Veronika Decides To Die: My Review

Why do people decide to kill themselves?

Reasons can be as profound or as gibberish as they can be. For most, it is a portal of escape. Escape to their terminal illness, suffering, unrequited love, lonesome, grief, fears, and monotony.

For some, it is an “attention-seeking” strategy. (I am definitely against this one.)

Veronika Decides To Die by Paulo Coelho

A story of a woman named Veronika, who simply has everything but decides to end her life simply because of monotony. She decided to kill herself by drinking a handful of sleeping pills, overdosing herself expecting that she would die right away but did not. Instead, she woke up at Villette, a famous mental institution where her days were numbered and expected to die in a week or less due to irreversible heart damage. The walls of Villette become an instrument for her to value and realize the beauty of life.

Reading this book, I have realized so many things; in fact, I finished in just 2 days.

1. Insanity or being crazy is in each of every veins in our system. One way or the other, we can have insanity tendencies. One mess or wrong move we make, we can be labeled as crazy.

2. For not be labeled “CRAZY” we must follow every norms and every rules created in this world, whether it is a natural or civil law. I opted not to agree because we are created not to follow and be monotonous but to create a DIFFERENCE of course in a positive way, not thinking about what other people might say. We each all live in our own worlds.

3. Females indeed are very conscious even about their death. They chose suicide methods that are very dramatic like slashing their wrist and bleed to death. More so, they chose the way that their beauty is still shown, like in overdosing as compared to males because males chose violence where they pull the trigger at their heads or to hang themselves.

4. Our happiness should not be compromised. We should not adjust our own happiness just to satisfy other people’s wishes or whatsoever. We should go beyond even farther than we can ever reach and see how far can we go, how far our happiness can be.

5. God knows everything. He plans everything that is in store for us. Everything that has happened, is happening and will be happening has a purpose. Our failed suicide attempt, a stay in a mental institution, our lost loved one, our frustrations and depressions have equivalent happiness and satisfaction at the end of the day. Always remember that, there is always a rainbow after the rain and in each end of the rainbow is always a pot of gold.

6. The knowledge and awareness of death will make us live our lives to the fullest. Funny how we needed the “last minutes” or “last seconds” in our lives just to realize and muse over what have we done in this earth, or have we been a good person or a good citizen. Sadly, thinking that I am STILL young, I am one of those people.
I recommend this to those people who are crazy like me. LOL! Kidding aside, to those who have suicidal tendencies, lack of motivation in life, “insane people in their own ways”— if they can still read and comprehend and to YOU! This is one great book, in which you can learn a lot from.

Although this book has a mature content and has highfaluting words, two thumbs up for Paulo Coelho. After reading this book, I immediately bought another novel from him.

Did I just spoiled the story? LOL!

Posted by: Dianne Peña | 05-27-2008 | 06:05 PM
Posted in: Blurbs