I have finished my first book for the year. I am happy to be reading again. Somehow the first book I grabbed had quite a grim premise, but I thought I’d give it a bash. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. Apparently a NY Times best-selling author. I have not read any of his other books.
The basic plot is as follows. Four strangers meet on a rooftop on New Year’s Eve wanting to commit suicide by jumping off the building. From here we get to know each person and their reasons for wanting to jump. Each person has a different reason for wanting to end it all ranging from “celebrity fallen from grace”, a single parent feeling trapped with a severely disabled child, plainly put, a pretty dramatic teenage type, and lastly, someone who has lost his direction in life. The group makes a pact to not commit suicide until another future date to see if life improves. They meet up at various times and influence each other’s lives in some way. The book is written in first person perspective which sometimes makes you feel like it’s not a flowing story, but instead, you just jump in on various people’s thoughts.
Overall the story was okay. I don’t think I’d recommend it. I won’t ruin the ending if you did plan on reading it, but I can say I somehow did imagine it turning out somewhat different. I leave this book not feeling like I have more insight into how people work through difficult times. Life just kind of went on, and they went with it. One character out of the four changed, the rest I feel didn’t really grow. All in all, I’d give it a 7/10.
A link to this book on Goodreads.
Mona – not jumping from a building
Wife of a Gamer 