Suicide Notes

Michael Thomas Ford

Jan 2011 · Sold by Harper Collins

About this ebook

An unforgettable coming of age novel for fans of 13 Reasons Why, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Fifteen-year-old Jeff wakes up on New Year’s Day to find himself in the hospital—specifically, in the psychiatric ward.

Despite the bandages on his wrists, he’s positive this is all some huge mistake. Jeff is perfectly fine, perfectly normal; not like the other kids in the hospital with him.

But over the course of the next forty-five days, Jeff begins to understand why he ended up here—and realizes he has more in common with the other kids than he thought.

“With a sprinkling of dark humor and a full measure of humanness, Suicide Notes is quirky, surprising, and a riveting read.” —Ellen Hopkins, author of The You I’ve Never Known and Love Lies Beneath

“Like the very best teen novels, Suicide Notes is both classic and edgy, timeless and provocative.” —Brent Hartinger, author of Geography Club

“Makes a powerful emotional impact.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Jeff’s wit and self-discovery are refreshing, poignant, and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny.” —School Library Journal

Ratings and reviews

This book grabbed my attention immediately. A 15 year old wakes up in the psyche ward? Wonderful. I just bought this book this morning, and I've already finished it. There were a lot of unexpected things in here, and a huge twist. I definitely do not recommend it for my fellow teenagers, as it can be a lot to handle, and it's fairly graphic. Dark barely describes this. But it was a great story, and I want to see more books like this.

It's a compelling story--interesting, and a good read, except that even this description page shows multiple errors. There are sentence fragments instead of full sentences, and punctuation and grammar are not used correctly. This may be on purpose to emphasize that a child is writing it, but there are other ways to accomplish that, and just in my opinion, the bad writing outweighs the good story. Grammar nazis beware!! 😉

The plot twist was quite good but I really disliked Jeff. He did the whole, 'holier than thou' act for much too long. Also, I felt like the ending as well as the explaining of the plot twist was a little quick and sloppy. At least he didn't turn into a total goody two shoes at the end like I expected him to.

About the author

Michael Thomas Ford is the award-winning author of numerous works for both adults and young readers, including Suicide Notes, as well as some of the earliest books about the HIV/AIDS crisis and several books about the LGBTQ community. He lives in rural Appalachia with his husband and dogs.