Eli Hagin can’t finish anything.
He hates his job, but can’t seem to quit. He doesn’t want to be with his girlfriend, but doesn’t know how end things with her, either. Eli wants to write a novel, but he’s never taken a story beyond the first chapter.
Eli also has trouble separating reality from fiction.
When his best friend kills himself, Eli is motivated, for the first time in his life, to finally end something himself, just as Mike did…
Except sessions with his therapist suggest that Eli’s most recent ‘first chapters’ are not as fictitious as he had intended … and a series of text messages that Mike received before his death point to something much, much darker…
It's my pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for Suicide Thursday today. Many thanks to Will Carver, Orenda Books and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for my advance copy of the novel.
For some time after my brother's death, I avoided reading books that dealt with the subject of suicide and even now, I'm not sure I would have read Suicide Thursday if it had been written by anybody other than Will Carver. In all honesty, it was a difficult read at times and I would urge caution before reading it. Certain scenes – particularly the funeral – hit very hard and mirrored some of my own emotions and feelings. However, I don't want to read books that just wash over me, I want to feel something, even if that something is painful and so although I don't seem to have started this review on an especially positive note, Suicide Thursday is another exceptional read from an author I have absolute trust in.
The timeline alternates between the days before and after Mike's death but although his suicide forms the backdrop to the story, this novel is really about Eli, who, unlike Mike, struggles to end anything. He resents the mundanity of his job but his mocking pity of his supervisor, Sam also reflects his fear that he will eventually end up trapped on the same treadmill. Meanwhile, his relationship with his long-term girlfriend, Jackie appears to be just as stagnant but despite constantly intending to end things with her, he never seems to be able to take that final step. It's fitting, therefore, that Eli is a frustrated author who pens endless first chapters but is seemingly incapable of progressing any further.
He coins the term, 'fruproyance' to express his combination of frustration, depression and annoyance and even though he incessantly plans to proactively change something in his life, his therapist is actually imaginary. His perception of fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred by his emotional state and concomitant alcohol intake; in short, he is a bit of a mess and a rather exasperating character. Of course, it's these shortcomings which make him so real. Surely most of us question the direction our lives take at some point or another, particularly in a society which ostensibly values individualism but which really demands conformity?
Will Carver's caustic observation of the futile-by-design sanctimony of modern life is reflected further by Mike's inertia as he watches an interminable diet of daytime television shows which judge the behaviour of those they hypocritically rely on for content, and in Jackie's need to seek redemption through religion even though she lies during confession. As provocative as the themes may be – and this is as piercing as I've come to expect from this author – Suicide Thursday is often very funny and I loved the customary little nods to previous books, as well as Twin Peaks. It's also not without hope or compassion towards those left behind, and as apparently paradoxical as suicide being the catalyst for beginnings as well as endings may be, this is an intelligent, insightful book. It is a raw, uncompromising look at a difficult topic and the descriptions of death and sex, and the attitudes expressed throughout – including some text messages which are at best horribly insensitive and at worst, potentially complicit in Mike's decision to end his life – are likely to offend some readers. However, Will Carver never takes the easy, comfortable route and instead uses fiction like a rapier, deliberately goading us into really considering our reactions to these complex, challenging subjects. Consequently, Suicide Thursday is compelling, dark, unpredictable, totally original and, of course, completely brilliant.
Suicide Thursday will be published by Orenda Books on 24th November 2022 and can be purchased directly from their website, from bookshop.org, Hive, Waterstones, Kobo, Amazon or from your favourite independent bookshop.
Follow the blog tour, details are below.
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Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series and the critically acclaimed, mind-blowingly original Detective Pace series that includes Good Samaritans (2018), Nothing Important Happened Today (2019) and Hinton Hollow Death Trip (2020), all of which were ebook bestsellers and selected as books of the year in the mainstream international press. Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for both the Goldsboro Books Glass Bell Award 2020 and the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for Guardian‘s Not the Booker Prize. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his children.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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