Explaining the Unexplainable: Four YA Books About Teen Suicide

First, the easiest thing to explain: why did I read four YA books dealing with suicide in a span of two weeks? I didn't intend to. I often request review books months ahead of time. Then I keep a list by release date and try to read chronologically. Many times when I pick up a book I don't remember what it's about. 

So I didn't realize until recently that at least six YA books about teen suicide will be published in January and February. How to explain that? I'm not sure, but I definitely see a huge trend toward serious issue books in 2015, something I have mixed feelings about as a reader. I enjoy books that tackle weighty and important subjects, but there's a limit to how many I want to read in a short span of time.

These are the books I read -- I wrote the mini-blurbs:

I Was Here by Gayle Forman (Viking, January 27)
After her best friend's suicide, Cody goes to pack up Meg's things as a favor her parents. In doing so, she starts investigating what prompted Meg to make the choice that she did.

Playlist for the Dead by Michelle Falkoff (Harper, January 13)
After his best friend's suicide, Sam listens to a playlist of songs that Hayden left for him and tries to understand.

The Last Time We Say Goodbye by Cynthia Hand (Harper, February 10)
In the aftermath of her brother's suicide, Lex tries to put her life back together and to deliver a message for her brother.

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven (Knopf, January 6)
When Violet, depressed over her sister's accidental death, and Finch, who's struggling with family problems and a mood disorder, meet and then are assigned to a school project, they begin a journey that will encompass friendship, love and loss.

These books definitely have similarities. Three of them are stories of characters trying to understand a suicide after the fact. One (All the Bright Places) is sort of the opposite. When something unexpected and tragic occurs, I guess it's human nature to try to understand why it happened and/or figure out how it might have been prevented. And yet, in all these books, I kept feeling that there was never going to be a simple, definitive answer to those questions.

• Three of the books featured main characters whose friend committed suicide, while one main characters lost a sibling (another also lost a sibling, but not to suicide)
• Three of the suicides were male, one was female
• At least three of the characters who took their own lives had been diagnosed with a mood disorder or mental illness.
• At least two of the authors had a personal connection to someone who committed suicide

Some of those factors reflect research on suicide in the U.S..  According to this research, while girls are more likely to attempt suicide, boys actually make up the vast majority (81%) of teen suicide deaths.  Among ethnic groups, Native American youth have the highest rate of suicide fatality and Hispanic* teens have the highest rate of attempted suicide. (You can read a post by YA author Cindy Rodriguez (whose book is featured below) on Depression in the Latina community here.) Depression and mental illnesses are a risk factor, as are drug and alcohol abuse, or having suffered a stressful life event. Exposure to the suicidal behavior of others is also thought to be a risk factor.

*I understand that the term "Hispanic" may not be the preferred one in the Latino/a community, but it is the one used by the CDC report.

If you're not up reading for reading all of these books, which one is right for you? 

--Read All the Bright Places if you want a John Green-esque story of a larger than life character, and if you want a (tragic) romance -- think Looking for Alaska. I liked the fact that most of this story takes place before the suicide rather than after.

--Read The Last Time We Say Goodbye or Playlist for the Dead if you want a bit of a ghost story feel. In Playlist, this had a bit of a magical realism feel, and in The Last Time, there was more of a psychological explanation.

--The Last Time We Say Goodbye and All the Bright Places explore sibling relationships.

-- I Was Here was the bleakest, but also the most dramatic -- at times it had the bit of a feel of a Law and Order episode. And I would have preferred this book as a friendship story, without the romance.

In case you're interested, here are two more YA upcoming books that, from their descriptions on Goodreads, seem to deal with teen suicide:

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga (Balzer + Bray, February 10)

When Reason Breaks by Cindy L. Rodriguez (Bloomsbury, February 10)


What are your thoughts about these kind of books? Have you read any of them, or are you planning to?