Did she need to die?

[Deanna]

I don't think she necessarily chose to die. I think it was more like she was in a purgatory of sorts until she figured things out.

[Kristen]

No, I don't think she needed to die. And actually, the fact that she did die, made the whole thing feel pretty pointless.
The only definitively good thing that came out of the story was that she became a better person before she died. Everything else was kind of dumb.
Her friends had no real change. And the one (I forget their names) was at fault for most of it.
Kent finally had hope and then that's crushed.
And there's no real guarantee that the girl (again forgot their names) didn't just go kill herself some other way).

So, yeah, I thought it was pretty stupid.

[Nila]

Deanna wrote: "I don't think she necessarily chose to die. I think it was more like she was in a purgatory of sorts until she figured things out."

I agree with you on that.

[Gerd]

Not choosing to die per se, I do think that she was already dead but couldn't move on until she learned that final lesson - you notice how through out the novel everything she did, she did for herself.
Even the first time she tried to safe - don't remember her name off hand - she did it for selfish reasons, it's only when she did what she did out of actual selfless care for somebody else that the cycle ended.

So yeah, purgatory.