Suicide Notes

Michael Thomas Ford

Jeff has been committed to a psychiatric ward because he tried to kill himself. People keep asking him why he did it, but he’s not telling. Indeed, he’s not even sure why he did it.

I loved the metaphor of truth being like a blue radioactive ball filled with poison. It was a really vivid image that stayed with me.

The author had the knack of drawing the reader in, and then not letting them go. Each of the little particles Jeff lets out in the journalistic type narrative grabs you, and then you think you know what is going on, and then you don’t.

This novel made me laugh out loud more than once – not something you’d be expecting from a novel with a title like this one.The touches of humour made what could have been a depressing book into something that, while not exactly easy or enjoyable reading, I would consider good mature teenage reading.

It’s a touching novel, but I couldn’t have said it was anything particularly special – until I hit the real reason why Jeff tried to kill himself. Yay! That turning point in the novel made the novel into something I was excited about reading the rest of, and finding out how Jeff was going to cope with life outside the ward again.

The queer tones of ‘Suicide Notes’ made it resonate well with me, even if some of the time I felt that the situation couldn’t possibly have been portrayed accurately. It wasn’t a comfortable read at all, and I’d give it a little bit of a trigger warning if anything.