Even after reading the book, I don't know much more than what is in the blurb. I felt the characters were stilted and there wasn't enough back story on any of them or the time period. 

None of the characters were enjoyable or relatable and I could not find a plot, so for me this was a no starter.

Netgalley/HenryHolt July 31,2018

I hesitate to say what I really think of this novel, because to be fair, this is not the type of reading I usually find interesting. The description drew me in with a promise of intrigue and thrills set in a future that could very well happen some day soon. Instead, I got a lot of introspective prose, inner thoughts and feelings of the various protagonists, (and there are quite a few, to the point that I had a bit of trouble keeping track of who's who at first), deeply felt observations, but very little dialogue or action.

Again, if that is what you prefer in a book, then this is not bad at all. But for my taste, well, it was bitter and dry. I confess right now I was unable to get past the first one third. I skipped to the last two chapters, thinking that it surely got more exciting toward the end?! Sadly, no. Slow moving, very little interaction or chatting between characters, and surprisingly, I was not at all lost in the storyline. It have moved along that little. I understood exactly what was happening and why. NO surprise ending, no 'wow, did NOT see that coming!', just a quiet, non conversational end.

Be clear, I am not saying this is not a well written book. I am simply saying it is not my cup of tea. This was weak tea with a dash of milk and no sugar, I prefer a nice hearty black tea, with a generous splash of milk and a heaping teaspoon of sugar. Just a personal preference...

Really enjoyed this. A fresh take on what it means to truly be alive.

I can't recall exactly where I heard about Suicide Club first, but I was drawn to the gorgeous cover and the premise of taking control of one's own death in a world where the prize of immortality is within reach. Thanks to Henry Holt Publishing and NetGalley, I was able to access an ARC in exchange for my honest review!


Suicide Club is a dystopian/scifi novel where immortality is almost within reach, lifespans are in the hundreds, and death is a crime. Our main character Lea is a lifer, with both excellent genes and privileged access to the most cutting edge medical treatments. The near future world she lives in is calm, serene, and optimized to keep stress and cortisol levels to a minimum. Nutripaks provide sustenance, green juice cocktails are served at celebrations (alongside faux styrofoam cakes), and only the most soothing muzak is acceptable.



Basically, it's boring as hell.



I was excited to jump into this world - the idea of immortal life is so compelling, and yet as anyone who's ever read a vampire novel knows, it's also exhausting and soul killing. And so, when immortality becomes the default, taking control of one's own death becomes the subversive radical act of empowerment... not the living of forever. Great premise, for sure. However - and I'm still trying to put my finger on it, but - I couldn't really get invested in the characters. Perhaps the author was trying to model the sterile and disconnected world through her language and pacing, but what happened what that I didn't feel connected to the characters. There was a fair amount that went unexplained, and there were so many other directions I could have seen the story going. If I am imagining so many alternate events and outcomes in a storyline, then I think it's evidence that the author hasn't fully convinced me of the story they intended to tell.



An okay read, but I wouldn't highly recommend it. I also fully expect this review to be in the minority, so bring all your challenges and comments :)



2/5 stars.

The America that is portrayed in this novel is a place where your worth is determined at birth by what genes you carry, and whether you will be chosen to receive the life-extending maintenance that will allow a person to live for hundreds of years, or not. The chosen are "lifers", those who are not are deemed "sub-100". There is a distinct difference in options for careers and thus lifestyles between the two categories. Adherence to the guidelines set out for the lifers are mandatory, with consequences for those thought to be "anti-sanct".

Lea is a lifer. She's already over 100, is looking forward to a promotion and has everything going for her - until she catches a glimpse of a man in a crowd and distracted, suffers an injury, which then puts her on the radar as a person who is potentially anti-sanct, and who may not be as life loving as is required. Under observation, she attends meetings that are supposed to guide her back into the fold, but instead, Lea meets Anja and subsequently starts thinking differently about the world she lives in and the quality of the life she is chasing.

This novel examines the idea of immortality, and the cost of eternal life. It also portrays a frightening level of government intrusion and regulation. Who is Lea - and who does she want to be? What role do our parents have in shaping our ideas of self and worth? Suicide Club asks hard questions and will leave you thinking after you've finished reading.

This book was based a very interesting concept, one that really made me stop and think. This near-future society portrayed in the story has discovered a way to live forever--to be immortal. Which in theory sounds great, but it is only for few elite members of this future population, the ones who are Lifers, or people whose genes allow them to receive treatments that steer them to a path of immortality in the future as science progresses. The main character, Lea, is a lifer, healthy happy, has a great life and a bright long future. There are still regular people who live and die just like we do today in the same society. Lea has a chance encounter with her past and estranged her father, also a life who is fighting against this new society as a member of the "Suicide Club." AS the story progresses, Lea examines her life now, her past, and how she really feels about immortality. This book really makes the reader think about immortality, life, death, suicide, technology, healthy living and what you really want out of life as opposed to just being alive. A very interesting take on dystopian society. Also, when there is a sequel, I definitely want to read it! I think it would make an AWESOME movie too!

The author has built an amazingly detailed and intriguingly crafted world in this book, and the writing is lovely, but the main characters left me cold.

Rachel Heng’s dystopian debut novel “Suicide Club” is like watching the “Black Mirror” episode “San Junipero” for the first time.

It’s hard to get your bearings, at first, but eventually you fall in love with the writing and the characters.

Like “Black Mirror,” Heng’s book features amazing technological advancements which are not necessarily for the better.

“San Junipero” and “Suicide Club” share other similarities: both are love stories about living forever and self-discovery, featuring girls living a lie.

In “Suicide Club’s” case, the girl is Lea Kirino, a 100 year old who looks no older than 50.

For a “Lifer” like her, being 100 years old isn’t an incredible achievement. It’d be a failure. “Three hundred was now the number to beat,” writes Heng.

Part of that comes down to good genes (Lea’s comes from Japanese parents known for their longevity). If you’re deemed naturally healthy and have the right temperament, you’re prescribed a strict eating and exercise regimen that consists of DiamondSkinTM, ToughMuscTM and RepairantsTM — stuff that will eliminate wrinkles, instantly heal cuts and expand a human’s life span so it nears immortality.

If you’re not blessed with good genes, you’re labeled a “sub-100,” and will naturally die young. No DiamondSkinTM, ToughMuscTM or RepairantsTM will be spared in prolonging your life. It’s sad, but that’s natural selection at work.

Like most Lifers, Lea’s goal is to become one of the few and first Lifers selected for the “Third Wave” of scientific and medical advancements designed to make you immortal, but when she accidentally steps in front of a car in an attempt to chase after a man who looks like her father, a man who’s been exiled and labeled as an antisanct for taking someone’s life, Lea gets flagged as an attempted suicide case, jeopardizing her own chances of being invited to the “Third Wave.”

Through mandatory group therapy meetings and attempts to find her father, Lea also meets the Suicide Club, a radical underground organization of Lifers who’ve had enough of the endless soulless days following the strictly government-mandated rules of what to eat, breathe and do. Like Lea, they’ve been flagged as attempted suicide cases and are monitored by government agents enlisted to enforce the status quo; the supplements they’ve taken as Lifers have made it impossible to “take a kitchen knife to your wrists and watch the life pour out of your veins” (You skin will heal before you bleed). Their philosophy: to really live, they have to be able to choose how they die.

Despite the subject matter, “Suicide Club” isn’t death-defying for its genre. “Suicide Club” feels like Scott Westerfeld’s “Uglies” trilogy and other dystopian young adult coming of age novels I’ve devoured in one sitting. Perhaps that’s why I like Heng’s debut so much. Like “Black Mirror,” “Twilight Zone,” or “Brave New World,” “Suicide Club” explores what humanity might wish for and shows how things might be OK as they already are.

Disclaimer: I received a free eARC of “Suicide Club” by Rachel Heng from NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.

3.75
Definitely an interesting idea. Took a bit to get into as I felt like I was trying to ‘catch up’ in understanding how this world worked. But it was a unique take on a direction you could actually see people trying to take things someday.

I wanted to like this more than I did. I requested it based on the description and actually the beautiful cover art. The premise of the novel was intriguing and had so much potential! I enjoyed the first part of the book because the world and the setting of the book were really interesting and probably the strength of this novel. I didn't care for the main character and the story fell flat for me. It was a thought provoking read that really made me think about mortality and how the world we live in currently could be perceived in the future. This is a solid 3.-3..5 for me. Strong potential, thought provoking and well written but a little flat story wise for me.

Thank you to Henry Holt Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of The Suicide Club for my honest review.

**Review**

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Title: Suicide Club by Rachel Heng
Publisher: Henry Holt
Genre: General Adult Fiction
Release Date: July 10, 2018
My rating: 3.5/5⭐️
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Synopsis:
In Rachel Heng's debut set in near future New York City—where lives last three hundred years and the pursuit of immortality is all-consuming—Lea must choose between her estranged father and her chance to live forever.
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I recently finished an ARC copy of Suicide Club by Rachel Heng (thank you, Netgalley) and the following is my honest review.
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Lea Kirino is a “lifer”, one of the chosen ones. Due to her genetics she has the potential to live forever, given that she does everything right and follows the perfect regimen for optimal health. She has a great job, an even greater fiancé, and lives in one of the corporations beautiful condos. She’s got it all… or does she? She believed she did until the fateful day she spotted her estranged father of eighty-eight years while bustling along with hundreds of other walking commuters on her way home from work. Without thought she ditched the sidewalk and stepped into the street, desperate to catch him before he got away… and walked right into her new fate.. one in which everything she does and says is in question, and her status as the perfect lifer is put in peril. She now has to make a choice. Will she forfeit any chance at immortality to pursue the relationship she never got to have with her father or will the the thought of living forever prove enough of a motivator for her to turn her back on him for good?
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“She would emerge from the clinic week after week, each time stronger, glowing, invincible. The blood running through her veins a liquid life force, the stuff of gods. Her skin dewy and impossibly supple, yet impervious, impenetrable. She, a goddess. Nothing would ever hurt her again.” -Excerpt from Suicide Club

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This book reminded me of the Matched trilogy by Ally Condie, a YA dystopian in which the future has amazing technological advances, especially in the health industry. That is where the comparisons stop though, as this book goes in a completely different direction than the afore mentioned dystopian. Suicide Club shows a better rendition of “healthy society”, it’s much more imaginative, believable, and clever. Heng has a beautiful, smooth writing style that I enjoyed a great deal and she was very creative when naming future medicine and surgical techniques. Unfortunately, the reason I only gave this book 3.5 stars is because I felt disconnected from the story while I was reading it and never managed to connect with the characters. The relationship between the main character and her father could have been so much more visceral, and emotionally charged, giving the reader the chance to be invested in the outcome of the story, instead I was merely curious. I felt as though Heng was always just skimming the surface of the story and never delved deeper below the surface to give the reader that integral love (or dislike, in some cases) for the character. Despite these criticisms I am confident enough in the author’s talent that I would give her another chance, were she to write another novel. This author has so much potential as a writer ( as you can see from the excerpt I have included above) that I felt was completely untapped. Hopefully her future novels will showcase her talent a little better than this book did. I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys dystopian novels, futuristic or technologically advanced worlds, or books set in the future.

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-Summer, Loud Mind Reviews

The first thing that really intrigued me about this book is the cover. It truly is a beautiful cover and beckoned me to start reading immediately as soon as I received my copy. The premise of the book also lured me in and seemed to promise an epic reading adventure, escaping into a future that although seems highly unlikely now, could possibly come true.

For the most part, I enjoyed this story, but it just did not pack the punch I was expecting. I suppose I was hoping for more action, more romance…just more. What I got was a decent reading experience that did make me think, what if. One of the major issues I had was the abrupt change from past and current scenes. I would be reading along and then suddenly, the scene would be from a past memory of the character. I think what would have helped would be a change in font, or something letting me know that it was a past event. This alone prevented a smooth reading pace. My reading copy was an Advance Readers’ Edition, so hopefully this will be corrected before publishing.

I believe this book would make an awesome movie and I definitely will be on the look out for any future books written by this creative author.

2 ¾ stars

This was a well-written, well-crafted tale on a topic that I think is coming very close to being overdone... Immortality or extra-longevity seems to be an obsession - it appears in science fiction, futuristic tales, vampire/supernatural stories, humor (dark and not-so-dark), and drama (again, dark and not-so-dark), and the inevitable ennui that seems to accompany it is becoming, well, boring to read about. I understand that we are a society obsessed with life, health, and technology, and see the appeal of stories like this. But I'm starting to feel the ennui of the characters when I read them...

But, there's good news - nearly any topic (even the overdone ones) maintains its interest in the hands of a talented author, and I'm pleased to report that Rachel Heng is such an author. With a delicate touch, Heng paints a vivid picture of extra-longevity and its adherents and opponents in such a way that each position is presented with equal consideration in the course of a narrative that is as much family drama and personal growth as it is manifesto. There is so much nuance in the personal journeys of the two main female characters; their positions could not be farther apart on the longevity spectrum, but their lives feel oddly parallel and it is that contradiction that kept the story engaging and fresh for me.

Great book! Thank you so much for letting me get my hands on this one! This book was a face paced read following the character Lea. Such an interesting story line of the "lifer" and the "suicide club" I have always enjoyed a dystopian story and this one did not disappoint! I would definitely recommend this book to friends.

This book was far different than I thought it would be based on the title alone. I think it would be a great book to foster discussions on end of life care, when are medical interventions too much, how much government control over our lives is acceptable? It was a really interesting read.

When I finished Suicide Club, I surprised myself. I closed the Kindle and said, "What a beautiful book."

And it really was.

It's funny to say that a near future SF novel like this is beautiful, but that's how I felt after finishing it. I felt witness to something unique and lovely.

Oh, the book is sad of course, but there's so much beauty in choosing your own life and your own death.

Heng forces us to look at how much emphasis society places on youth and beauty and all that impossible to attain perfection. And in this novel, if you aren't perfect or don't want to be perfect, there must be something dreadfully wrong with you...and if so, isn't it better if you simply weren't allowed to progress?

I loved as our main character began to realize there was so much more than what the government wanted people to believe - and so much dignity in age and experience, and yes, even in dying in a way that befits you.

An excellent read.

This is a great book for a reader that loves reading about what a future dystopian world would be like. I also recommend it for young readers. The writing was very easy to follow and one can easily see how the heroine-Lea, matures from the beginning of the book until the end. Lea seems perfect but she is always worrying about the cracks in her veneer --Then one day the unlikely happens and she spots her father in the street on the way to her job.. Did I mention her father is a sort of wanted criminal in this futuristic world? Is Lea really happy in this rigidly controlled plastic universe? I can see where this would be a big hit on the screen.

Thank you to Net Galley and publisher for a chance to read and review.

This was a really beautiful book. (Like a 4.5 for me). It pictures a version of the future in which the pursuit of health and longevity trumps all. Like in all good science fiction, this world is just enough fantastical, but also just enough rooted in reality, that it seems very believable.

For instance, I had this "duh" moment when I was reading the book and they were talking about how precious cds were in this world. If you live in a time where all music is digitized and streamed--like ours looks soon to be--the government or corporations could totally outlaw (or "turn off") a certain type of music. Then, without actual artifacts of recorded music (or machines to play them on) some types of music could conceivably die out. The book is full of clever details like that which get you thinking. If anything I could have used MORE of that (For instance how is being a lifer determined at birth? How were Lea's and Samuel's lives different based on that determination, etc?)

Beyond the excellent world building, the story itself is profoundly moving and often deeply sad. It's not a terribly fast-moving book, but I found it engaging nonetheless. I do worry however that, for some people, the title of this book might be off-putting.

To be clear, this book IS about suicide, but it's also not. The suicide club doesn't exist to help people kill themselves due to mental health issues or hopelessness. It exists to help them kill themselves because, in the world they're living in, dying naturally is a right which has been taken away from them (bodies can heal themselves from most any trauma.) As a result, people in this world can be trapped inside a malfunctioning body for centuries (in the book, this is called "misalignment").

This book will leave you thinking deeply about both vitality and disintegration, nature and science, life and death.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book would be a good fit for readers who want grown-up dystopian lit. Lea and Anja are excellent female protagonists and their coming-of-age (even though they're 100) is pretty classic. At times, I was unsure of how much time had passed--it often seemed like lots of things happened in a very short period of time--but this contributed to the "they're always watching" mentality. The idea that it wouldn't take any time at all to feel consequences for stepping slightly out of line is a real concern. The book was both thoughtful and entertaining.

Lea Kirino's life seems perfect. She's a Lifer--someone whose genes allow them to receive treatments to live a very long life and puts them on a path to immortality once the technology advances enough--has a steady job, a swanky NYC apartment, and a gorgeous fiance. The return of her estranged father and the rise of the Suicide Club, a group dedicated to ending their lives under their own terms, puts Lea's perfect life at risk. It dredges up the worst of her long ago past, things she'd rather never think about again. It also forces her to confront her own feelings about immortality and what life is really worth living.

Rachel Heng's SUICIDE CLUB presents a futuristic world where modern medicine rules. I thought the world-building was done really well and the concept of Lifers to be really interesting. Lea proves to be a dynamic character, and the author doesn't shy away from painting her in all her brutal truths. A thoughtful and intriguing look at what it really means to be alive.