Review: Suicide Notes by Micheal Thomas Ford

 3.5 of 5 Stars
Publisher: HarperTeen

Goodreads Synopsis:

I'm not crazy. I don't see what the big deal is about what happened. But apparently someone does think it's a big deal because here I am. I bet it was my mother. She always overreacts.
Fifteen-year-old Jeff wakes up on New Year's Day to find himself in the hospital. Make that the psychiatric ward. With the nutjobs. Clearly, this is all a huge mistake. Forget about the bandages on his wrists and the notes on his chart. Forget about his problems with his best friend, Allie, and her boyfriend, Burke. Jeff's perfectly fine, perfectly normal, not like the other kids in the hospital with him. Now they've got problems. But a funny thing happens as his forty-five-day sentence drags on—the crazies start to seem less crazy.
Compelling, witty, and refreshingly real, Suicide Notes is a darkly humorous novel from award-winning author Michael Thomas Ford that examines that fuzzy line between "normal" and the rest of us.

Review:

[Contains possible spoilers.]

I was quite surprise by this book, and wasn't expecting how it turned out. I'm also kind of surprised that I haven't heard more about it, because of the sexual scenes and gay character. Because of this, it did keep me surprised by how it turned out, though.

First of all, I liked the writing, and the main character. And how the book was done, with each chapter being a different day that he's in the hospital, although I did want more of the story, like what happens when he talks to his best friend after he gets out; I wanted to see that conversation. I found it interesting how he thought about things, and how he went off on thoughts sometimes. It was entertaining. The premise, I guess, doesn't make it sound like a funny book and more like a depressing one, but I had guessed that it would be entertaining, so I was hoping for that and wasn't disappointed. And the other characters were good, too. Sadie was interesting, and sad, and I wanted to see more of Martha and his sister.

The reason that he was there, that he tried to commit suicide, I wasn't expecting. I like that they didn't let much of it on for a lot of the book, so I wasn't expecting that the reason was that he was gay and didn't know how to deal with. Personally, I hate that he thought that was a good solution, and that actual people think it is. I realize, now, that there were several clues, and I was wondering, but didn't actually think that he was gay for most of it, until around the time he actually told of the story before he cut himself.

How he thought of the suicide for most of the book, that he was interrupted and not saved, was an interesting thought. And one that I can understand for the most part; like I understood why he just wanted to be left alone. That made sense to me, while still a little sad.

Mostly, I enjoyed the book. It's kind of got a bittersweet affect on me, because of why he did it, probably because of the whole suicide thing in the first place, because I'm unsure how I feel about it. I liked most of it, though.