Suicide Notes [Hardcover]

Michael Thomas Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2008

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.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—Jeff, the irreverent, sarcastic, and utterly terrified 15-year-old narrator, wakes up on New Year's Day in a psych ward with bandages around his wrists. He copes with his therapy by using extreme denial and avoidance, attempting to one-up his therapist, Dr. Katzrupus, or Cat Poop, with flippant, deflective wordplay and outrageous stories of faux Sugar Plum Fairy fantasies. Jeff spends the rest of his time with the other teens, including suicidal Sadie the sociopath and the gay teen in jock's clothing, Rankin. While Sadie encourages Jeff's resentment toward the program, it is Rankin's actions that force Jeff to come to terms with his suicide attempt and his own sexuality. This is a story of warped self-perception, of the lies that people tell themselves so they never have to face the truth. Ford is most successful in his withholding of Jeff's secret, a disclosure not made until the last third of the book. While the book could be named Gay Boy, Interrupted due to many similarities to Susanna Kaysen's characters and depictions of the mental-health community, Jeff's wit and self-discovery are refreshing, poignant, and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny. Readers will relate to Jeff as a teen bumbling through horrible embarrassment and the shame that follows, and they will be inspired by his eventual integrity and grace.—Kat Redniss, Brownell Library, Essex Junction, VT
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From Booklist

After Jeff, 15, wakes up in a psychiatric ward, he won’t talk about why he slit his wrists. He lies to the therapist (whom he names “Cat Poop”) and refuses to relate to the other teens in group therapy. He feels that he is not nutty like them, his parents are fine, nothing is bothering him, and he is “normal”; he just had one bad day. The therapy talk sometimes gets to be too much, but there is rising tension in Jeff's fast, irreverent, frank, first-person narrative: what is he holding back? He bonds with another patient, Sadie, and tells her about his best friend, Allie, and about Allie’s cute boyfriend. When Jeff sees a jock masturbating in the shower, he feels attraction that is returned, and the two teens have sex. Long before Jeff confronts the truth, readers will realize that he is gay, and his denial is part of the humor and sadness many readers will recognize. Grades 10-12. --Hazel Rochman

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (October 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060737557
• ISBN-13: 978-0060737559
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #101,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Thomas Ford is the author of more than fifty books in genres ranging from humor to horror, literary fiction to nonfiction. His work for adult readers includes the best-selling novels What We Remember, Changing Tides, Full Circle, Looking for It and Last Summer, and his five essay collections in the "Trials of My Queer Life" series. As a writer for young adults he is the author of Suicide Notes and Z (forthcoming in 2010), and under the name Isobel Bird he wrote the popular "Circle of Three" series. In 2009 he signed a 3-book deal with Random House for a series featuring Jane Austen as a modern-day vampire. The first book in the series, Jane Bites Back, will be published in January, 2010. His work has been nominated for 11 Lambda Literary Awards, twice winning for Best Humor Book and twice for Best Romance Novel. He was also nominated for a Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award (for his novel The Dollhouse That Time Forgot) and a Gaylactic Spectrum Award (for his short story "Night of the Werepuss").

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars People are missing the point, November 21, 2008

By 

Salmagundi (Niflheim) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Suicide Notes (Hardcover)

I think some of the people reviewing this book are missing the point entirely. Two reviewers point out that in the early days of YA literature about the gay experience gay characters were often "punished" for discovering their sexuality. Being suicidal and/or actually attempting suicide was a common theme. The suggestion is that today's authors have a responsibility to write only positive, happy books about gay teens.

But writing isn't about pleasing people. It's about telling the truth. And the fact is that what happens to Jeff (the protagonist of the novel) happens to a lot of young people, gay and straight. To pretend that it doesn't is to ignore the reality of their experience and suggests that feeling this way is somehow shameful.

Rather than return to a depressing theme, Ford takes that early theme of the suicidal gay teen and turns it on its head. Jeff is a funny, sarcastic character. He isn't overly dramatic and gloomy. He's being forced to look at his life, and the lives of others, in a new way because of what happened to him.

As for the suggestion that Jeff's reason for attempting suicide seems unbelievable and forced, I again think readers are missing the point. Jeff doesn't try to kill himself because he's gay -- he does it because he's lost his best friend because he feels he's betrayed her. It may not seem "realistic" to some readers, but for those who experienced such a loss of friendship and feelings of guilt over it, it rings all too true.

I understand why some readers -- particularly older gay readers -- might respond negatively to this book. For them it probably stirs up uncomfortable feelings. But for readers who have gone through what Jeff goes through, this is a breath of fresh air. Give it a chance. I think you'll be surprised.

Oh, and for those who suggest that Ford should stick to writing for adults, you should look at his website. He's been writing YA novels for years, and has published something like 30 of them.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Why is it that you have to warn people about what you are? Why can't it just be something that happens?", October 19, 2008

By 

Bob Lind "camelwest" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Suicide Notes (Hardcover)

At fifteen, Jeff suffers from the same teen angst and insecurities as many others his age, unsure about some of his feelings and insecure about his sexuality. In his case, he kept these emotions bottled up until he attempted suicide, which resulted in his being assigned to forty-five days in a small adolescent psychiatric treatment facility, the setting for this book. Initially, Jeff avoids dealing with his own issues, and concentrates on his curiosity about his four fellow patients, with whom he must interact on a daily basis as part of his therapy. Then there are the daily group and private sessions with Dr. Katzrupus, not-so-affectionately referred to as "Cat Poop" by his young charges, who has little success initially in getting Jeff to speak about his feelings or why he tried to take his life. The forty-five days starts off seeming like an eternity, but, by the time it is all over, Jeff is stronger, more self-assured, but still somewhat insecure about returning to his "real life" on the outside.

Michael Thomas Ford manages to create a well-written teen self-help book in a story format that will entertain his readers, through characters and feelings with whom they can identify. Family dynamics are shown in a realistic and unapologetic style, and the book is careful not to get heavy-handed or preachy. Excellent read for young people dealing with family, social or coming-out issues. Five blue pills out of five.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book that hits home, March 9, 2009

By 

Banknorth Gift Card "pet vet" (Wyoming) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suicide Notes (Hardcover)

This book was wonderful. I have a best friend who cuts and I picked it up thinking it might be a good read and maybe help me understand a thing or two... without all the text book mumbo jumbo. If I'd had the time I would have easily finished it in one sitting. I was laughing, gasping, squeaking with joy and surprise and anger, and coming so close to crying on many occations.
The main character, Jeff, reminded me so much of my friend. When people questioned her she threw up defensive walls and became sarcastic, not wanting anyone to be helped. In a way it helped me see some reasons as to why she did what she did.
I loved every second of every page and wished that I could just keep reading about him after I finished the final page. I've reccomended it to all my friends who are willing to want to think consider the concepts faced in this book.
In short, it's a wonderful read that I highly reccomend!