The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand

This was a very well written book with a great purpose. I highly recommend it to those struggling with the choice of living or taking your own life. The right choice is always life.

The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand is a fascinating read that keeps you thinking long after you've finished. Galloway hooks you and keeps you invested in the characters right from the start. I highly recommend.

Or perhaps, it’s more accurate to say that this is an outsider’s view of suicide; the author clearly didn’t do his research properly, experienced an attempt, and decided to believe that a town would watch a teen try to kill him self 39 times without doing anything drastic about it. This hurt to read. “Dyke” is thrown around as if LGBT teens don’t have one of the highest rates of suicide. Only the writing gives this book a generous 2/5; I rounded up. I regret reading this but the only thing I can do now is warn others.

This book is just so interesting

I'm not even sure how to review this one. I didn't hate it. The writing was fine. I never reached a point where I felt like not finishing it but it was just meh. The concept of a kid who wants to die...and does time and again only to inexplicably wake up fine was an interesting premise but the book itself was just not...interesting that is. Adam spends most of the book doing nothing other than drinking with his friends and wanting a girl who he's been friends with his whole life. Nothing happens...as in NOTHING. There's not really a story until maybe the last seventy five pages or so and even that is resolved abruptly. Adam doesn't want to die because he's depressed. He doesn't want to die because he's unstable. He wants to die because he's bored and has this "calling"...this drive to kill himself. He likes those moments of peace and nothing he gets in the short amount of time that he's dead before he eventually wakes up alive. That's it? Yeah, that's it. The author's note at the end states that the author decided to explore the idea of suicide after countless people he knew committed suicide. I was even more confused about the point of this book when I read that. It seems like a really odd way of exploring suicide to feature a boy who can't die and wants to kill himself because he's bored. It almost diminishes or disrespects those people who are in so much pain that suicide seems like the only option. And yet I didn't hate it. I can't figure out why.

I'll admit up front that many of the things I love about The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand are going to be the same things that bother other people. When you explain the concept of the novel to people - that it's about a teenager whose depression leads him to suicide, and yet he is constantly coming back to life - they're going to have certain expectations. They're going to think that this is a mystery, perhaps, or that it's a strident anti-suicide tract, or that it's a densely plotted novel about the things that drive Adam Strand to take his own life. And yet, none of that is true. By the time the novel ends, there's no answer as to why Adam Strand can do what he does. His depression may not be solved so much as coped with. And the novel doesn't even really have a plot to speak of; rather, it's almost an impressionistic portrait of a depressed, drifting teenager raging against his small, dying town. But to me, it's all of those things that make this novel so great and affecting. Depression is a hard thing to write about; it's not just being sad, and it's not just brought on by certain events, and it certainly isn't always explainable or solvable. Galloway knows all of that, and it comes through perfectly in the character of Adam Strand, whose actions often seem as unpredictable and inexplicable to him as it does to us, because that's the nature of depression. At its core, The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand isn't an anti-suicide book so much as it's a book about suicide, striving to understand it and to find a way through that doesn't rely on cheap platitudes or easy answers. As I read it, I found myself thinking back to the depression I suffered through in high school, and there wasn't a page of Adam Strand that I didn't identify with and see myself in in some way. That, more than anything, is why I came away so impressed. It's not a typical YA book; this isn't pushing for a series, or focusing on paranormal mysteries. Instead, it uses its unusual premise to explore adolescent rage, angst, and depression, and does so effectively and poetically. I can see why some won't like it, but for those who are open to something so different, they may come away deeply moved by the experience.

*This is an ARC copy via Library Thing giveaway* 5 Stars! Adam Strand is not depressed, mentally ill, or even suicidal despite what rational thought may suggest. He is just indifferent to life so he kills himself repeatedly only to wake up and try again. He's not trying to purposely hurt those around him, but he also doesn't care how they feel. He doesn't care until someone, a girl, turns his own self absorbed world upside down. For first half of the book I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Obviously the subject matter is sensitive and Mr. Galloway finds a unique approach to take it on, which is greatly appreciated, but I liked the fact that there was some laugh out loud moments. I am a big fan of irony and black humor so that helped me continue to turn the pages even when the pacing was a bit slow in places. Ultimately I am giving this one five stars is because if I gave it four then in a couple of days, after thinking about it more, I would come back and change it to five stars. It's one of those books that I will think about a lot in the next week, and then in three months I will hear or see something that will make me think about it all over again, and so on. I do recommend this book. Everyone will have different experience with it leading to many different opinions that will turn in conversations on a subject that needs to be discussed instead of ignored.

I read As Simple As Snow and really loved it. I was hoping this would be similar. As an "old" person, I couldn't really get into this book, it just seemed repetitive to me. I still have to finish it after about 6 months. Maybe it will get better. I think someone up to the age of early 20's would enjoy it more.