suicide club by Rachel Heng

Seventy-second book of 2020

Reading period: Sep 12th 2020 – Sep 14th 2020

Summary

Lea Kirino is a “Lifer,” which means that a roll of the genetic dice has given her the potential to live forever—if she does everything right. And Lea is an overachiever. She’s a successful trader on the New York exchange—where instead of stocks, human organs are now bought and sold—she has a beautiful apartment, and a fiancé who rivals her in genetic perfection. And with the right balance of HealthTech™, rigorous juicing, and low-impact exercise, she might never die. 

But Lea’s perfect life is turned upside down when she spots her estranged father on a crowded sidewalk. His return marks the beginning of her downfall as she is drawn into his mysterious world of the Suicide Club, a network of powerful individuals and rebels who reject society’s pursuit of immortality, and instead chose to live—and die—on their own terms. In this future world, death is not only taboo; it’s also highly illegal. Soon Lea is forced to choose between a sanitized immortal existence and a short, bittersweet time with a man she has never really known, but who is the only family she has left in the world.

Rating

Review

I wasn’t a fan of this book, and I nearly DNFed it.

My main struggle was the lack of background for this universe. You have a lot of information about hoe they still live when they are over 100 years, but you don’t have data for how and why we do that. The flashback doesn’t help at all; it makes the story feels like an illusion. Moreover, I couldn’t see why some people are Sub-100 and why some can be dead and some not.

I was surprised by the dual perspective used in the novel. The first viewpoint (and the main one) is Lea’s. I didn’t connect with her at all as I couldn’t catch her up. I couldn’t put her in a spatiotemporal space. Sometimes it feels like she lives in her 20ish years and not in her 100. The second character is Anja. I didn’t understand why they were a double POV as she didn’t add anything to the story.

It wasn’t a pleasant reading as I didn’t understand the world, but as I am not a big Sci-Fi reader, maybe I miss something.

Liz.