Title: Suicide Club
Author: Rachel Heng
Genre: Dystopia YA
Format: E-Book
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Sceptre
Publication Date: 10th July 2018
My Rating: ★★★ (3 stars)
Goodreads | Storygraph
Synopsis:
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.
My Review
I enjoy dystopian novels and I was drawn to the concept of this novel. My main issue with it was that it was a slow start, I picked the novel up on several occasions but couldn’t bring myself to finish it. I wasn’t sure where the story was going. I finally managed to get past the first couple of chapters and finished the book.
The concept of the story was good; a future where medical science and technology has advanced to a point that immortality was within their grasp – but only to ‘lifers’ those who are deemed worthy and deserving.
On the outside of this society is the Suicide Club, a collection of people who society would call ‘antisanct’ – they indulge in activities that have been forbidden; live music, careless sex, alcohol and unhealthy meals. The state considers them terrorists, but they are taking back control of their lives.
The main problem that I had with the story was Lea. She is the main protagonist and I found her to be extremely unlikeable. The narrative is shared with Anja, a Swedish immigrant and classical violinist. I wanted more of Anja and less of Lea.
Lea is a lifer, successful, healthy, and content with the society she lives in. In a bid to catch her fugitive father’s attention she walks into traffic, and her life becomes scrutinised by the government, who think she wanted to commit suicide. My main issue with her is that she is one-dimensional, and a little holier-than-thou. Anja is the complete opposite and was a reprieve from Lea’s narrative. She is engaging and far more interesting.
The premise was brilliant but I don’t think it’s.a book I am likely to read again. That being said, the world that Heng has created here is well-planned and interesting. I would pick up another of her novels.
