J. Michael Straczynski

Together We Will Go

"Nick Hornby meets Chuck Palahniuk in this powerful, provocative, and heartfelt epistolary novel from New York Times bestselling and award-winning author J. Michael Straczynski. Life has other plans for a group of strangers who want to end it all on a cross-country road trip, but then bond in ways they never could have imagined"--

Brian Walborn

J. Michael Straczynski's Together We Will Go is a surprisingly heartwarming, funny, and brilliant meditation on a very serious topic- suicide and the mindset that precedes it. Together We Will Go focuses on a group of people intent on ending their lives by driving cross country to drive off a California cliff. This story has no business working, but it does so exceedingly well. Don't let the conversational tone and banter fool you, for this is a dark yet ultimately touching tale that exposes the humanity in all of us. The style was engaging and the pacing full throttle. No cliches in the character development here.
If I have one critique, it would be for the designer of the Betty Crocker style font cover. Not sure if it's a true reflection of the content, but I almost passed this one by. On the other hand, the cat hooked my interest as I was puzzled how it would weave into the narrative, so perhaps there's some marketing or designer genius at work here affecting my subconscious. No idea. In full disclosure, I own a cat and sometimes daydream of her early demise for I find her catness at times offensive. This novel showed me I can even have empathy for cats, who knew.
I was relieved this novel included the suicide prevention hotline number as I was worried some would see this as glorifying suicide. It does nothing of the sort. If anything, Together We Will Go shows us that we are most human when we have free will and community with others. There is bravery in togetherness and living our authentic selves. 
I give this a five-star review.

Emma-Leigh Pedder

I want to start by saying this usually is not a book I would usually pick up. I tend to shy away from more heavy subject matter and I know a lot of others do too, but this book had such an interesting premise I decided to give it a shot. I’m so glad I did.

The book focuses on an unlikely group of people brought together with one goal - to end their life. The book itself was told with mixed media through journal entries, emails, audio recording scripts, and texts. I thought this was such a clever writing device and allowed a lot of freedom for the author to explore different levels of the passengers’ thoughts and emotional states. The audio recordings in particular were a clever way to capture action-packed scenes or conversations, and not something I’d come across before in a book.

What surprised me most about this book was how many funny, charming and beautiful moments I found here. I’m not sure what I was expecting - I knew it would be an emotional rollercoaster, and it certainly delivered, but it also made me smile and made me happy many times throughout. The relationships formed between the passengers were beautiful to read, and hearing from so many points of view was fascinating. I think that was the point of this novel - to show that suicidal intent comes from all different places, and by hearing every individual story and every reason, I really felt I took something with me from reading it. 

This is definitely not a book for everyone. It took me a little longer to read than usual as I had to put it down a few times, but I would highly recommend it to anyone wishing to open their minds more on the subject of mental health.

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the ARC ❤

I want to start by saying this usually is not a book I would usually pick up. I tend to shy away from more heavy subject matter and I know a lot of others do too, but this book had such an interesting premise I decided to give it a shot. I’m so glad I did.

The book focuses on an unlikely group of people brought together with one goal - to end their life. The book itself was told with mixed media through journal entries, emails, audio recording scripts, and texts. I thought this was such a clever writing device and allowed a lot of freedom for the author to explore different levels of the passengers’ thoughts and emotional states. The audio recordings in particular were a clever way to capture action-packed scenes or conversations, and not something I’d come across before in a book.

What surprised me most about this book was how many funny, charming and beautiful moments I found in this book. I’m not sure what I was expecting - I knew it would be an emotional rollercoaster, and it certainly delivered, but it also made me smile and made me happy many times throughout. The relationships formed between the passengers were beautiful to read, and hearing from so many points of view was fascinating. I think that was the point of this novel - to show that suicidal intent comes from all different places, and hearing every individual story and every reason, I really felt I took something with me from reading it. 

This is definitely not a book for everyone. It took me a little longer to read than usual as I had to put it down a few times, but I would highly recommend it to anyone wishing to open their minds more on the subject of mental health.

Together We Will Go

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