Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas Ford was a book I picked up to read on a trip. As you make your way through the book you meet a group of teens that find themselves in long term psychiatric care treatment center. You learn different things about each character and what drove them to end up in this care facility. The format of the book is reading a diary. This is the diary of 15 year old Jeff. The book discusses issues such as depression and homophobia. The focus shifts to how Jeff thinks he will be perceived by his friends after kissing his best friend’s boyfriend and then being horrified that she knows his secret and will not be able to come out to her when he chooses. He also fears that everyone at school knows he is homosexual and attempts suicide. A common theme throughout all of the kids in the facility is them being scared of how everyone else views them. Stigmas around mental health are challenged countless times in this book. Ford specifically writes so you don’t know anyone’s full story at any time. It makes the reader sit back and reevaluated their ideas on stereotypes and jumping to conclusions. Othering is the course concept that I immediately thought about when reflecting on this book. All of the characters in this book were so tied up in thinking about what everyone thought of them that they lost themselves and ability to feel okay. Suicide is brought up and that is the peak of othering. Some of the characters did not make it to the end of the book because they felt so powerless and unable to be heard. We also get to read some of what the psychiatrist did and said to each of these people. His job was to make these people feel like they had somewhere to go, but society had pushed many of the characters to feel so isolated that they could not trust what he said. This week we discussed what different styles do and how it changes how it is perceived. Ford wrote this to include humor and satire in the way a teenager would speak about life. I think this was a nice touch to provide some relief, but it also provided a personal touch that allowed the reader to feel things the way Jeff did. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that want to challenge their perspectives on mental health and being an empathetic reader.
