Reviewed by HootRated editorial · Last updated
Suicide notes from beautiful girls
Lynn Weingarten
Suicide notes from beautiful girls
Age Rating, Reading Level & Content Guide
by Lynn Weingarten
The text is written at a 3rd grade reading level, the subject matter is intended for teens (ages 13+), and the content is intense and may include graphic or distressing scenes. Its HootRating code, IE, means intense content, mostly emotional.
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About This Book
Delia’s story isn’t what everyone thinks—it’s way more mysterious and heartbreaking. June knows the truth, and it’s tangled up with secrets, friendship, and a night that changed everything. What really happened to Delia? The answer could change everything.
Themes
Quick Assessment
This book explores complex themes of grief, friendship, and mystery as June investigates the death of her best friend Delia. The story handles mature topics like suicide and loss, which may require parental guidance and discussion. It is suitable for older or more emotionally mature children within the age range.
Why we rated Suicide notes from beautiful girls IE (Intense)
Suicide notes from beautiful girls is written at a Level 3-4 reading level across 325 pages. Upper Grades (Ages 13+) is the typical interest range for this book — readers in that age band have the maturity and attention span suited to the story, separate from whether they can decode the words.
We rate Suicide notes from beautiful girls as IE (Intense, mostly emotional) because the content sits in the "Intense" range — intense conflict including peril, frightening scenes, or emotionally heavy themes. The strongest signals come from emotional weight, thematic difficulty — these are the dimensions parents should evaluate against their reader's tolerance.
Specific content flags noted by reviewers: Suicide, Death.
Thematically, Suicide notes from beautiful girls explores friendship, death, juvenile fiction, and suicide — these threads give the book room to mean different things to different readers.
Good fit for
- ✓ Children in the Ages 13+ range — the maturity and attention span match the story's pacing.
- ✓ Kids drawn to stories about friendship, death, juvenile fiction.
Maybe not for
- ! Sensitive readers who get overwhelmed by intense conflict or scary scenes.
- ! Children younger than 13 — the content intensity is above what most younger kids can process comfortably.
- ! Children currently coping with grief — the themes may hit close to home.
- ! Readers whose emotional readiness lags behind their decoding skills — this book's intensity outruns its reading level, a classic reading-level-vs-content mismatch.
For Parents
Content Intensity
IE · Intense · EmotionalReading the HootRating code: the first letter is the content intensity (C = Gentle · L = Mild · M = Moderate · I = Intense · V = Very Intense); the second, when there is one, is the kind of content that drives it (E = Emotional · P = Physical · S = Social · T = Thematic). Reading level and age range are rated separately. How we rate
Heavy themes explored in depth. War, death, abuse addressed directly.
Content Flags
Was our "Intense" content intensity rating accurate for this book?
Reading Insights
Discussion Potential
1/10A lighter read — great for independent enjoyment.
Book DNA
Multi-dimensional content fingerprint
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Details
Book Length
- ISBN
- 9781481418539
- Pages
- 325
- Publisher
- Simon and Schuster
- Published
- 2015
- Type
- Fiction