Suicide Club by Rachel Heng

Suicide Club

by Rachel Heng

They leave us no choice.

AS FEATURED ON BBC.COM. A 2018 DEBUT TO WATCH OUT FOR AS SELECTED BY INDEPENDENT, GRAZIA, THE BOOKSELLER AND THE RUMPUS AND AN ELLE, STYLIST AND I MAGAZINE RECOMMENDED SUMMER READ.


'Original and subversive.' Independent

'Thought-provoking, moving, worryingly convincing - and ultimately hopeful.' Irish Times

'A provocative new author. A fascinating debut novel. Read it!' Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach trilogy

'Life-affirming . . . "Be careful what you wish for" has never been so chilling, or so gripping' Erin Kelly, author of He Said/She Said

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What are you doing to help yourself? What are you doing to show that you're worth the resources?

In a near-future world, medical technology has progressed far enough that immortality is now within grasp -but only to those who show themselves to be deserving of it. These people are the lifers: the exercisers, yogacisers, green juicers and early nighters.

Genetically perfect, healthy and wholesome, one hundred-year-old Lea is the poster girl for lifers, until the day she catches a glimpse of her father in the street, eighty-eight years after their last encounter. While pursuing him, Lea has a brush with death which sparks suspicions. If Lea could be so careless, is she worthy of immortality?

Suicide Club wasn't always an activist group. It began as a set of disillusioned lifers, gathering to indulge in forbidden activities: performances of live music, artery-clogging meals, irresponsible orgies. But now they have been branded terrorists and are hunted by the state.

And Lea has decided to give them a call.

'Chilling . . . Through crisscrossing stories about love and loss, suffused in some wonderful and heartbreaking prose, she takes the reader on a journey to truly understand the question: who wants to live forever?' Stylist

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'Addictive' Sun

'Gripping' Red

'Clever, bold and makes you think about the value of life' Good Housekeeping

'The future is here. Let's welcome one of its stars. Talented and ferociously intelligent, Heng has produced a glittering debut.' Joanna Briscoe, author of You

'If the styling is satirical . . . Heng isn't playing for laughs . . . the fascinating and compelling scenario on show here ultimately forces you to question nothing less than the meaning of life' Metro

Reviewed by Ashley on

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DNF at 33%.

Suicide Club definitely has an interesting premise - people who can basically live forever and a government that ensures everyone strives to do that. But sadly it didn't draw me in.

1. For starters, I read like at least 25% of the book not realizing there were two points of view. At that point I had no idea how much I'd mixed up their two backstories. I have no idea which pieces of history belong with which person. X_X

2. All the new product/company names started to weigh on me. Observers, WeCovery, SmartBlood, sub-100s, Repairants, I think there was some kind of "DiamondSkin", etc. I guess I just felt like I was drowning in it all.

3. I feel like maybe I was expecting a cool, futuristic, dystopian thriller. But instead this felt a lot more like a personal/family story and that wasn't what I was looking for. At least half of what I read was about backstory, old family stories, etc. It just wasn't that interesting to me.

I think ultimately I just expected one thing and got something else, and because of that I had a hard time connecting to the characters and everything that was going on. (Speaking of which, it didn't feel like that much actually was going on since we spent so much time on backstories.)

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Reading updates

  • 4 June, 2018: Started reading
  • 5 June, 2018: Finished reading
  • 6 June, 2018: Reviewed