Book Review: Together We Will Go

[daley]

I have been on a quest to read any book I can find about suicide pacts.
I already posted four reviews here.

The current one is Together We Will Go by J. Michael Straczynski.

Most books about pacts are only about two people, sometimes romantically involved. I have found fewer books with a pact for a group of people.

In this group there is an organizer, Mark, who buys an old bus, hires a driver, and collects
people across the US to finally drive over a cliff near San Francisco.
The people who joined answered a classified ad Mark posted.

There is a server on the bus, and the participants are expected to open an account and
write about why they chose to end their lives, and document anything they would like about themselves. Forming sort of a collective suicide note.

The book is interspersed with these personal writings, email correspondence, and
what happens to them on the road. This provides a lot of variety and insight into
the characters. The story flies by, and I enjoyed it.

The stories of the characters that board the bus cover a lot of ground: Bi-polar disorder, chronic pain, gender-identity, obesity, old age, terminal illness, substance abuse. There is a
nice balance of some people regretting and getting off the bus, and others
following through. The author writes it from a pro-choice perspective,
but it still manages to be a bit too wholesome - there is too much romance, sex,
partying and drugs than I would have imagined. But due to the characters it's still
believable.

In contrast, the only other pro-choice suicide-group-pact book I found was suicide pact by
John Monarch, which I reviewed before. In that book, some of the characters also
continue to look for love, but things backfire miserably. I feel that John Monarch
is an asher himself, and didn't want to relieve the bleak tone of that book.

I haven't found any more suicide pact fiction, especially of more than two people.
Do you know of any?

 

[failure383]

I haven't found any more suicide pact fiction, especially of more than two people.
Do you know of any?

The Manga "Welcome to the N.H.K" tells the story about a complete social recluse, who barely leaves his room, is drug-addicted, is severely depressed and as an sub-story/arc gets dragged into a suicide pact with other people as miserable as him. The group met on an online message board and travel to an island with an cliff to kill themselves. During the evening, where the other people pass time with a campfire and drinking, he slowly realizes he wants to kill himself as well. They nearly attempt suicide...but they get saved by perfect timing of the saviors and get rescued. The protog attempts suicide a second time near the end of the story, but doesn't die either. It's a rather silly story with a serious undertone, or a serious story with a silly undertone. It probably depends on your point of view.

I don't think it's really worth reading if you are just interested in the suicide arc, because it's not as focused at this, as it is with the severe social withdrawal of the protag, but I got reminded of that Manga, when I read your post about the first book.

 

[daley]

The Manga "Welcome to the N.H.K" tells the story about a complete social recluse, who barely leaves his room, is drug-addicted, is severely depressed and as an sub-story/arc gets dragged into a suicide pact with other people as miserable as him. The group met on an online message board and travel to an island with an cliff to kill themselves. During the evening, where the other people pass time with a campfire and drinking, he slowly realizes he wants to kill himself as well. They nearly attempt suicide...but they get saved by perfect timing of the saviors and get rescued. The protog attempts suicide a second time near the end of the story, but doesn't die either. It's a rather silly story with a serious undertone, or a serious story with a silly undertone. It probably depends on your point of view.

I don't think it's really worth reading if you are just interested in the suicide arc, because it's not as focused at this, as it is with the severe social withdrawal of the protag, but I got reminded of that Manga, when I read your post about the first book.

Thanks for the suggestion!
I actually found the novel online. Does the novel have the suicide pact arc as well?

As for the Manga, do you remember which volume of the manga has the suicide pact arc?

 

[failure383]

Thanks for the suggestion!
I actually found the novel online. Does the novel have the suicide pact arc as well?

As for the Manga, do you remember which volume of the manga has the suicide pact arc?

You're welcome.
The original novel is exclusively about the protagonists life as a social recluse and a girl, who on surface pretends like he wants to help him out of his miserable situation, but then has her own set of problems, trauma and so on. For better or for worse, all those side arcs, were added only in the manga (beside the suicide pact arc, there was an pyramid scheme scam arc and video game addiction arc).

I think the suicide pact arc, begins in chapter 7 or 8, which should be both volume 2.

 

[daley]

You're welcome.
The original novel is exclusively about the protagonists life as a social recluse and a girl, who on surface pretends like he wants to help him out of his miserable situation, but then has her own set of problems, trauma and so on. For better or for worse, all those side arcs, were added only in the manga (beside the suicide pact arc, there was an pyramid scheme scam arc and video game addiction arc).

I think the suicide pact arc, begins in chapter 7 or 8, which should be both volume 2.

I read the first two volumes of the manga. It's a bit different than you described. It's extremely quirky.
The English translation has some issues, so I am not sure I understood everything correctly.
Anyway, here is how I understood the plot.

The protagonist Satou, meets a girl who was his senior at high-school. She has her own problems.
She convinces him to go on vacation with her. He doesn't even know that there are supposed to be
other people along with them, and definitely doesn't know about it being a suicide pact.

At the train station they meet three other people who join them on the vacation. They arrive
at a private island owned by one the participants. Satou tries to have fun, but the others
are moody and uncooperative.

They gather in a tent with a grill in order to CTB by Carbon Monoxide. Satou is
finally informed that this is a suicide pact. Each of the three people talk about their
reasons to suicide, but one by one they regret it. The girl Satou came with gets
a phone call that she is getting married, so she becomes very happy.

Satou is depressed that he lost the girl, and he decides to CTB. They all exit the
tent leaving him the only one inside, but when he loses consciousness they take him
out and leave the island with him.

I have never read a manga before. I guess that for a manga, this is a very serious
story, but it is still told in a very quirky, over the top, manner. I cannot even decide
whether this is pro-choice or not. The discussion between the participants includes
a lot of pro-choice arguments, but at the end, nobody exits, implying that they did
not think things through.