far too many emotions in me, the footnotes used in the novel as well as Leonard's dark and depressing thoughts left me both sad and angry. There were so many moments where I was either brought to tears or began crying from Quick's writing style that made Leonard come alive and become more than just a character.

The characters introduced in Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock are ones that will connect with readers in some way or form. The main character Leonard is both the good guy and the bad guy and once you discover just what his ex-best friend has done you have to wonder if what Leonard's doing (despite how totally dark and wrong it is) can be justified. There's a variety of characters from a dedicated Christian girl to his neighbor and friend Walt who is obsessed with Humphrey Bogart movies and to himself. Despite seeing each character for only a small amount of time I felt that a relationship is established with each character that made the goodbyes very heartfelt.

When reading Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock I personally think that a lot of readers will find Leonard's dark thoughts and dark family history to be intriguing. It's so seldom that I get to read about a character who is messed up and is actually very smart and applies those smarts in the plot. Leonard is a unique character who pulled me into the plot and left me reading and interested until the very last page. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is a novel that will keep you hooked. I never wanted to put it down.

I'd recommend Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock to readers who are looking for an addictive and dark read. Readers who are fans of plots that are thrilling and emotional will eat this read right up. Anybody who is looking for a tear jerker needs to check out Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock as soon as possible.

I apologize in advance for this review being a little all over the place. :) But that's what my feelings for this book are: all over the place!

Ok, seriously, when I first started this book, I was like, "What did I just get myself into?!" I knew Leonard wanted to kill himself, and his (ex) best friend, but it started out REALLY FREAKING WEIRD! I was worried that I either wasn't going to understand what all was going on in this kid's head, or that I wouldn't like it enough to finish it. BUT, I did finish it, and I'm glad I did. The writing itself really is phenomenal. I ended up giving it 3.5 stars on Goodreads, and really, if you can get past the weird things in the beginning, to where those things are explained later in the book, it's really kind of cool, and touching. TWICE, I cried while reading this, and the second time I was outright sobbing. There truly are a few beautiful, very powerful moments in this book. I don't know from experience, but I have a feeling that this book is a pretty honest approach to try to get readers to understand the inner workings of someone that would actually consider killing themselves. Normally, if a book made me cry, it would automatically get 4-5 stars, for getting me that emotionally involved in the story. But if I had borrowed this from the library, instead of getting it as an ARC for review, I might not even have read far enough into it to get to those amazing parts of the story. HOWEVER, I am hoping by warning ya'll that it's confusing in the beginning, so you'll be expecting that, that you will love this book even more than I do.

ANYWAY, to give you a little more of a taste of this story...

Leonard Peacock, at least in the beginning of the novel, just seemed like this to me: YOU ARE A SAD, STRANGE, LITTLE MAN.

He was busy wrapping presents for other people, on his own birthday, because he had every intention of removing himself from the world that day...right after removing his ex-best friend from it. And he's being really creepy about it. And as one last 'present' before he leaves home, he walks into the bathroom, cuts off all his hair, and wraps it up for Linda (also known as his mother). He's MESSED UP, alright?

Then, Leonard heads to his next door neighbor's house, where they begin to have a lovely 'chat' via Bogart quotes. It's actually pretty cool that they can have a real conversation using only lines from Mr. Bogart's films. But then the conversation starts to go south...and I'm not going to say any more, because I don't want to give anything away!

I promise you, if you give this book a chance, you will understand that Leonard has every right to feel the way he does about himself, and his ex-best friend...but he also has SO MUCH to live for! He's had a REALLY tough go of it, especially the last 6ish years, but he is very smart, and extremely observant. He's different from your average high school student, in a good way. But will that be enough to keep himself alive one more day? I guess you'll have to read it yourself and find out.

FORGIVE ME, LEONARD PEACOCK was a compelling story that made me ache for its main character. Leonard Peacock has decided to celebrate his eighteenth birthday by killing a former friend and taking his own life too. Before he does that, he needs to give presents to four people in his life who have meant a lot to him.

As his day progresses, we see him visiting his elderly next door neighbor. He and Walt have spent hours and hours watching old black-and-white Humphrey Bogart movies. Leonard longs for the black-and-white life that looks so much better than the life he is living. He also has a present for Baback. They aren't friends but Leonard has spent countless hours listening to Baback play his violin in the school auditorium. The music has moved Leonard as has Baback's story of his life in Iran. Leonard also has to give a present to Lauren who is a home-schooled Christian girl that Leonard has a crush on. Lauren has tried to convert him to Christianity but Leonard doesn't have that sort of faith.

The final person that Leonard wants to give a present to is his Holocaust Studies teacher Herr Silverman. Leonard feels that Herr Silverman is the only one at school who understands him and connects with him.

As the day unfolds we learn more and more about the events that have led to his decision to kill a former friend and take his own life. Leonard is an articulate narrator of his own story.

Some random thoughts occurred to me as I was reading this book. First of all, parents should be required to get and maintain licenses before having children. It seems like Leonard got a particularly bad set of selfish, irresponsible ones. Both parents have abandoned him. His one-hit-wonder rock star dad who fell in love with drugs and alcohol before running away to Brazil isn't really much worse than his fashion-obsessed mother who is so busy with her career in New York City and her French lover that Leonard isn't even on her radar. Even when told how unhappy Leonard is, she won't get him help for fear of how it would reflect on her. Second, there are people at his school who care besides Herr Silverman. His AP English teacher and the Guidance Counselor at the school are trying to help. Leonard is able to fool them with his "Hollywood face" though and they didn't push.

This story of a young man abused, neglected and pushed to his limits will linger in my mind for a long time.

Leonard Peacock is a high school student on a mission: He brings a gun to his school with the intention to kill a guy named Asher and then himself. Throughout most of the book, Leonard doesn't express much emotion. He approaches his intended date with murder and suicide very methodically. But before he can complete his final mission, he has a few tasks he must complete. Leonard seeks out four people to give each a gift to symbolize what that person meant to him. Each of the four responds in drastically different ways, from anger to suspicion to compassion.

Initially, we have no idea what drove Leonard to this decision. Leonard and Asher were best friends when they were younger, but something happened to drive them apart. When we meet Asher, he's leading his pack of friends in a bullying session of Leonard. It's only when Leonard loudly threatens to reveal a secret that Asher finally backs off.

It's pointed out that Leonard's behavior (giving away prized possessions and changing his appearance by chopping off his hair) are classic signs of someone contemplating suicide. And yet, with one very notable exception, no one questions Leonard, including his clueless and incredibly unlikable mother. Sometimes these bold behaviors are considered a cry for help, but I don't think that was the case here. Leonard had his plan, and he was merely taking the necessary steps to fulfill it.

For most of the book, Leonard didn't inspire a lot of compassion in me. Of course, I knew there had to be something awful that could drive him to want to end his life, but at one time in particular, he was so manipulative, and I just didn't like him at all in that moment. I think that was Quick's intention, though, and as the reasons for Leonard's suicide and murder wishes are slowly revealed, I felt terrible for my earlier reaction to him.

This is the first book by Matthew Quick I've read, and I now I want to read The Silver Linings Playbook even more.

Leonard has decided that he's going to kill himself and the guy who torments him. But first, he decides to say goodbye in his own way to the people who made a difference in his life: the old guy next door who taught him to love Bogart films, the high school teacher who teaches a class on the Holocaust, a girl who hands out religious tracts on the subway, and a fellow student who is a secret violin prodigy.

Leonard is convinced he has nothing to live for, and that Asher Beal deserves to die. As the story unfolds, we find that Leonard's father abandoned him long ago and his mother is mostly absent. He and Asher used to be friends until Asher turned on him.

Like other books by Matthew Quick (Boy 21, Sorta Like a Rock Star) Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is not comfortable to read, but it is important to read. Leonard's emotions are raw, and he is isolated. Repeatedly he reaches out to his mother and is rejected. He's awkward interacting with friends. Fortunately for Leonard his teacher recognizes his suffering, possibly because he went through something similar in his youth, and extends a lifeline to him. The characters are real and gritty and somehow familiar.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is a great book for mother-daughter book clubs with girls aged 14 up to read and discuss. Topics to talk about include social strains on teens, how teens can find help if they need it, the kind of thinking that will push someone to do something extreme, and more. I highly recommend it.

The publisher provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Although I didn't enjoy this book in the conventional sense, it didn't make me happy and it left me pretty much hating some aspects of the society we live in, I couldn't tear myself away from the book. I was touched by Leonard's struggle, by the relationships with the four people he wanted to give a gift to before he died and the fact that even out of those four, just two really cared about him and only one of those people could truly be called his friend.

After reading the book one particular quote from the final 'letter from the future' (the letters are sent from a place called Lighthouse 1) has really stayed with me. "We never see any boats. But you man the light anyway-just in case. And we got to see it-all these years. The great light. The beautiful sweeping beam! We were here to see it, and that was enough." I found that it really summed up what I took away from the book, your life is that beam, you might feel useless because the people you want to sit up and take notice never do but you shouldn't extinguish that light because other people appreciate it, there is always a reason to keep going.

Honestly, I don't think there's anyone I wouldn't recommend this book to. I can see it becoming one of the timeless coming of age books in the future. Not everybody will enjoy the book or connect with it but I'd tell anyone to give this a go. The first person narrative really allows the reader to get inside Leonard's mind, I admit there are a lot of footnotes to read but to me that made it seem more authentic after all what real person has thoughts that are perfectly linear? I know mine will sometimes flit to another train of thought completely.

It was hard to watch everyone in Leonard's life ignore the warning signs but similar things happen all too often in real life too. I'm sure there are other parents who might brush off concerns as playing for attention. Quick really manages to address suicide in a way that everyone can understand and create a great book in the process.

I’ve never had a favorite author before which people have always found strange, given the amount of reading that I do. And now I know I will be able to answer the question with certainty.

Matthew Quick.

The first thing I read by Matthew Quick was Silver Linings Playbook, and I really only read it because I knew it was a movie coming out with Jennifer Lawrence. Now, if you only saw the movie, you need to reevaluate and go back to that book. Matthew Quick did an amazing job telling a contemporary and modern love story, but even more importantly, he jumped into the psyche of stigmatized illness. He explored with beautiful penmanship the difficulty of living in the margins of society. The entire book was written as a stream of consciousness, which unfortunately didn’t translate well to movie form. What should be silent internal dialogue became spoken in the film, and as a result the character’s diagnosis didn’t quite remain the same. The only constant from book to film is Jennifer Lawrence’s character (and man did she deserve that Oscar). Criticisms of the movie were often that the portrayal of mental illness wasn’t realistic, and I just wanted to say to everyone, “Yeah, but if you’d read the book and saw that it was a good portrayal and understood why they had to translate that portrayal for the movie in a different way….” etc. etc. etc. You get my point. The movie is good, but the book is fantastic.

I loved it so much that when Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock came out Goodreads notified me (Goodreads is so nice about notifying me). This was in 2013. Here we are in 2015 and I finally got low enough in my TBR pile to check it out from the library. And I felt like a huge idiot for not reading it sooner. Because the man is now my favorite author.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is about a teenager who is prepping for his 18th birthday, and no one has remembered. He plans to spend the day providing gifts to people who have had an impact on his life, just before he kills another boy and himself. It’s not the happiest of plots, when it is all laid out like that, but don’t let it scare you off. At its core the story is really about uncovering why this is Leonard’s plan for his 18th birthday, what has affected his life, and how to re-open his heart.

Matthew Quick really showed his range with this book. Silver Linings Playbook is a beautifully written in-depth novel. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is without a doubt a young adult story. It’s paragraphs are brief and it reads quickly, and yet both books are equally done well. For me it was the equivalent of watching someone go from writing and directing a movie that was a comedic drama for adults to writing and directing a cartoon and hitting it out of the ballpark on both; it just seems like there is so rarely that cross-over. In literature, the general rule is that if you write YA, you are a YA author. Period. And I really liked seeing Quick demonstrate that a writer can explore the spectrum, stay true to his craft and still develop an excellent piece of work.

What’s more, he maintained his ability to write about damaged psyches even when translating it to the mind of an adolescent. It’s tough to be in the mind of a teenager as an adult. I remember being in 8th grade and thinking I wanted to a middle school counselor when I grew up because no one understood what it’s like to be in middle school. Now that I’m an adult, all I can think is that I really don’t understand or relate at all to 8th graders, I would be terrible at that job, and when did that happen? But the way Quick writes makes me remember. He captured it. It seems like magic to me as a (sort of) grown-up. He’s not exploring feeling fictional romance as you fight to death in an arena (not that this can’t be well done; I love the Hunger Games) – this book is a very simple realistic look at the life of one teenage boy, inside his head. And Quick managed to make him feel like a real person.

I continued to admire the way Quick addressed mental illness. It isn’t outlandish. His plots are driven by the need to uncover the source of the character’s mental illness and, in the process, the readers inevitably join the movement of removing stigma attached to it. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is about slowly understanding pieces of the puzzle of the protagonist’s mind, until finally you see the completed image. I’ve never seen a writer who not only understood mental illness in all of its forms so completely, but also tricked the reader into understanding it by withholding details of it up until the end. It’s like the suspense of getting to the bottom of what caused mental illness in this child is also uncovering your own understanding of the problem itself. By writing it in this way, providing a little bit of the story first and then the tools to understand the underlying cause of Peacock’s mental illness, the reader comes away with a heartfelt almost protective feeling of Quick’s protagonist. And thus, by extension, perhaps a more loving view of those children battling mental illness amongst us in real life. I’m not really sure if writing this story of discovery and thus inherently affecting emotion toward mental illness as a whole is intentional on Quick’s part, but given the depth and excellence of his writing, I would guess that it is.

Quick also did something in this book I’ve never seen before. He wrote about half of it in the footnotes. I’m not talking about something like Good Omens, where a decent portion of side notes and hilarity are found there. I’m saying that there is the central basic plot in the main portion of the pages, and the rest of the story is actually told and developed through footnotes. It’s a unique way to write any novel, YA or otherwise, and I’m surprised with how well it worked. It allowed him to break up what were, essentially, two separate stories being told – what was happening this day of Leonard Peacock’s 18th birthday, and why it was happening (the why it was happening being the bulk in the footnotes). Breaking the book up with footnotes allowed the telling of two different stories to feel connected in some way, whereas if it had all been in one flowing narrative it might have felt fractured.

The footnotes accomplished something else as well. The story felt really heavy at times, as you can tell by me having to explain to you that the plot isn’t really as gruesome as the outline would suggest. By breaking up the darkness with jumping between footnotes, Quick gave the reader a bit of a break. He allowed the reader to steer away from being totally engulfed by the intense portions of the story, and even made the occasional humorous comment seem welcome rather than out of place. I’m not sure if the footnotes were written as a solution to the heaviness of this YA plot, or if the footnotes were the idea and the rest written around them, but either way – it worked. And it was a big risk, because how many books do you see written that way? It could easily have been a disaster. Matthew Quick takes risks in his writing, straying from the conventional, and it works.

There are two primary themes in the book that I found deeply human and intriguing. The first is the absolute desire to make a connection with others around us, and how difficult it is to actually do that. Throughout Peacock’s journey, you find him desperately desiring connection by wishing people to understand him and simultaneously trying to understand them. For example, he follows strangers on the train that he thinks are sad in an effort to understand where their sadness comes from and decide whether it is worth growing up – growing up to a life of commuting and hating your job and being lonely. Where is that feeling of human connection? In an interaction at school that day, he thinks, “I would have talked with him openly and honestly – no double talk at all – if he would have just sat down, taken a few minutes to be human.” This is the heart of the primary story line – the search for connection that makes Peacock seem like both a normal teenager and too intelligent for his own good.

The other primary theme is the idea of memory and how it is connected to the development of the self. The repression of memory, you find out in the story, is what lies beneath Peacock’s mental illness and what brings about his birthday of horror (though I won’t disclose to you what those memories are). But Quick also points out that this idea of loss of memory and confusion is not specific to the mentally ill, but all around us. Thinking about memory and our birthdays, Peacock thinks, “And I wonder at what age it’s appropriate to stop keeping track of everyone’s birthday. When do we stop needing the people around us to acknowledge the fact that we are aging and changing and getting closer to our deaths? No one tells you this. It’s like everyone remembers your birthday every single year and then suddenly you can’t remember the last time someone sang the birthday song to you, nor can you say when it stopped. You should be able to remember, right?” Quick is essentially raising questions of how our memory development affects who we become. The youth that shaped us – are we really aware of the majority of it? How many memories do you have? There aren’t definitive answers to these questions, but I appreciate that Quick raises them. In reality, any bubbling up of some lost specific memory could potentially put you on the edge of relating to poor Leonard Peacock. Quick connects the universal ideas of memory to the individual protagonist, and suddenly, without realizing it, you are intertwined in his story.

For all of these reasons, after reading just two books (two flawless books), I have decided this person has to be my favorite author. When my mother was here visiting earlier this month she offered to buy me some books and I asked for Love May Fail. I will soon be reading and reviewing that here. A bit behind, given that millions have already read Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock and I’m only now getting around to it. But man I’m glad I read it. Better late than never.

And I think it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyways: yes, I recommend you give this one a read.

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I really enjoyed this one. Leonard is a misunderstood, lonely, and depressed 18 year old boy. Although I have to say I'd find it hard not to be depressed if I were going through something like he is. The story essentially takes place on the day he decides to kill his former best friend and himself. Yes, it's a deep topic but the author has created a character that is still very likable, despite all of that. We get to meet the four most important people in his life, who have varying degrees of care for him. Leonard has an interesting point of view, he's smart, and my heart just broke for him because I know how high school can feel like the biggest part of your life when you're in that moment. If I'm being honest, I hated the ending. It really pissed me off, but made sense with the rest of the book. You won't regret reading this one.

I was immediately pulled into Leonard's depressing world and Quick writes a hook that sucks you write in and keeps the pages turning- until he gets to the epistolary chapters. I wish he would have left those out because they immediately pulled me out each time one was there and by about the third letter to his future self, I began skipping them. I felt it hurt the pacing. I will admit that for the first half of the book I wanted Leonard to kill the bully and himself because his world was so bleak, he convinced me it was the only sane thing to do. The entire book I was just waiting. I felt differently once he actually pulled the trigger and Herr Silverman is so well written that I wanted to follow his story as well.
I suggest NOT reading this when you are depressed. It's pretty on target and will make your depression worse.
I would have given 5 stars except for the letter-writing chapters.

This YA novel deals with the subjects of suicide, loneliness, and sexual abuse in a way that neither romanticizes them nor attempts to shield the reader from the heaviness of these issues. The characters will break your heart while also infuriating you a little bit. But the best part is that Quick includes a teacher character who cares enough about his students that he's willing to ignore the rules in order to make sure they get the help they need.

If you've read "The Silver Linings Playbook" (and if you haven't what in the world are you waiting for?! Note: It's pretty different from the movie), you know Quick has a knack for writing incredibly empathetic, quirky, funny and relatable characters who have some mental problems. It's an interesting dichotomy between "Silver Linings"` Pat Peoples and his new YA novel's titular protagonist Leonard Peacock. While Pat was an adult man who retreated back into a childlike state to fend off the brutal realities of life, Leonard, here, is a teenage boy who can't escape his very adult thoughts and the reality of a very bleak future. So it's not a spoiler to stay this is a much darker book than "Silver Linings," but perhaps even more worthy of a read.

Leonard is a kid who, when he ditches school, instead of going out and partying, dresses up in a suit, pretends to go to work, and follows around miserable-looking adults because he's convinced no one is happy when they grow up. He hopes against all odds that someone could prove him wrong, but he finds only more confirmations of his very pessimistic views. So what's the point in striving towards such misery? Killing his former best friend and himself becomes, in his very messed up mind, a better alternative.

It's clear Leonard feels powerless in his life, and somehow carrying the gun around in his backpack makes him feel more in control. His various fantasies about whipping the weapon out and killing those around him are hard to read, but on a much deeper level, understandable. In one example of how he became such an angry, sad individual, his neglectful mother, who leaves him alone in their house most of the time and lives in her own apartment in a different city, refuses to let him have therapy, because "I'm not going to let some therapist blame me for Leo's problems." Infuriating stuff.

Leonard is in various turns snarky, lonely, weird, funny, frustrated, wise, delusional and unfortunately, his most consistent characteristic is how much pain he's in. He so lonely and wishes just one person would wish a him happy birthday, but he can't bring himself to tell anyone the significance of the date, not even when he delivers his presents and his friends practically beg him to open up. When a teacher encourages him to write himself letters from the future he would like to inhabit, it's a heartbreaking glimpse into the deepest part of his psyche, which still longs for the least bit of acceptance and love, even as he consciously plans to end it all.

More than just written to elicit sympathy, Quick's characterization of Leonard also feels well researched. He delves deeply and sensitively into familiar situations of bullying, peer pressure, parental neglect and abuse that can lead a young, impressionable mind astray, but makes it clear at some point an individual is responsible for his own actions. Quick is also able to infuse some light into the story and into Leonard, rendering him not quite as hopeless as he could be if he continues down his current path. He's one walking, talking cry for help, and always there's the possibility that he could be "saved", because he's surrounded by some great, positive influencing supporting characters.

This is a dark, bleak and heartbreaking read, but its message of hope is the one that will resonate and stick.

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.
[...]

Matthew Quick's latest YA outing is indeed dark, and tackles timely issues, such as school violence and teen suicide. Not to mention poor parenting.
I will not mince words- in all honesty, I wanted to like this book less than I did. I thought the book's description made it sound "Important" (with the capital I and quotation marks). But I have to admit that Mr. Quick's well done first person narrator grabbed a hold of me (after the first ten pages or so), and his pacing and sense of dread and urgency kept the pages turning.
Is Leonard always a fully believable character? Not really. BUT, his pain is always believable, and you can't help but do your best to relate to him (which will even be easier for teens), and, of course, root for him.
Kudos for the letters from the future, and for creating a truly heroic and caring teacher.
All in all, it is Quick's writing prowess that made this four stars for me instead of three.
Check it out if you can handle the dark subject matter.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock
“The P-38 WWII Nazi handgun looks comical lying on the breakfast table next to a bowl of oatmeal”
Today is Leonard Peacock’s birthday. And also the day he decides to kill his previous best friend and himself with his grandfather’s gun. Leonard Peacock is a teenage boy who is constantly bullied by his previous best friend. Before he decides to kill himself he wants to give a gift to each of his closest friends. Hoping for them to wish him a happy birthday.
During the book, the author touches on many themes and topics but, in the end they all circle back to two themes. The first theme is bullying is a terrible thing but, could lead to even worse things. And the second is that ending your life will not fix any of your problems but will be the worse decision of your life.
Throughout the book, the story is told through the eyes and thoughts Leonard Peacock.
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, was awarded many honorable awards such as Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2013, Children’s Fiction; YALSA 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults. This book is a very unique and gives you a captivating window into a young teenagers life.

This novel is powerful. The writing is excellent. The presentation is captivating. It was a complete emotional roller coaster from start to finish. I love how creative Matthew Quick was with such a serious topic. He drew me in so fast and held on tight. I think this novel is really going to reach people, especially troubled teens and adults, but I want everyone to read or listen to this novel.

I adore Leonard, and my heart aches for him. He also has the most amazing teacher ever written, and it makes me proud to have been a teacher when I read about someone like that.

The audiobook version is fantastic, and the novel is so good that disc 5 made me sob. I almost had to pull my car over.

What a great read! Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is the first book I've read by Matthew Quick. Quick is famous for writing The Silver Lining's Playbook. That book and movie was last year's everything. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock doesn't stray too far from that same model of having a protagonist who isn't quite right in the head.

Leonard Peacock narrates the story that's taking place over the course of 24 hours. What makes this day different is that he's going to kill Asher Beal and then committ suicide. He's planned this day to the point where he's carrying his grandfather's P-38 WWII pistol. He also has presents for four people he wants to say goodbye to. These items, as well as the P-38, are ironically wrapped in pink wrapping paper contrary to its morbid cause.

What keeps the reader engaged with this novel is the voice of Leonard Peacock. He's obviously brilliant and observant. Quick has made him a fully developed character. The secondary characters are brought to life through the eyes of Leonard as well. I could see the religious Zealot Lauren, and his favorite teach Herr Silverman.

Leonard watches (stalks) adults he crosses paths with, in an effort to find out if that is the life for him. What he discovers makes getting to adulthood seem pointless to him. Because he's deeply troubled, he finds the most seemingly broken (or angry) person he can to justify his reasoning for going through with the suicide. The Leonard Peacock I met in this story would find that to be a huge flaw in his theory. It's very inconclusive and negates the many of us adults who are extremely happy.

Although we know the novel is about suicide, Matthew Quick doesn't write an insanely melodramatic anti-hero that turns off readers with his whining. There are parts where Leonard makes me laugh-out-loud and other moments I thought to myself, this kid gets it. I was especially entertained when Leonard Peacock had questions for his love interest who's a religious nut. Questions I've wanted to ask the many religious nuts in my family.

Leonard Peacock also references the reasons behind wanting to kill Asher Beal who was once his best friend. The reader could see it coming from a mile away but it's still worth reading on to findout definitively what occurred. The other antagonist in this book is Linda, Leonard's mother. She is referenced most in this novel and her abandoning him. She seems like the caricature he accuses her of being.

Overall, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is a story of hope. Matthew Quick says that the idea for this novel came from students he had while teaching, who saw the approach of adulthood and it scared the shit out of them. There is always hope. Ulitmately, this novel should entice readers to "trust in the future". I know anytime I'm having a bad day, I will think of that nugget of inspiration. "Trust in the future". I can't wait to read more by this author.

On the day of his eighteenth birthday Leonard Peacock has decided that he will kill his former best friend and then off himself. But before he can go through with his plans Leonard decided to say good bye to the four people that he truly cares about, slowly revealing the truth about his life.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is honest and though provoking. At first I felt a bit put off by Leonard's narration; I even thought that he was insane and his actions were completely unjustified. As the story progressed, however, my view of Leonard and the story began to change. I started to feel pity for him and eventually began to understand why he was so set on killing his former best friend. Matthew Quick does an excellent job of roping the reader in by revealing on small fragments of Leonard's story; saving the most shocking truth to the very end. I did feel a bit disappointed with the ending, betrayed even. But as time passed, and I had the opportunity to think about the story and the ending I realized that there is no other way that Quick could have ended the book. Overall, I can honestly say that I enjoyed this book--it is raw, intriguing, and thought provoking.

....because I didn't actually read any summary or anything about the book before buying it. Honestly the entire thing feels like an over dramtic PSA for teen suicide. It doesn't help that I didn't realize this book is written on a highschool reading level until I was reading it. Its just too angsty to enjoy. Every sentence screams "Feel sorry for me. Pity me. You think my life can't get worse. It gets worse. Everyone will be so sorry when I'm gone. Just kidding they won't care. Just kidding they will care and I will punish them for it. Just kidding they seriously won't care." I alternated between feeling morose and frustrated for the entire read.

Matthew Quick's Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is a heartbreaking and compelling character study of a teenager who is on the verge of committing two unthinkable acts: killing a classmate then himself. This insightful novel is a must read for both teenagers and their parents.

Leonard Peacock is a very intelligent young man but he does not fit in with his fellow students. His mother has checked out of his life literally and figuratively so Leonard pretty much does as he pleases. His closest (and sadly, only) friend is his octogenarian next door neighbor Walt. They pass their time together watching old Bogart films and exchanging movie quotes. The only other positive role model in Leonard's life is his favorite teacher, Herr Silverman.

All of Leonard's unhappiness and confusion culminate on his eighteenth birthday. With his birthday forgotten by his incredibly self-absorbed and absentee mother, Leonard methodically goes about saying a final goodbye to the important people in his life. Walt and Herr Silverman are alarmed by his behavior and while they ask probing and pointed questions about his state of mind, Leonard insists he is fine.

Mr. Quick's characterization of Leonard is amazingly accurate. I have an eighteen year old son and I went straight to the source after reading some of Leonard's astute observations. Much to my amazement, he agreed completely with Leonard's viewpoint. I must confess I am a little saddened by both my son's and Leonard's cynical outlook about society and adulthood.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is written in first person from Leonard's point of view. The story is well-written and unique but a couple of things take some getting used to. The use of footnotes during the narrative was a little annoying in the beginning but I soon appreciated the insight I gleaned from them. The letters from the future came out of left field and while there is a reason for them, it would have been useful to have the explanation earlier in their story.

Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is a compelling and meaningful novel that I highly recommend. Matthew Quick handles some very difficult topics with sensitivity and he ultimately delivers a powerful message that will resonate with readers of all ages.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

I received an ebook copy from Netgalley.

This book is so many things and all of them add a different element that makes it hard to put down.

This story is a glimpse into the life of a troubled teen who has figured out how to slip through the cracks and play the system. He is alone in the world, dealing with some major issues and feeling as if no one cares. He uses the fact that his birthday has arrived and no one seems to know or remember as an excuse for what he feels must be done. He must end his life and the life of his former best friend.

We are on the journey with him as he goes through his day saying goodbye to the four people who he has connected with in the past few years.

There's Walt, his elderly next-door neighbor, who has introduced Leonard to Humphrey Bogart movies. The two will spend full days watching the movies and quoting lines back and forth. Walt is the first to notice that something is wrong with Leonard but he lacks the means to do more that voice mild concern.

There is Baback a fellow loner student. The two have an odd sort of friendship. Leonard spends his lunch period (and his lunch money) listening to Baback play the violin.

There's Lauren, a devout Christian who tries to bring the light of Christ into Leonard's life. His recounting of how he met Lauren is in a way absurd but completely fitting with Leonard's character.

Herr Silverman, Leonard's Holocaust class teacher, is probably the most important person in Leonard's life. He's the kind of teacher we read about in books and wish we had in school. Like Walt he notices that something is not really right with Leonard on this day and he tries, as best he can, to reach out and offer help.

Leonard is that smart ass kid who thinks he's smarter than his classmates. He's got a sense of humor that I love seeing in characters, but it's shadowed by this darkness. You see this in the letters written to Leonard from the future (that's all I'm going to say about them because I don't want to give too much away). As the story progresses we learn about the cause of his darkness. It was at this revelation that and the following events in the book that really made me feel as though this was the best novel I've read so far this year.

Review originally posted on my blog: Little Thoughts About Books

Recently, I've been reading really depressing books that have both horrified and fascinated me. But out of all of them, Charm and Strange and now Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock takes the cake for tackling tough, taboo issues. In this case, suicide. Now, the last suicide book I've read was Thirteen Reasons Why and this book can easily be compared to that. But instead of the story being told from tapes from the deceased and another MC, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is told play-by-play from Leonard himself. His voice is real, broken, hurt, confused and relatable. He wants to be seen, remembered. He wants people to acknowledge his existence. So on his 18th birthday he takes his grandfather's war gun trophy and sets out to kill his former best friend and himself.

When we are introduced to Leonard, he immediately fills the reader in on his plans, though the ultimate reason why is revealed along the course of his day as he gives away personal items or gifts to four people he regularly interacts with. While Leonard calls them friends, we find that this doesn't accurately describe those relationships. Two mostly tolerate or accept his presence in their routine, but unlike most of his peers, they communicate with him in some way despite being weirded out by his differences. Leonard is vastly different from his classmates and that is quickly apparent in his reasonings and speech. He sees the world and challenges things normal teenagers wouldn't think about. This doesn't do Leonard any favors regarding his popularity, but he brushes this off as ignorance on their part.

The thing about Leonard is that he's such a smart character, but he never comes across as pretentious like some characters from other equally morbid novels. (This is me giving The Fault in Our Stars the stink eye.) It's easy to see why he's misunderstood and underestimated, but such a shame to read about such a lonely kid. His situation depressed me on a serious level and I just wanted to give this guy hug. He doesn't have friends his age or even the support of his family. His mother spends her days in New York, living her dream working as a designer and his father is nowhere to be seen, leaving Leonard to mostly fend for himself. Thankfully, Leonard is not entirely alone and when the climax hits, he does begin to see there are people who care about him.

If there is one piece of criticism I do have it was the way the Letters From the Future were introduce. In certain chapters of the book, the narrative and setting switches and their isn't any notice. I'll admit to be completely caught off guard to this and confused as to how it held any relevance to the story until after his teacher mentioned them in class. Leonard also has moments when he references footnotes in his narration, which is generally not a style that I love since it causes me to flip back and forth from the footnotes to the story. Word to the wise, reading this one on your kindle might be a royal pain in the ass.

All in all, I'm really glad I decided to check Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock out. It's a very different story, the kind I'm not used to reading. But just like Thirteen Reasons Why and Charm and Strange, it's one I'll probably be thinking about for a while. Highly recommended.

ARC was provided by the publisher for an honest review. Thank you!

In Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick, it is Leonard Peacock's 18th birthday, although no one is acknowledging or celebrating this fact with him. Leonard is an unique young man, intelligent but a complete misfit who doesn't seem to fit in anywhere. Feeling completely disenfranchised and no longer able to cope with a destructive event he is keeping secret, he's planning to kill Asher Beal, a former friend, and then himself. Before he can do this, however, he has gifts he wants to give to four people in his life. The first thing he does is cut his long hair all off and wrap it up as a gift for his mother to find. Then he wraps the four other gifts he is planning to give, as well as his gun, and heads out.

Some of Leonard's thought processes are as scrambled and fragmented as you would expect in a suicidal young man who is suffering from depression and so full of hopelessness that he has decided upon this course of action - murder and suicide. But, his keen insight into others and their actions around him almost belie the seriousness of his intent. All his actions are a cry for help that very few people are realizing. Quick does an amazing job following Leonard's thoughts, as doubts slip in, as his mind seeks an escape hatch if only someone would do or say... something.

At time heart wrenching, Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock also highlights the emotional pain many teens who are outsiders and different feel and experience at the hands of their peers. Leonard is in some ways strong enough to stand up to a bully. He's articulate and can voice his opinions and thoughts. He's actually a brilliant young man who could have a promising future, but the hopelessness he feels threatens to overwhelm him
There are footnotes throughout the story. Oddly, since they were at the end of the book in my review copy for the Kindle, I didn't read then until after I had read the book. They told parts of the story that I didn't know until later because I didn't read them right away. I'm not sure if reading them ahead of time would have influenced my reaction to Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock. I found this to be an incredibly novel with a huge emotional impact.

Leonard is a well-developed character and you will understand why he is giving gifts to these specific four people in his life. Generally I'm not a reader of YA fiction, but I found Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock to be quite a compelling novel with a huge emotional impact. Certainly it would be for older teens.

Very Highly Recommended

Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Little, Brown Books via Netgalley for review purposes.

This book was straightforward and emotional. As sad as it was, I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed this book because of the suspense and not knowing what was going to come next. I also liked how this book was geared toward a male being raped, rather than a female. It's something people don't see as much, which is interesting. I really enjoyed this book up until the end when Leonards teacher him to basically keep fighting because it'll get better, rather than getting him actual help. How can Herr Silverman not get Leonard help when he was aware Leonard was a danger to himself or others? I also wonder what would've happened if Herr Silverman hadn't taken him home. In conclusion, I loved this book, but was notat all pleased with the ending.
-Caroline Silverman

This is an extraordinarily difficult book, just even to listen to. It's so well-written that you'll want to punch the author for taking you to such a dark place. Then you'll want to hunt him down and make him write more. The only thing I strongly disagree with is listing this as a young adult book. I'm not sure you should be allowed to read it before you're 40. And probably not then if you have a troubled teen.

I don't know where they found the narrator, but he's perfect for the story. Do they give acting awards for audio books?

If the author doesn't kill himself or shoot up a mall somewhere, his next work could be a literary classic. Can you say "conflicted?"