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Dec 04, 2011

Nancy rated it:

Suicide Notes has 45 chapters, each one representing a day in the life of 15-year-old Jeff, who is in the psychiatric ward of a hospital after his suicide attempt on New Year’s Eve.

Trust me; this story is not nearly as depressing as it sounds.

Jeff is quick, witty, sarcastic, and absolutely hilarious as he manages to evade any “real” discussion with his psychiatrist, Dr. Katzrupus, also known as Cat Poop, about what made him try to kill himself.

During his More...

21 comments like (40 people liked it)

Jul 16, 2011

Wendy Darling rated it:

Believe it or not, this is actually a really funny book. You wouldn't think so based on the title and the subject, but 15-year-old Jeff will have you laughing out loud throughout his story. He's in a mental hospital because he tried to slit his wrists on New Year's Eve, he's surrounded by kids who are clearly crazier than he is, and his doctor (nicknamed "Cat Poop") doesn't seem to understand that there's nothing wrong with him and won't leave him alone. Neither will the various patien More...

42 comments like (46 people liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Lisa O. rated it:

What struck me most about this book - and unsettled me, to be honest - is the brutality of it, sugarcoated by Jeff's self-deprecating irony, witticism and sarcastic outlook on adolescence. He is one of those characters I particularly appreciate in teen lit for their no-nonsense attitude, for just telling things how they are. An honest, non-emo voice.

The themes approached in this book are not light, despite seemingly narrated in a light-hearted way: teen suicide, familial dysfunction More...

5 comments like (21 people liked it)

Feb 16, 2009

Eric rated it:

Think, "Boy, Interrupted." Jeff slit his wrists, and now he's in the psych ward. He's got 45 days to process what he's going through, along with all the other whacked out kids that are in the ward with him.

Knowing the author, and the recommended blurbs on the back I could guess from the title what Jeff's motivation was to commit suicide. When I was his age I felt much the same thing. It's not very preachy, though the ending was a little too neat and tidy for me. You More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2009

Abby rated it:

On New Year's Day Jeff is taken to a psychiatric ward because he tries to kill himself. Jeff insists that he's not crazy - he doesn't see why everyone can't just get over it and leave him alone - but he's enrolled in a 45-day program at the hospital. He has to endure group therapy and sessions with Dr. Katzrupus (whom he nicknames Cat Poop). Jeff keeps insisting there's nothing wrong, but as his stay progresses and he gets to know some of the other kids on the ward Jeff just might start to figur More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 27, 2011

Cory marked it as to-read

I'm not so sure I care to read about angry gay boys (or angry, angsty teens who don't have serious problems but treat people like shit *cough* Will Grayson *cough*) but I'll give it a shot. Hopefully, it doesn't disappoint like Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You. And it can't be worse than The Vast Fields of Ordinary.

All I know is that I've never seen the angry gay rich white boy thing done right. More...

3 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2012

G rated it:

This is a great, great read with some sadness lurking below the dark humor. I thought it was killer!

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 23, 2011

Whitney rated it:

I chose this book because it got my attition. The genre of this book is Realaistic. Suicide notes take place in a metal hospital. Jeff tried to kill himself and his mom found him almost dead in his bathroom because there was blood all over the floor and outside the door and so his mom went and found him... he was put into the mental hospital for 45 days. Jeff is very friendly toward everyone. On new years jeff had drank at a party and did something really bad and so he went home and tried to kil More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 08, 2011

Isamlq rated it:

Jeff wakes up in hospital’s psychiatric ward and has to stay for a little under two months. We get to know him, laugh at then laugh with him a little bit more each day. This was just one thing I really liked about SN: Jeff is funny! He reminded me of House… snarky, sarcastic and standoffish. Now, Jeff plus a number of kids with issues of their own, was funnier still.

And while it did start out as funny, it didn’t get stuck there. It had depth; it had kids with "issues," w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 15, 2009

Barky rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 09, 2009

Susanne rated it:

Jeff is not crazy. Or that’s what he tells himself when he finds himself in the psychiatric ward of the hospital. He tried to kill himself by slitting his wrists, only he doesn’t say why. Jeff encounters the world of the ward, and watches himself and other teenagers in his group therapy sessions grow…or fall apart. He borders the fine line of crazy and just confused. You get to watch as Jeff struggles to admit why he tried to kill himself, and why Jeff is troubled. Along the way you meet a lot o More...

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Nov 21, 2011

Gaby rated it:

Suicide Notes by Michael Ford is about Jeff a fifteen year old who are going through a rough time. Since he was put in to a metal hospital with other teens his age. Yet he tends to believe nothing is wrong with him. Yet the bandages on his wrists clearly make him this is all a huge mistake. Jeff is perfectly fine, perfectly normal or so he thinks not like the other kids in the hospital with him. They’ve got problems. But has a Jeff’s forty-five-day sentence in the hospital and his doctor ( More...

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Mar 07, 2011

Bembo rated it:

Jeff wakes to find himself in hospital, and subsequently learns that he is in the psychiatric ward and that he his signed in for a 45 day stint. He admits he tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrists, but is reluctant to admit why he attempted it, not to his doctor, Dr Katzrupus, not to the other four teenage patients in his unit, and least of all to himself. Of course he is convinced there is nothing wrong with him, he is in the "nuthouse" by mistake, and he will be going home as More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 15, 2010

Terri rated it:

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Aug 03, 2010

Aaron rated it:

The novel opens with 15-year-old Jeff waking up and finding himself in the hospital. He is in the psychiatric ward, where he must stay for the next 45 days, because his parents found him after he tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists. The hope is that the stay will allow him to be stabilized enough to go home.

Jeff is a fun and snarky character, who brings the reader into the setting with fresh eyes. The novel is written in the form of a journal, where each chapter is a daily More...

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Apr 08, 2010

Savannah rated it:

I'm not a huge fan of books that talk right to the reader--the ones where the narration is straight out of the character's head. Mostly because that approach generally isn't done well. However, in this instance, it was well enough done that it wasn't that distracting to me (although I kept realizing how much my way of thinking has changed since I was the main character's age, and that's...odd). That alone merits one whole thumb up.

I've read plenty of teen-almost-suicides novels befo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 07, 2010

WillowBe rated it:

Loved it. Slow beginning, but stick with it. I felt a lot of empahty for the charactar and heart ache for his parents. Graphic sex scenes between boys with some obvious coercion in them. Also, frank discussion of suicide and mental illness. I bet real kids know about these issues by age 16 unless they are very sheltered or go to school in homogenous environments, like religious schools? I don't know any teens, so i am just guessing. I certainly knew about this kind of stuff by the time I was a s More...

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Jan 11, 2010

Amanda rated it:

A return to teen fiction after what seems like a long lapse. This is about a teen who tries to commit suicide, then wakes up and narrates 45 days in a psyche ward. At first he doesn't think he is crazy, and that the other kids there are very different from him. There are various group sessions with 4 other kids, and one on ones with the shrink known as cat poop. Jeff is sarcastic to the extreme, and a little brilliant. At one point in the stay, things start getting sexified. Jeff is talkin More...

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Dec 20, 2009

Thomas rated it:

Jeff isn't crazy. He isn't like all the nut jobs in the psych ward he finds himself in. He doesn't use drugs to get high, and he doesn't have an eating disorder that makes him throw up his latest meal every ten seconds. However, he does have bandages covering his wrists like a mummy and he does recall getting into an argument with his best friend Allie, and he's pretty sure it had something to do with her boyfriend Burke. While Jeff spends the next forty-five days in the hospital under a special More...

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

May 27, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

Reviewed by JodiG. for TeensReadToo.com

Jeff is fifteen years old, from a good family, and he's just woken up in the psychiatric ward of the hospital.

Over the next month and a half he will take part in group therapy, individual counseling, and even those excruciating sessions with his family. And through all of this, everyone will realize that he didn't really mean to kill himself. Right? It was just a misunderstanding.

His group therapy sessions aren't his favo More...

0 comments like

Apr 22, 2009

Sherrie rated it:

Following a failed suicide attempt, 15 year old Jeff finds himself confined to a psychiatric hospital for 45 days. The book is written in diary format as Jeff counts the days of his time there. He is surrounded by other teens on various points in their stay, who come and go as their sentences end or they are forced to leave for other reasons. Throughout the book, the reasons for Jeff's suicide attempt are slowly unraveled and the book ends in a satisfying but not overly neat way- nothing is w More...

0 comments like

Mar 01, 2011

Flannery rated it:

It feels a little weird to say that I felt a book about a 45-day program in a juvenile psychiatric unit was really funny. But it was—in parts. This book, written in journal entries from day one of the program until the last day, focuses on Jeff’s evaluation of why he tried to kill himself. His voice is reminiscent of Holden Caulfield, only he doesn’t call everyone phonies—just whackjobs.

Jeff introduces us to the other young adults in the unit, some of whom come and go during his stay. More...

4 comments like (26 people liked it)

Aug 24, 2011

Sandy rated it:

Being young is all about finding out who you are. It is a time of choices, both conscious and otherwise. The path to self discovery is hardly ever a smooth one, a fact Jeff knows all too well in Michael Thomas Ford’s new novel, “Suicide Notes”. In his novel Ford delves into repercussions faced by fifteen year old Jeff after his attempted suicide. It’s a novel about learning to come to terms with your own identity, the realization that we are not so different from each other, and finding solace i More...

0 comments like

May 18, 2011

Kcbon rated it:

This book gets a very good rating from me but I was disappointed by the deceptive title. The book is about a very humorous 15 year old boy named Jeff who doesn't divulge his major secrets until you've read 3/4 of the book. The book could've been apply named "Gay boy in denial". But the author was very clever in choosing this title because I probably wouldn't have read it, had it been titled Gay boy. I didn't really know how to react when I got to the sexually graphic part where there w More...

0 comments like

Mar 26, 2010

Leslie rated it:

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0 comments like

Jun 30, 2009

Liberty rated it:

Jeff, age 15 is admitted to a 45 day program in the mental ward for attempting suicide. His character is very witty and he looks at things in his own way. He also doesn't see the problem with what he did. The book centers around his thoughts and relationships with the other teens in the program with him and leads up to the reasons why he did what he did. I love the relationship that slowly develops with his therapist.
Suicide is a very serious subject but I think this book handled it very well. T More...

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Jan 25, 2012

Hannah rated it:

Gotta say, I loved this book. EDespite the topic, it was witty and fun to read, without subtracting from the drama of the situation.
Maybe the only thing I would change about this book was, there wasn't really a lot of information. Like, nothing about what exactly the pills were, and Jeff(main character) never asked about it. If I was locked up and someone gave me a cup of pills to take, I would ask them exactly what the hell they were before I took them. Also, Rankin got sent to the hospi More...

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Jan 03, 2011

Laura (All of Everything) rated it:

So I liked this book. Alot. We first find the main character Jeff waking up in the psych ward of the hospital. He's convinced there's been a huge mistake and he doesn’t belong there with the 'crazies' and thus refuses to cooperate with any of the nurses or his psychiatrist Dr. Katzrupus, whom he nicknames Cat Poop for the duration of the book. Despite this lack of cooperation, Jeff must stay in the ward for 45 days with four other teenagers. It isn’t until a group therapy session that it’s ackno More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

che rated it:

I'm a fan of these YA-emo-suicide drama type of novels. But Suicide Notes didn't do it for me. I didn't connect to the characters (not that i'm suicidal myslef), I was just detached from the story. I couldn't feel bad for the characters. And then the (spoiler alert) gay plot just kinda came out of nowhere and it didn't quite tie up (emotionally) to the rest of the story. I did enjoy Jeff's sessions with the doc. His smart ass answers were hilarious.

"The Sugar Plum Fairy has take More...

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Jul 20, 2011

Jo rated it:

4.5 stars.

“It’s a really crappy feeling to realize that your entire outlook on your life can be controlled by some little pill that looks like a Pez, and that some weird combination of drugs can make your brain think it’s on a holiday somewhere really sweet when actually you’re standing naked in the middle of the school cafeteria while everyone is takes pictures of you. Metaphorically. Or whatever.”

High Points.
I actually choked with laughter on my panad at approxima More...

14 comments like (5 people liked it)

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