Customer Reviews

The Suicide Collectors

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

David Oppegaard's The Suicide Collectors is a very impressive first novel, so much so that it was nominated for the prestigious Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. While it falls into a well known sub-category of speculative fiction, that of the road trip across a once-familiar country devastated by some calamity, Oppegaard makes it all fresh with memorable characters and with a unique and highly original premise for the calamity.

In Oppegaard's dystopia, the world has been plagued for the past five years by a mysterious phenomenon called The Despair, an affliction of unknown origins and unknown transmission that has somehow driven over ninety percent of the world's population to commit suicide. Added to this devastating phenomenon is the simultaneous appearance of the "suicide collectors" of the title, mysterious silent black-robed people that somehow always show up whenever someone commits suicide, taking the bodies away to no one knows where.

Norman, a man who loses his wife to suicide at the novel's opening, upsets things by killing one of the Collectors when they come for his wife's body. The road trip begins when Norman and the only other survivor in their small Florida town, a elderly Mr. Fixit neighbor named Pops, take off for Seattle on the rumor that a community still thrives there and that a scientist there is working on a cure for The Despair. The trip, and the memorable characters they meet and pick up on the way, most notably a young girl named Zero, are what really drive the best part of the novel.

On the plus side, Oppegaard's style reads quite well and the pace never lags. You come to care about the characters, and the world is presented in a highly visual way so that you truly feel immersed in the world and in everything that is happening. And his landscape is filled with memorable characters and images. I found this one particularly compelling:

"They approached the house covered in feathers and saw it wasn't really covered in feathers at all, but paper. Sheet after sheet of paper. Each piece was nailed to the house like a collection of religious tracts, or shingles. The paper sheets flapped with the breeze so that the house appeared to be breathing.
'Holy cow,' Zero said. 'Somebody's been busy.'
Norman stepped closer to the house. She was right. Someone had written on each sheet of paper not by hand, or computer, but with an old-fashioned typewriter. Norman grasped a sheet at random and read...
Norman grabbed another sheet...
Zero was reading the lowest row of papers around the house's foundation. 'They keep talking about their parents and their brother and their sister,' Zero said, glancing back at Norman. 'It's so sad.' Norman walked around to the back of the house. The windows had all been boarded up and sheets of paper had been nailed into the boards, too....
'It's a suicide letter, isn't it?'
'The whole thing,' Zero said. 'The whole house. It's one big suicide letter.' "

For the most part, the novel is a great read. There were one or two places where I felt the characters didn't act realistically, but the real problem I had with the novel was at the end. Without giving anything away, I can say that what should have been the climactic scene seemed to happen off-screen, leaving the reader left hanging and feeling like they missed something vital to the story. It also leaves the reader with important questions unanswered, which is also frustrating. For this reason, I can only give it 4 stars instead of 5. That said, it's definitely worth reading and I very much look forward to seeing what Oppegaard will come up with in his next novel.

This novel was so polished and well written. I waited for six months before I bought this book, because the price was so expensive. After reading it, I am struck with how moving it was. The saying that it goes out with not a bang but a wimper really describes this book. Norman is a man who lives through an epidemic of almost everyone he knows committing suicide. The book begins with his wife's suicide, which starts off a chain of events throughout the rest of the book. They have managed to live through the despair for a few years. Norman refuses to let the collectors, which are a group of people who collect the dead, take his wife. In the process, he kills one of them. He is the only person up to this point to have done so. This starts him off on a journey to Seattle to find the cure. The central theme to this novel is hope. Norman is a ray of hope in a word that is cut off from hope. As someone who has had depression her entire life, I found this novel haunting and beautiful. It spoke to me. This is an author to watch. I gave it 4 stars because the ending was not expanded as well as I would have liked, but I understand why the ending was the way it was.

Most books in the post-apocalyptic road trip genre - Stephen King's The Stand, for example - are massive books that contain so many characters and settings you almost have to come up with a flow chart to keep track of the action. David Oppegaard takes a very different route and delivers a much shorter novel with only three main characters. The stripped-down plot allows for an intimate, more stylized portrait of life after The Despair, a sort of epidemic of depression and suicide that has claimed 90 percent of the world's population. Were there times when I was frustrated by the lack of details about the crumbling world nearly devoid of humans? Of course. But at the same time I realized that the minimal approach taken by Oppegaard allows for the experience and flashbacks of Norman, his handyman neighbor Pops and 9-year-old Zero to become prisms through which the world is reflected.

A number of comments have been made about the ending of this book. Though I don't want to give anything away, I will say that the story ends rather ambiguously. In this respect it reminds me of the John Sayles film, "Limbo." That film ends with the shot of a small plane returning to an Alaskan island where two adults and a child have become stranded. But does the plane bring rescue? Or are the drug dealer bad guys on board and waiting for the opportunity to wipe out the witnesses? The movie doesn't answer that question. Instead, it becomes a sort of litmus test for how we view the world: People are basically good and will rescue us in time of trouble or people are basically bad and can't be trusted.

I greatly enjoyed this book (if one can truly enjoy a book in which so many suicides are so prominently featured). The ambiguous ending seemed effective to me because it lingers longer in one's mind than a neatly wrapped, dumbed down Hollywood ending.

I'm not one to trash books. If a book makes it through the arduous publishing process and passes over the desks of several big publishing house editors, it's usually up to snuff. This book, however, makes me question the conventional wisdom. Upon finishing "The Suicide Collectors," I immediately Googled the author to see if he was related to anyone famous. Nope. The fact that this book was actually published, I find bewildering. The fact that it got positive reviews strikes me as incomprehensible.

"The Suicide Collectors" doesn't know it's own tone. Sometimes it's jokey, with characters making weak attempts at black humor; sometimes it tries to be gloomily atmospheric (unsuccessfully, alas). The dialogue is hopeless contrived and tin-eared. You can almost physically see the author shoehorn long stories by his characters into the dialogue. No one makes any attempt to reason things out. "You want to fly on a suicidal cross-country mission, Pops?" "Sure, why not?" End of discussion. None of the characters have anything like an authentic reaction to deaths and suicides.

I would think this a poor screenplay for a zombie movie, let alone an actual novel. There is nothing here beneath the surface, sadly.

This book was great. It was as if Philip K. Dick got hold of Cormac McCarthy and strangled all those inaccessible, page-long sentences out of The Road, and said, "Make this readable, action-packed and with a killer premise!" To which McCarthy poked him in the eyes, stooge-like, and said, "Only if you get your prose beyond serviceable!"

I'm a fan of both McCarthy and Dick, yet Oppegaard, as a debut novelist, hangs with these big boys in breadth and scope with Suicide Collectors. He takes the best from both -- Dick's unique vision and McCarthy's stark world -- and creates something his own. This book is many things but right now it's an excellent escape. Our economy tanked, our world looks bleak, but as all good apocalyptic fiction writers, Oppegaard reminds us that things could be worse. Much much worse.

I'm looking forward to his next work, apparently due out next fall...so the blogs say. I recommend you read Suicide Collectors. I recommend that after you read it you tell your friends to go read it too.

I am a great fan of apocalyptic fiction, so I was eager to read The Suicide Collectors. The premise has so much potential, but the execution was lacking. Many times I was thrown out of the narrative by the actions (or inactions) of the characters. How is it that food is so abundant and readily available? Like another reviewer mentioned, the water supply and infrastructure is still intact? Embarking upon a cross country trip over lawless lands with the shadowy Collectors possibly out for revenge and you don't think to bring your shotgun? Each new character does not need to tell their life story in a three page info dump. And having the main character pull something out of his pocket that is important, but never mentioned before in the novel is an annoyance and a bit of a cheat.

At just under 300 pages, the book is a quick read. Not all stories need to be door stoppers, but this felt too rushed. I would have liked more conflict in the story and fewer coincidences. The journey to Seattle and what Norman experienced when he got there could have benefited from more description. The ending was completely unsatisfying to me. Perhaps because by the time I got there, I was reading just to get to the end, not because I *needed* to know what happened to the characters. McCarthy's The Road was around the same length, yet I felt it had more substance and was more frightening and emotionally wrenching.

Having said that, there were several good and spooky things about this novel. The image of the house made of feathers. The initial appearance of the Collectors. The rats in the tunnels.

Overall, I appreciate Mr. Oppegaard's efforts. The basic story is thought-provoking and I have a feeling that it will stay with me for a while. I look forward to seeing his future work. Hopefully he will fulfill my expectations.

This story had me hooked from the opening few pages and never let go. A brilliant, bleak look at an apocalyptic end to the world through a most original and terrifying manor. A solid book on its own, and even more solid considering it a debut novel.
I've read some reviews of those that wanted more depth, and a longer story (akin to Swan Song or The Stand). I think this book's length and its detail were perfect. I needed no more character development than what was given to be enthralled by the characters and their trials.
Also, some were left unsatisfied by the ending. While i understand that....i don't agree. I think this book would have suffered greatly if the author tried to scientifically explain EVERYTHING including the Source. Great horror and suspense sometimes does its best work when not everything is explained, when the horror of the unknown stays unknown.
Besides, this book was not about the Source or even the Collectors...it was about one man's last chance at redemption, one last chance to fight for love, one last chance to make death meaningful.
A fantastic read that i personally found uplifting in the end, rather than depressing. A near-classic that I would have give 4.5 stars to if i could. i can only hope my debut novel will be nearly as good.
Well done!

I will begin my review of THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS by telling you that 1) this debut novel by David Oppegaard is flawed, almost fatally so, and 2) you have to read it anyway. The plot concept is so clever and frightening that you'll have difficulty getting it out of your head.

Let's get the flaw out of the way quickly. In THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS, a worldwide calamity has struck and has been plaguing the earth for about five years, with most of the world's population inexplicably dying. But everything such as electric power, water purification and the like still seems to work just fine. No way. Our infrastructure is extremely fragile, and without people from the utility companies who maintain and repair it on a daily basis, we would be sitting around campfires roasting Rover more quickly than you think. Jump the shark on that plot point, however, and you find that the book is a horrific little cautionary tale reminiscent stylistically of Robert Heinlein and topically of THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy.

The place and time of THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS is the United States in the immediate future. A collective madness known as the Despair is claiming the human race. It began with a mass suicide in Japan and spread across the globe. As the book opens, most folks are dead by their own hands. An eerie group referred to as the Collectors appears after each suicide and claims the body or bodies for disposal. You don't want to mess with them. They are not benevolent individuals riding ox carts through the streets chanting "Bring out your dead." One of the few to take a stand against the Collectors is a gentleman named Norman, a resident of the state formerly known as Florida.

After an almost impulsive action against the Collectors, Norman and his neighbor (known only as Pops) set out on a cross-country journey to Seattle, Washington, literally on a wing and a prayer. Their motivation is a rumor that a Seattle scientist is working on a cure for the Despair. Along the way they are joined by a young girl named Zero and pursued by the Collectors, who have placed a bounty on Norman for his actions. The journey, by and large, is a nightmarish one. The Despair is relentless, and people have reacted to it in different, horrific ways. Think of L. Frank Baum's THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ merged with Jerzy Kosinski's THE PAINTED BIRD, and you'll anticipate what they encounter. This is only the beginning, however. What Norman ultimately finds when he finally reaches Seattle is that the Despair can be stopped, but only at a great price.

I can see THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS as one of those novels that follows a trajectory similar to that of Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, one that begins as a cult favorite among fans of speculative fiction, then invades and captivates the mainstream consciousness. At heart a metaphoric work, it is a book with which almost everyone can identify. Who among us hasn't heard the hum of the Despair at one point or another? Read THE SUICIDE COLLECTORS, and be forewarned.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Suicide Collectors was an enjoyable and quick read but I found it lacking. The author does a good job of describing and drawing you into the post apocalyptic world of mass suicides. The Collectors are described just enough to make you continue to wonder exactly what they are. I found myself wishing the author would have spent a bit more time in the towns/areas the characters stopped in. But I also was glad that the story moved along at a steady pace. I found the ending however a severe let down. It felt like the author ran out of ideas and tried to be as vague as possible so as to not explain anything.

Pros

+ Well described setting. The author goes a good job at describing a bleak and desolate future.

Cons

- Vague and Disappointing ending.

An interesting post-apocalyptic book overall but unfortunately easily forgotten.

While it starts out well enough for apocalyptic fiction, "The Suicide Collectors" eventually reveals itself to be "The Road" written for 13-year-old boys. As an additional revenue stream suggestion for Mr. Oppegaard I recommend a companion notebook in which the reader is encouraged to illustrate key scenes from the book in crayon.

In the book, some unexplained global malaise has driven people to commit suicide over a five year period. Again, thematic elements borrow heavily on emo culture and the general angst-ridden mindset of the "you just don't understand me" teenybopper perpetual zeitgeist.

The book begins as a not uninteresting road trip. The seppuku cult idea was interesting for example, but the scene where the congregation kills themselves one by one was met with a smirk as I recalled the end of "Penn & Teller Get Killed". The story later devolves into a Gary Stu "one lone man against unbeatable odds" tale of death and danger. Seriously. I was actually pretty ok with this as a piece of light sci-fi fluff about until the protagonist discovered the underground military facility where the remaining 200 citizens of Seattle are huddled under the direction of some scientist who conveniently has just invented "density grenades" that are "one thousand times more powerful" than a normal grenade. After spending a couple days with the scientist and a "simulator" the Protagonist sets out to destroy the villains once and for all. Along the way he busts out his magical James Bond keycard that can access any card panel and also re-programs a ship's computer to take a group of bad guys to "the north pole" and then destroys the computer so they can't change course.

?

Also in the mix is a crusty but friendly old neighbor who's a mechanical genius that has souped up his two-seater airplane so that recycles nearly 100% of its water (???) and has turboed up the engine so that it can fly from Florida to Seattle on one tank of gas.

As the novel closes it begins to feel rushed. Events and days are glossed over. "The Road" provides you with harrowing details of everyday survival on each page. Conversely, these struggles are reduced to two or three sentence summations in "The Suicide Collectors"

Meh. C-. Leave this one for the kids.