Set in the not-too-distant future, Rachel Heng's debut novel imagines the human race as finally having unlocked the capabilities to extend our existence to 300 years, and close to unlocking the secret to eternal life. With their fake skin, fake blood, harvested organs and carefully managed images, the "lifers" are almost humanoid in their merging of biotech and human flesh.
Against this image of perfection is a harsher world of misaligned people - who got various body hacks on the black market, and for whom the future is a certain long, drawn out torturous death as various parts start to fail, but the heart and/or brain continue to keep them alive. For them the Suicide Club offers hope in the form of escape from this forced existence in broken bodies. Even suicide isn't as easy as it used to be due to reinforced windpipes, tougher self-healing skin, blood that coagulates quickly, etc. However self-immolation and death by "black pills' are potential ways out.
The story centers around a lifer, Lea Kirino, who at first glance seems to have it all - handsome fiance, amazing home, excellent well-remunerated job, etc etc. However, when she thinks she sees her long-lost father on a street and gets involved in a road traffic accident chasing after him, she finds herself on the monitored list for attempted suicide, which in turns triggers the unraveling of her perfect world and a spectacular downfall into the world of Suicide Club and the more rebellious underground of the world she inhabits.
From start to finish this is a great read. For all the book's futuristic leanings, Heng creates highly believable scenarios, populated with relatable characters and a narrative that can be enjoyed far beyond the core sci-fi fanbase. Lea makes an unlikely heroine with her spectacular fall from grace surprisingly enjoyable - maybe that's just because I've always been very wary of perfect people! For a futuristic biotech world, the story has a lot of heart, in the familial love between Lea and her father, and the memories that this evokes, as well as more peripheral characters whose story arcs intersect with the pair of them.
For a debut novel, this is a hugely accomplished piece of work. Hugely recommended. I can't wait to see what Heng comes up with next!

Really great concept and authentic characters. Enjoyed the way the book switched between the two characters - turned it into a real page turner.

DNF at 20%.

I got a fifth of the way through this book and there isn't a defined plot yet. It's so slow and there is absolutely no world building. I only knew people could aim for immortality because of the blurb. I can't remember who the main character is, but she was deathly boring.

Please note that this book is not for me - I have read the book, and because i do not like to give negative reviews I will not review this book fully - there is no specific reason for not liking this book. I found it a struggle to read and did not enjoy trying to force myself to read this book.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused and thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

I really enjoyed Suicide Club. The main characters of Lea, Anya and Kaito were intriguing and interesting, they had depth and complexity and they grew and developed satisfyingly. While the novel addresses themes suggested by the title and blurb, for me the most significant aspect of the narrative is the exploration of the relationships between Lea and her father and Anya and her mother, distorted as they were by loss. This I found touching and profound. And I loved the ending. An excellent piece of writing.

I tried really hard with this one but I just could not get through it. Really wanted to like it, but sadly not really for me. The writing just didn’t work & I found it quite dull.

Going to be honest I read 55% of this. However, I feel that I have enough of an understanding to give an honest review. I found this very meh and whilst the premise was interesting at the beginning, I could not care about it. The premise sounds super cool and Heng did not deliver this. I did like the characterisation that she had and felt that the relationship that created between Lea and her father was done really well. I might retry this book at a later date as an audiobook and see if my opinion changes but for now, i'm not super sold on it.

The world building of this novel is really fantastic (although I have read reviews that point out small flaws, they didn’t hit me whilst I was reading it, which is what matters) and the story is built around an intriguing concept that raises a lot of personal and ethical questions. Whilst playing with the extreme, as science fiction tends to do, this world doesn’t feel so far away from our own, where an obsession with youth and beauty, and a pursuit of longer lives is already a central concern, so it was fun to think through what it would mean to take that to the next level.

This is very much a character-driven, rather than a plot-driven novel; there are some interesting twists and turns, especially with Lea’s character and backstory, although I also found the secondary character of Anja, whose mother is stuck in limbo after being the first to test new life-lengthening technologies, which have gone wrong and left her technically, but not literally, dead. At times, I did struggle to maintain interest as the plot meandered around before getting to the point, but there were some beautifully written and moving passages and on the strength of this debut, I’m excited to see what Rachel Heng does next.

This was.... an interesting read.
The premise is really interesting, in a futuristic world, humans can drastically expand their life span with technology and a heavily regimented lifestyle.

Lea is one of the 'lucky' ones who is eligible for these enhancements, but they come at a price.

Anja is also eligible, but has sympathy for those who want to die naturally.

Over the course of the book, the two come together and Lea's beliefs are changed forever.

As a concept, it's incredibly interesting, and poignant in the current age of technology. However, I found that the world the author had created was so unlike our own that I would have liked more description around it, how it came to be etc. I also think that the characters could have done with a bit more development. There were parts that touched on deep, complex areas of the characters, only to be forgotten and never returned to again. I think the author could have spent more time exploring these characters and their histories.

Overall, it was a good read, and I would recommend it to others as a general curiosity of a read, but it wasn't as groundbreaking as it could have been.

Set in the future -About the possibility of immortality -How a few get chosen for the option.
The story behind this makes you think about your own immortality -it made me think about my own health and wellbeing
Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest, unbiased review.

another wonderful dystopian style novel which bewitches the mind and ensnares the sense. A truly wonderful tale- which will captivate an extensive audience. Thoroughly thrilling...highly imaginative and lovely linguistic combinations which compliment her original choice of tale and characters. Well written, and very much enjoyed.. I would highly recommend reading this novel.

Set in a future version of New York where "enhancements" allows some people to achieve much longer lifespans than is natural, a woman must choose between her family and immortality. Full of questions about contemporary issues, including cosmetic surgery, assisted suicide and medical technology, this fast-paced but thoughtful speculative fiction examines the value of life -- and death.

Rachel Heng's debut, Suicide Club, is set in a world where longevity is valued above all else. Lea, our central character, already has a predicted lifespan of three hundred years, and is hoping that if she does everything right, she can become part of the first group of 'Immortals'. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when she bumps into her fugitive father and is put under Observation for being 'antisanct', or not 'life-loving' enough. As Lea tries to work out why this is happening to her, she's drawn into the world of the Suicide Club, a group of people who publicly take their own lives to expose what they see as the horror of living forever, and meets Anja, whose mother's body has broken down even as her mechanical heart keeps on beating.

This is obviously a concept-driven novel, but unfortunately, I found that Suicide Club was more interested in short-term intrigue than in believable worldbuilding. It touches on some of the issues raised by Mark O'Connell's wonderful To Be A Machine, but fails to think with any seriousness about the wider implications of the world it imagines. To suggest just a few possibilities: what does this do to ideas about age, and what it means to be a fourteen-year-old, a thirty-five-year-old, a seventy-year-old? The novel tells us that formal education now lasts much longer, but doesn't even attempt to consider how ideas of life stages might have changed in consequence. Has women's (and men's) fertility been extended alongside their lifespan, or must childbearing be crammed into what must feel like a much smaller window - and is this why the birth rate has dropped? Why are certain people selected for life extension therapies while others are not? (The novel suggests this has something to do with money and connections, but doesn't tie up the loose thread.) Other details - such as the idea of a 'stock exchange' in human organs - are clearly dropped in for pure shock value. Why would such a stock exchange be needed in a society that can build hearts from scratch?

Suicide Club also falls into the very familiar dystopian trap of making its futuristic world utterly miserable, refusing to suggest that there might be anything better about the society it imagines. Even when Lea notes that work days are now kept strictly to nine to five, because overwork was identified as a key driver of ill health, Heng has her reminisce about all-nighters spent at the office and the camaraderie this built with her co-workers. Really? This leads to the uncomfortable glorifying of the Suicide Club, and the ultimate hammering home of the message that living forever is a Bad Thing. Again, O'Connell's questioning approach to such a topic is absent. Living three hundred miserable years because you can't enjoy anything for fear it might make you unwell may be undesirable. Living indefinitely (there's no suggestion that becoming Immortal means it is impossible for you to ever end your life), presumably with far less restrictions, does not seem to necessarily be a bad thing. Suicide Club wants to tell us that our obsessions with exercise, health food, sleep and dieting are wrong (fair enough), but it does this against the background of a society that's so different from ours that this message no longer makes any sense. Two and a half stars.

This had all the elements of my kind of book; futuristic, slightly medical, missing people etc; and I was so excited to read it. I started off really into the book but unfortunately, my interest waned and I ended up feeling frustrated. The plot was excellent, clever, unusual, subversive and well delivered. I think the problem was I didn't connect with Lea or Anja. I found them both incredibly weird and not in a fascinating way, in an irritating way. Also, for me personally, (and this is obviously a very individual thing), the thought of immortality is an anathema and I found reading about people being desperate for it a genuine turn off. In fact, for me, it was almost a horror story, living forever being a cruel and unusual punishment for some heinous crime! I did think that the writing was good, so I will definitely read more by Rachel Heng.

When I requested Suicide Club it appealed because it was different. When my request was approved I just didn’t feel ready to read it. It felt like I needed to be in the mood. I was wrong, its an incredibly positive book about human behaviour.
A story about people who live longer, chasing immortality, but not everyone is on board. In a world where cuts heal to quickly to bleed out and organs can be replaced, can you really die? The not so secret suicide club is a movement trying to remind people that you have a right to die.
The people who control everything want perfect health. That’s how you survive longer, make more money. It’s almost like a cult. You don’t eat food like meat, its not good for you. Just nutritional pouches. You don’t run because its bad for your muscles. You have a weekly maintenance check up making sure you re okay, doing everything right. And, if they think you ve tried to hurt yourself you have to attend counselling session and are put on a watch list. You are observed. Everywhere. Even music is controlled, some music can be damaging and shouldn’t be listened to.
Lea is perfect. Perfect job, perfect fiancé, perfect stats. She loves life, and cant wait for the Third Wave when they re closer to immortality. Suddenly everything changes. She shes her father, the man who walked out on them 80 years ago. Is it really him – next thing she knows shes in hospital.
This is when her perfect life changes, and the future she had planned disappears.
Despite the morbid topic of suicide being the main story in the book, its really heartwarming, and relatable. Yes the storys set in a near future New York, but it doesn’t feel like its much different than today. Instagram is a brilliant example of botox, plastic surgery, nips tucks and fillers people put themselves through, Just look at the Geordie Shore cast, or Heidi Pratt for evidence, of people trying to live their perfect life, with their perfect body; And all while showing them that their life is better because they have money. This is a book that should be on everyones reading list.

The world building in this book is fantastic - Rachel Heng paints such a clear picture of the not-too-distant-future, I found myself thinking about it a lot when I wasn't reading it. The concept is fascinating - that in the future, our bodies will be so enhanced by genetic modifications that we can't die... even if we want to. The characters were well drawn and intriguing, although I did think it lost its way a little at the very end.

This book has a great premise - in the not-too-distant future, medical technology has advanced to the extent that, for some, lifespans have increased to 100+ years, and immortality is in reach. Lea is a 'lifer', dedicated to her health and following every government protocol in order to extend her life. Her father, who had disappeared when she was a child, suddenly returns to her life, and his reappearance launches Lea into an underworld she was previously unaware of - people who reject immortality and artificially extending life. The Suicide Club.

So it is a striking and original premise, but it didn't quite pay off for me. The author has crafted a detailed and complicated world, but I found that not quite enough of this world was explained for me to really make sense of it. Perhaps the author didn't want to get bogged down in lots of details at the expense of the story, but I think a little more background would have helped me to get more from the book. I didn't really understand what made some people 'lifers' and some people not - it seemed to be to do with wealth, but then perhaps you become wealthy through being a lifer. Also character frequently referred to being 'given a number', but again ,it was unclear where the number came from. I also didn't understand enough about how this new world had come about, or indeed the origins and ultimate aim of the suicide club.

The parts that were given a lot of attention really shone for me - the complicated character Anja, the tedious and Kafka-esque goverment red tape Lea finds herself caught up in when under observation, Lea's deliberation over whether to purchase a mango. So perhaps it's a sign of what a compelling world the author had built that I wish she had just told us a little more about it. Definitely worth a read.

The Suicide Club is an interesting read. It's primarily a dystopic story describing a future where society has become obsessed with the desire for longevity. The rules and regulations laid down by the government in relation to health and well being seem like a possible extension of the advice we receive now and this makes the book quite believable. The story also contrasts the lives of two women caught up in this very strict regime and this makes it more interesting for me as the reader gets to know and understand their viewpoints and their life choices.

I'd say that this book would make a good television series or possibly a movie.

This books was a fantastic read and had me hook from beginning till the end.

I was very intrigued by the blurb before reading and so glad I had a chance to read an advance copy from NetGalley.

The blurb here really drew me in, and the premise really interested me so I was very excited when I was approved for a review copy from Netgalley, however the execution here left something to desire.
Despite being quite a fan of dystopian novels the world that is created here did not hit home. I'm not sure what it was exactly that turned me off this book, and I am far for qualified enough to critique, but by the time I had reached 80% I just wanted it to be finished with. The story and premise were interesting enough to keep me reading, but in the end I'm a little sorry I kept going, which is sad considering how much I was looking forward to reading it.
So unfortunately this one did not hit the right notes for me, but maybe if you are a fan of sci-fi / dystopia it might be right down your street.