First rule of Suicide Club: we don't really want to talk about it

Rachel Heng's Suicide Club caught my attention for several reasons. First of all: that's one sexy cover - even sexier when you hold it in your hands and realise that the heart and text is embossed. Second, and I think everyone who has read the book will agree with me: the concept is awesome. It sounded like a juicy dystopia, just the kind I like - a changed hierarchy of values, and aspirations not exactly foreign to us, but just out of reach. The moment I found out about it, I put it on my reading list (along with four other awesome books).

The novel tells the story of Lea and Anja - the two representatives of the different values of this dystopian future, where the main aim of the mysterious Ministry is to make immortality available. Lea has everything: a handsome boyfriend, 100 years behind her and counting, a great job, excellent benefits. She's at the top of the list of people eligible for immortality. Anja, on the other hand, is quiet, poor and lives with a shell of a mother who is basically now on life support, with only her heart being conscious of the life still running through her. The mysterious Suicide Club is a terrorist organisation, with its members killing themselves on camera to send a message: not everyone wants to live forever.

That's in a nutshell, but I'm struggling a bit to sum up what the book is really about.

What did I like about it?

To go back to my original point: I very much enjoyed the concept. Heng's idea is really quite original in a modern literary field littered with dystopias of all kinds. It doesn't seem far fetched either: if you've read Homo Deus, you'll know that Harari, among others, believes that the aspiration of the modern man is to lengthen their life span, ultimately aiming for immortality in all likeliness.

There are also some scenes in the book that are extremely visual and very well presented - images that linger on, even as you move through the story. One scene, where Lea and Anja take a dip in a top-floor swimming pool, is extremely strong: not just the view, but the sights, sounds, the breathing, the drips. These golden nuggets are the best parts of the book.

What was I not massively fond of?

From the very beginning, it felt that Heng gave a lot more attention to describing every minute detail of the world she's created than to actually moving the story along. I feel she got tangled up in the logic of the story: while creating the dystopia, she didn't give sufficient attention to people's motivations. I know, because I've tried writing a sci-fi novel. When coming up with a new world, you're desperately trying to make the reader understand how it works - but in the process you lose sight of what's important. I think that may have been the case here.

The structure of the book is also a bit confusing. Sometimes, without warning, we jump back in time to Lea's childhood, and I felt that the scenes there remain without explanation or consequence. In addition, the story itself takes so many turns that you have trouble figuring out where we're really heading, and what we're trying to achieve. All the characters seem to change from page to page; a particular one that I wasn't keen on was George. His motivation, background, or even current occupation just didn't make sense to me. But Lea, too, felt like an odd leading lady. Truthfully, as a child, she is painted as severely troubled. In the future (present) though, she seems normal; then odd; then outright brutal. I want to say, crazy. Sometimes. But then she'd abruptly shift back into logical. I didn't quite follow.

In addition, despite the idea of immortality certainly worthy of exploring, I felt that it was exactly this idea that barely got any stage time. Yes, Lea's father represents the struggle, but even his motivations often remain unclear. I feel a lot more could have been done in this direction; in fact, this could have been the central idea of the novel. And maybe it was. But I don't think it was strong enough.

Overall...

I think that, despite a very good concept, the book falls flat because of its many arms - none of them are quite followed through. I was unable to sympathise with any of the characters, therefore leaving me a bit cold and disinterested.

Maybe if it had been split into more than one book, Heng could have explored all her ideas separately, and it would have been the excellent dystopia it should be. Instead, this book feels, to me, unfortunately uneven, messy and unsure of itself.

5/10