Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: YA
Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words
Availability
Click
on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
Smashwords store
Author:
A former
secondary school teacher and recovering TV addict, Aaron Michael Ritchey lives
in Colorado where he runs triathlons and helps raise his two daughters. He is
the author of one previous novel, The Never
Prayer.
For more,
visit Richey’s website.
Description:
“Seventeen-year-old
Jim JD Dillinger knows exactly how his miserable suburban life is going to play
out. At least drugs added a little chaos to his life, but after almost losing
his soul, JD knows he has to quit. Now clean, he figures he has another sixty
years of plain old boring life followed by a nasty death. JD decides to
pre-empt God by killing himself. However, once he decides to die, his life gets
better, more interesting, and then downright strange. New friends. Possible
romance. And donuts. Lots of donuts. Once the end is in sight, every minute
becomes precious.”
Appraisal:
Compared to
the average teenager, Jim “JD” Dillinger has it good. If someone tweeted his
complaints about life, I’d expect to see a #firstworldproblems or even
#richsuburbankidissues hash tag accompanying it. However, teen angst,
depression, and wondering about the point of life can happen to any teen.
Suicide knows no boundaries and logic isn’t part of the equation.
My biggest
concern with reading this book was that it might be too much. For anyone whose
life has been touched by suicide (I’m guessing a whole lot of people) it’s a
serious subject. A story that deals with the subject has to have dark moments. Long Live the Suicide King is dark at
times, but this is offset by lighter, humorous moments and never felt too heavy
to me.It’s subtle in making points about choosing life over death while never
feeling preachy. An excellent read, not just for its young target audience, but
for adults as well.
FYI:
One f-bomb
and a couple mild scenes that touch on sex. Much less than the typical teenager
will be exposed to in an average school day.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating: ***** Five Stars
No comments:
Post a Comment