The hardest part about finishing a good book is figuring out what to read next, or finding a similar book when the subject matter really touches you. I read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher in 2010 and it tore me in half. It's about a young man named Clay who comes home to find a package containing seven cassette tapes each numbered one through thirteen and a map. He presses play and it's Hannah Baker, a classmate and crush who killed herself, telling him that if he's listening then he's one of the thirteen reasons she killed herself. He follows the map as he listens to her downward spiral all the while wondering what he did wrong. This is a book that has saved lives and started much needed discussions. If you've never read it, you should. If you have read it and you liked it, then you'll like....
The Program by Suzanne Young is a semi-dystopian sci-fi novel about a young girl named Sloane and her boyfriend James. In the not-too-distant future suicide is an epidemic among teenagers and the only cure is The Program. If you're sad, you can't show it. Keep it to yourself. Tell no one because wherever you are they'll come and take you away, and when you return you'll never be the same. It's so realistic it's terrifying and it almost hurt to read.
Where Jay Asher took a psychiatrist waiting room pamphlet and put it words we could we barely digest, Suzanne Young took suicide and gave it flesh and blood. If you don't mind the ugly cry or being emotionally challenged, looking into the mirror as you read, I highly recommend these.
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