By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead question

I honestly think the author finished it like that on purpose so the reader could interpret it in their own way. Whether she killed herself or moved on with her life is up to you.

In the last chapter Daelyn takes notice of a dog and man. She states "Man throws the Frisbee and Dog chases it. But instead of retrieving, Dog sits. He drops the Frisbee. he makes the man come to him. I smile to myself. Game over. Dog wins. ". I belive the author uses the Dog and the man as a comparison to Daelyn and her bullies. In this analogy, Daelyn would be the dog, and her bullies would be the man. Much like man has control over dog, Daelyn's bullies had control over her. However, when the dog refuses to retrieve the frisbee, the dog gains control and power. Therefore the "game" is over. I belive the word "game" in that sentence refers to the game of bullying ( the teasing, tuanting, etc. ). Now that Daelyn belives she has control and power, the game of bullying is over for her and thus she feels as if she is a whole new person and she "heads into a new light".

I also conclude that Daelyn lives because the last sentence of the book is "With determination and purpose, i head into the light". If Daelyn were heading to kill herself, she wouldn't belive she has a purpose. Infact, she would believe the total opposite. However that is not that case.

I was also confused but it seems to me like she didn't kill herself. It just doesn't make sense, especially with Chip calling to her. She wanted to do it alone with no parents at the house. Glad to see other's opinions. It seems like the author left it a little open/confusing. The book I read had a Q&A and asked what you thought happened at the end.

Personally, I would like to think that in the end Daelyn decided to live, but I think Julie Ann Peters left it open for our own interpretation. Daelyn has finally made a friend, or maybe even two, she even began speaking again. She also has deleted her account for into-the-light, meaning she won't show up on the page of DOD. While she does throw out the remainder of her things, I interpreted it as her wanting to start new and letting go of her past.

I love this book so much. I have a very unpopular opinion saying that she died. I think that she died in a happy manner. She did say that she thought she won in form of the man-dog analogy. However, the entire book, she was so determined to die. She didn't want to leave a trace on the website which might've been why she deleted her account. She most likely told her dad that she wanted to die. I'm somewhat confused about the dad part though.
Also, why did she start calling her dad, Chip?

The name of the book suggests she did. But I don't think so, because had she killed herself her entire character arc would make no sense whatsoever. Or maybe I've been reading too much GRRM and I want a happy ending for once. Who knows?

In by the time you read this ill be dead it says that daelyn attempted suicide before i cant seem to find the chapter it says that can someone please help me ?

I think that she died. The book is called by the time you read this ill be dead, so once you have heard about her story it came to the end and she is dead, with the last line being "with determination and purpose, I head into the light.".

I do agree that the man and the dog does connect back to Daelyn and her bullies. The fact that the dog had control and the game was over, she decides that she will not kill herself. She goes into the light knowing now that she will take control. I had a feeling she will not kill herself since she felt like the people on the website were pathetic since they did not stand up for themselves.

I believe that she lived. Mostly because the whole entire mood changes toward the end of the book. Daelyn lets go of some of the hurt, she lets people reach out to her, she realizes she needs to stand up for herself and others. It is such a huge change from the beginning of the book when Daelyn just encases herself in a cocoon of pain. So much good change has taken place that killing herself now would not make that much sense. Dealyn's viewpoints on so many things have changed. She isn't the same girl she was when she started. That is emphasized very strongly in the end of the book. She believes, at the beginning of the book, that she has two choices, endlessly horrible life, or the escape of death. Dealyn eventually realizes that she has no idea whether or not death will actually be an escape, but she can escape who she has been in life. She realizes that she needs to throw away all of the pain and hurt and self-pity. She needs to cleanse herself of that filth so she can become a new person and have a chance for a happy life. I choose to believe this both because i feel it is true and because i desperately want Daelyn to live.

i thought she died....

I think that she lived. She deleted her account instead of just leaving it and showing up on the DOD list. And when she went to school she brought Santana's laptop to give back to him. If she showed up early he would have known something was up and he would have stopped her. There's no way she did it - at least, not in my mind.

I feel that Peters purposely added things that would lead readers in the direction they'd been hoping for for Daelyn: the entire book covers her overwhelming determination to kill herself but by the end the mond has of the story has sort of changed to a more positive aspect than before; her friendship with Santana paired with the deletion of her through-the-light account adds a twist of uncertainty to the otherwise easily foretold of an ending. She most likely did this so it wouldn't turn out like one of those books that you can't put down the entire read but then the ending turns out to be total crap because it didn't end how you felt it was supposed to.

When I first read it, I thought she killed herself; I still think this is true. In the first half of the book, I was sad that she felt suicide was the only option but as I read I came to terms with the fact that that was the only way she felt she would be truly happy. This made me understand that while most who don't struggle with depression, bullying, or suicidal thoughts or tendencies know that things may be bad at times, it will always get better; people who do struggle with those things don't always know that it will or feel like they can make it to the better times.

Near the end of the book, she sees a dog and man playing fetch with a frisbee. Seeing this as a metaphor, the reader can see that Daelyn relates with the dog; the bullies are the man, the frisbee the insults/taunts, and she the dog. When the dog catches the frisbee but doesn't take it back to the man, instead making him come get it, it's representing that while she may have put up with the insults before, she won't any longer just as the dog may have put up with the frisbee for a while but he's done with it.

The meaning of the final line of the novel ("With determination and purpose, I head into the light.") is up to the interpretation of the reader. Some may say it's saying she is going through the very "light" she's aimed for the entire novel while others may say it's a newly introduced, undefined (more positive) light that represents a new beginning or stage of her now purposed life.

How very Inception-like!

I sometimes like books where the ending is sort of up to the reader. In this case, being that it is a book about suicide and targeted at young adult readers, I worry that such ambiguity might not benefit certain readers (if you catch my drift).

Daelyn lived. When it says in the last page that she headed into the light, it means that she is starting over. She describes that her room is cleared and her head is cleared and that there is nothing left. She is starting over, a new life, forgetting everything and with determination and purpose (she now sees there is a purpose in her life) she will have a new beggining.

She lived, at the end of the book she deleted her account in throughthelight, and the account said once you delete your account you can never sine up again and remember that scene when Daelyn talked to Santana for the first time and he ask her to go too his party. I know it seem confusing but at the ending her dad told her " Come on, we'er going to be late" or is some thing but I know he said some similar like that but I'm sure she lived

That's why I like this book. It leaves you wondering what happened to her. I think she lived. After she met him something change.

I think she killed herself, since she was so deep in depression and the author empathized that heavily.

so, i was really confused too. i liked the book really much, but then.. the end.. destroyed it kind of.
and i can't really think of an end. if she didn't killed herself the end is a little bit strange because of the '' there's no daelyn rice anymore ''. but the thing with the dog speaks for a happy end i think, that things change and will become better. but i can decide what it now really was and that makes me sad, because it was a great book with a bad ending - i hate open endings. -.-

I think she lived to go to the boys birthday party.

I don't think that she killed herself, because she deleted her account on ThroughTheLight... but I'm not really sure :)

I don't think she killed herself. I think that she meant that she was finally going to face the people and just tell them "I need you!" I think it was "Let the reader decide" and i decided that she made it through.

I think it's one of those "Let the reader decide" moments..... Good book though. Personally, I think she didn't kill herself. I suppose I'm just a positive person, I've gone through the same shit myself. I guess when you look at your own opinion of the ending, it give you a look at yourself.

I've read it many times and still am pretty confused. At first, I thought she killed herself. But now I have no idea lol.

She lived. Although now that I'm reading these comments...

It's very ambiguous. I think it's up to the reader to decide what she did, though popular opinion seems to be that she did in fact kill herself.