I wanted to like this SF story with a great premise a little more than I did.

It is the near future and soon after birth children are weighed up to see who is deemed good enough to 'live forever' and get the medication and new organs that can postpone death almost inevitably.

Lea has been ambling along in this near-utopia for over a hundred years, until the Suicide Club starts delivering videos that show shocking deaths - people doing whatever it takes to kill themselves in a world where it's very hard to do so. The return of a loved one triggers some unusual behaviour from her, to the point where she's constantly being monitored by the authorities.

Meanwhile Anja is sitting with her mum who is near-death apart from a heart that keeps on beating - this is something that can happen when new organs are 'misaligned' so that one part keeps going long after the others have failed. A miserable state of affairs.

Once the two women's paths cross, anything could happen....

Only it doesn't really. This is still a story worth reading and it's a good character study of both Lea and Anja but for me it had a couple of problems. One that I didn't feel the worldbuilding was quite deep enough - I didn't completely believe in this future. And two, I didn't particularly like Lea, who seemed more like a teenage girl than a woman of one hundred years, who has surely had time before this to question the status quo? It doesn't help that the new things we learn about her just make her more unlikeable. Was she supposed to be a sociopath? I wasn't sure, and that's why I wished we could spend more time with Anja, who's plight I could better understand.

Suicide Club is still a fascinating read. For me personally, I felt it was more of a great premise than a great story, but I suspect plenty will think otherwise.

Imagine a world where you could live forever. In the world depicted in Suicide Club by Rachel Heng, this is a reality. By eating the right things, doing the right sort of exercise (not running, running is baaaaad) and keeping your body maintained with replacement organs, skin which heals itself and perfect blood you can live to 300 or even forever if you tick the right boxes. Lea is an overachiever, she works in commodities (body parts rather than stocks and shares), is very good at her job, lives in a beautiful apartment and is top of the list for immortality. Her future is pretty much set, that is until she sees her father on the street one day, which in isolation doesn’t sound an odd thing, it’s just that he has been missing for decades and is wanted by the authorities. She tries to follow him but steps out in front of a car setting in motion a number of events that cause carnage in her perfectly ordered world.

This is a sci-fi dystopian novel which explores huge themes such as immortality, suicide and loyalty. You see, not everybody wants to live forever. The New York depicted in Suicide Club is one where people are closely watched, behaviours are monitored and some inhabitants want to take back control. Lea’s close shave with a car leads her to being closely watched by the Ministry and having to attend therapy. It is here that she meets classical violinist Anja who is in many way the exact opposite of Lea.

I really liked reading about both Anja and Lea although I am not sure if I liked either of them. I found Lea the most interesting of the two and Rachel Heng has created a wonderful multi-layered and complex woman who is revealed to us in increments via flashbacks to her back story. She is complicated and not quite the vacuous robot that she immediately appears to be and as time goes on we see more of Lea and her motivations become clear. Rachel Heng uses Lea to raise some interesting questions about the trade-off required for long life as it is only as Lea lets go of the constraints she has built into her life that she starts actually starts to live.

In contrast Anja’s plight is a sad one – her mother is dying but the heart she has been given is set to beat for another 50 years and her body will not shut down. Whilst Lea lives within the rules Anja is happier to bend them and even break them and it is their meeting at therapy which unlocks something within Lea. I really enjoyed their relationship and the faltering steps they both take to let one another into their very different worlds.

Where Rachel Heng really excels is the incredible world building she creates. This is a New York that is at once both recognisable and unrecognisable. A city where most inhabitants live in a towering buildings and the outskirts are inhabited by those who cannot afford the technology to give them new organs and special skin that heals. There is an overarching aura of darkness and dread in this New York and at times I felt an ominous spectre looming over the horizon. Excellent stuff.

This was an unusual and clever read which, although it sounds quite dark, is quite life-affirming. It has a very different premise which is brilliantly executed and I would highly recommend it.

Really interesting premise. The story kept me interested throughout and makes you think about what if? I would recommend this to anyone that likes a touch of Sci Fi, with an element of thriller thrown in for good measure!

As a fan of dystopian books I was excited to read this - the premise of this story is very different to the usual books in this genre by addressing the issue of immortality. It really got me thinking about what might be possible in the future.... One slight negative of this was that I really struggled to build up a picture in my mind of what the character Lea looked like and how to pitch her age: was she young or old, or a mixture of both? Because of this I did find I struggled in the first half of the book to relate to the characters but then the storyline took hold and I found myself eagerly picking up my kindle to discover the outcome of Lea's journey. Full of heartbreaking moments and self discovery alongside a lovely story of discovering new friendships and a rekindled father and daughter relationship. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys this genre

This book is a brilliant exploration of life, family ties and human desires. I picked it up based on the blurb,, though it turned out to be a remarkably different book to what I thought it would be. Poignant and uplifting, one of the best books I have read so far in 2018.

This is a really thought provoking and poignant exploration of what it means to live forever...and what it means when you don't want to. It tells the intertwining stories of Lea and Anja, two women who have the potential to become immortals in the government sanctioned third wave of life extension. When Lea's estranged father comes back into her life, her regimented existence takes a turn away from the expected. Firstly, this was a much quieter novel than I anticipated. It is very character driven and there is some fantastic world building, but the plot is definitely secondary. Once I realised this, I could enjoy the book on a completely different level. The prose is beautiful and the emotional depth to the characters is really well drawn. The world Heng has created here is truly terrifying and really drives home how important it is to live your own truth. All in all, this was a startling good debut and I look forward to seeing what the author comes up with next-albeit with trepidation at what horrors she will envision for us all!
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book has such a brilliant premise: in this future, immortality is within grasp, but only for those 'deserving' and as such suicide is illegal, anything that might be construed as bad for your health is illegal in fact. I found this idea of preservation of life being the most important thing even before individual happiness and fulfillment so very very brilliant. But I struggled with the execution to no end.

I did think that the world Rachel Heng has created here is interesting and developed in such a way that it never felt info-dumpy. But once you start pulling at the threads it does not really make sense. Innovation has led to a world where organs are augmented, skin can be built to be near indestructible, and science has found out the best ways to life long and healthy lives - but at the same time there are people who will not receive those treatments and it never did become clear to me how that works - I would have liked to have this dichotomy explored more: how is decided whose life if worthy enough to make their suicide illegal? There are infinite possibilities to make this a strong indictment on our current society and I would have loved the book more for it. There were other things that did not make sense for me: it never becomes clear how much in the future we are and as such I did not buy the fundamental changes in education that have occurred. It is a plot point that only those who have long life-spans can become medical doctors because the education takes 40 years - and I don't buy that. Why would anybody have to study for 40 years to be a good doctor? I don't think education would change this fundamentally. It irked me especially because I think another explanation would have worked far better: medical degrees are expensive, amongst the most expensive in fact (when considering how much a single student costs universities), so why not make the exclusion of people with shorter life spans about this?

My biggest issue, by far, was the main character, Lea. I found her to be less than convincing and unpleasant to spend time with. She is 100 years old and even if that is young in the scheme of her potential life span she is still more than three times as old as I am but she felt like she was 20, tops. I did not get her and the weird back story she had did not work for me either. She never felt her age and never felt like a person. I had this whole elaborate theory in fact that she might actually not be human because this would be the only way her behaviour makes any sense. Also, a petty problem I had with her: she kept sweating behind her knees whenever she was uncomfortable and if that doesn't scream 'weirdly programmed robot' then I don't know (I am sorry if I am the weird one and everybody is in fact sweating behind their knees).

The second main character, Anja, was so much more interesting and if the book had been told from her perspective I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more. Her mother was one of those whose bodies were used to test new procedures and now her heart keeps going even though she is brain-dead but she is not allowed to die because life is precious even though she might be stuck and suffering. This is such a creepy, brilliant concept that I would have loved to have seen explored more. But we spend so much more time with Lea than with Anja that this could not save the book for me.

So yes, I struggled with this, and I am super disappointed because the bones of this story are so brilliant.

Medical advances mean that people are now living to 300 years - and it looks as if the impossible dream of immortality is just round the corner. The government expect you to live life carefully, healthily and according to their edicts - so no running as it is bad for the joints, no cake and only a glass of wine a month. So whilst the idea of living forever might seem attractive it does depend on the conditions under which you are forced to live the life.

I loved the premise - particularly when it becomes apparent that some of the earlier medical interventions were faulty so people were dying but their body keeps on going. What do you do with your parent when it obvious that they are dead but their heart and lungs carry on functioning?

Unfortunately after having had this brilliant idea about the setting the author seems to have come a little stuck with what to do with the characters. At one point it all went a bit 1984 with what felt like the Secret Police following the main character. Then her father turns up - apparently he was wanted by the police - but he seemed to rent a flat and move around without being caught.

After an interesting introduction the 'Suicide Club' turned out to be a bit of a damp squib and disappeared from the plot fairly promptly. There was a lot of to-ing and fro-ing over how to die. One character is wrestling with what to do with her mother, whilst the father seemed to pick up some suicide pills with ease so I wasn't quite sure why it was such a problem., In the last chapter it took a turn for 'Thelma and Louise' as the two female characters drove off into the sunset where I hope they will be very happy for many years to come.

In the future you can be one hundred years ago and yet look barely fifty. It’s all thanks to innovations like Smart Blood and Diamond Skin. Alcohol is restricted, coffee is banned and meals consist of nutripacks or perhaps a “trad food” like a salad. The most popular mode of transport is walking. You might even live forever under the Third Wave of Maintenance but in a world where arts and music are forbidden, will you want to?

When Lea is accidentally hit by a car she finds that her life is suddenly under observation by the Ministry. She manages to infiltrate The Suicide Club, a group of people who have had enough of this endless life with little pleasure who revel in pleasures like eating meat and listening to jazz. Some ultimately choosing to end their life.

The Suicide Club is a very dark novel but I was fascinated with the world Heng has conjured. It’s like a nightmare stereotype of LA, people who all look a little similar, have perfect skin and hair, drink green healthy drinks and exercise all the time – because they’re not really allowed to do much else. None of the characters are desperately likeable but that doesn’t matter because the story really pulls you in and holds you there. Disturbing and compelling. Another one of those books that I’ll be thinking about for years.

The Suicide Club by Rachel Heng is out now.

Smart, original and packing a strangely emotive punch for a dystopian novel, this book follows a world close enough to our present that it's a freakish realistic future. In this future, people are more synthetic than human, with bodies that heal and lives designed to keep them living hundreds of years. But, truly, at the core of this novel is a story about a father and daughter, and their strained relationship during his disappearance for most of her life. Lea, the main character, is flawed and, at the start, hugely naïve, but becomes more endearing as the novel goes on. Though the 'Suicide Club' element of it doesn't play a huge part in the overall narrative, as much as being an underbeat to the novel. It's razor sharp in its writing style and makes you want to utterly devour each page. Perhaps not with wanting to know what happens next, but simply wanting to engross yourself further in this world. A fantastic debut by Rachel Heng that I highly recommend to anyone needing a fresh, new voice in fiction.

Brilliant & Interesting concept that sucks you right in!

In a world where it is possible to live forever, Lea has to decide whether she would rather choose death.

Such a loving and intriguing story. I could identify with Lea and whether living an eternal hollow life would be better than death? None of us (generally) want to die, so who would possibly choose to end their lives in this way? Well the "Suicide Club" for sure, who want to control where, when and how they die.

I had never really delved into the subject of wanted to die, or choose a death, but I think this novel dealt with the subject sensitively and practically, dealing with the emotions and knock-on effects from such a thing. Overall a very satisfying read.

Solid writing and a very promising debut by Heng.

The premise of this book intrigued me, and it raised a lot of interesting questions.

The book tells the story of both Lea and Anna, however it is mainly focused on Lea. She is a good character who had potential , however I didn’t think it was believable she had lived for 100 years. She seemed quite inexperienced and naive at times.

Overall, the book was not what I expected. It was not as thrilling as I’d hoped, and the story seemed to drag in parts. I think the author has some great potential as the writing was good, it just needed more tension.

Rachel Heng’s Suicide Club is a very millennial novel. (I can say this, because I’m a millennial.)
In a quietly dystopian future America, a genetic upper class live for hundreds of years (as long as they conform to strict rules on just about everything) and the rest of us live and die for the most part on the outskirts of the shining corporate oases cities have become.
It’s a particularly techno-capitalist brand of future. People take commercial car shares instead of buses. They eat ‘nutripaks’ instead of ‘trad food’. They live and work in shining glass skyscrapers and pay attention to their biometrics. The only thing that’s missing is the perpetual Insta showcase of these virtuous lives—but why would you need social media for that when it’s already the lynchpin of society?
Virtue’s the keyword. There’s been some buzz in the media recently about the worrying shape of the ‘clean eating’ movement. Heng extrapolates it to its worst extremity: to be ‘life-loving’—embracing the edicts of the Ministry—is to be virtuous, while to ignore those strictures is to be sinful, ‘antisanct’.
Our protagonist is Lea Kirino. Child of immigrants with high hopes for their daughter, Lea Kirino is a lifer—one of the (arguable) fortunates blessed with genes good enough to be given access to life-prolonging treatment, in the expectation that she will eventually marry and have children, passing on her good stock. But Lea has secrets she can’t let the Ministry (of course there’s a vague and sinister government body, this is a dystopia we’re talking about) know about. Her antisanct father is one.
Her father’s reappearance in Lea’s life is her unbalancing factor. Despite her outward perfection, Lea has always known: there’s something wrong with her. She’s always had this inclination toward violence, toward death, that she would do anything to free herself of.
Ultimately, Suicide Club proves to be a novel about how to live with death. At the risk of sounding inane, death is as much as part of being human as life. It’s not a final frontier for humanity to conquer, and it’s not evil. Lea’s tendency toward death proves her more alive, more human, than any of the beautiful, smoothie-drinking, corporate middle class she tries so hard to be part of. Heng’s vision of a techno-capitalist bubble founded on millennial ethics as totalitarian as the medieval Catholic church is so spot-on it’s terrifying.

Unfortunately didn't finish- although reading up to 77%

The start was perfect. Over a hundred years old and a dedicated lifer, Lea has an accident after seeing her longtime lost dad- and she cannot tell anyone about this. Because her dad is kind of a criminal. So the authorities think she was trying to kill herself by throwing herself under a car. And then she has to get inspected.

Then there is Anja, her once famous opera singer mum is hundreds of years old and bound to machines, and she's trapped in her own life as her mum's heart is trapped in hers. I won't lie- I found Anja's story far more poetic and beautiful. However the book is mainly about Lea.

These two's path intersect in a support group-ish session. Beyond this point the story became very boring, and uninteresting. Of course there is also the Suicide Club, with ties to Lea's dad, assisting people to kill themselves and somehow celebrating death rather than life.

I was astonished by the start and got myself ready for a dystopian sci-fi. However it didn't take long for it to transform into a story of these two women's lives and personal problems. We are introduced to tougher human bodies with technologies as Diamond skin, good-for-you lab food nutripacks, etc. But the world building unfortunately doesn't go beyond that.

After 77% I realised that I am no longer interested in what will happen. I wanted to like this book so much, as I think the subject is so promising and a great idea however it didn't work for me, such a shame. 2.5 stars rounding up to 3.

If you could live forever . . . would you?

Oh man! This premise is such a fascinating one and makes an incredible story. It also raises some provocative question about the human race, life, death and immortality. I always love it when an author is clever and creative enough to incorporate deeper topics into the narrative. I appreciate that sort of storyline - the ones that allow the exploration of big questions. I salute you for this brilliance, Ms Heng!

"Suicide Club" is a science fiction novel that is set in near-future USA. The population is in decline so to combat this people are strongly encouraged to live a super-healthy lifestyle and to get various different body enhancements and replacements. Those lucky enough to do these things are often able to live for over one-hundred years and are known as lifers. But those who aren't as fortunate live for under one-hundred years. As a result, they are classed and treated as second-class citizens and live and die just as us mortals do.

I think we can all agree that the concept is an intriguing one! I knew after reading the synopsis for the first time that I had to get my hands on a copy by whatever-means-necessary. The story follows two female characters through their deeply contrasting lives - Lea, a lifer, seems to have it all - A great job, a fiancee, and tries to live her life as close to perfection as possible - in order to do so she consults the governments directives. Then there's Anja, a classical violinist and who's mother is at death's door.

The contrast between the two main characters/protagonists is great and Heng is adept at developing her characters distinctive personalities. As the book progresses you get to know them both well. We learn about Lea and Anja's past experiences as they are relevant to the story that is being told here. Although the characters are a vital part of the book, I found that "Suicide Club" was definitely more concept-driven than anything else. I don't mind this and I don't blame Heng for writing it this way as the concept is such a magnetic one. As for the characters, they are all pretty unlikable in nature but I didn't mind that as it fit with the conceptual aspect of the book extremely well.

The pace of the book is fairly pedestrian and although this is the case throughout, there is plenty of intrigue to keep you reading and turning those pages right up until the finale. On the whole, I found it quite unpredictable which very much appealed to me. I was also pleasantly surprised that the writing was rather beautiful - Heng has a lovely style and I would definitely dive into another of her titles in the future. I don't think that this is touted as being part of a series but if that were the case I would have enjoyed the story continuing and developing further.

All in all, this is a well-executed and beautifully told story that I found pleasant to read. Maybe not as much as I would've liked but it was a great read nonetheless. What let it down a little was that it lacked the excitement necessary to make it unforgettable, I honestly don't know if it's likely i'll remember this book in a couple of months time. A slow-burning dystopian future that seems all too real (which is scary).

Many thanks to Sceptre for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

On the surface of it, there are many elements of the world in which Suicide Club is set that appeal.  Longer life spans, and with the technology to prevent and repair the wear and tear on our bodies, people can actually enjoy those extra years to the full, retaining their good looks and youthful vigour.  Work is strictly 9 ‘til 5, any longer hours seen as being stress-inducing and counter-productive to society.  It’s sounds ideal.  But dig a little a deeper, and, as with all great dystopian fiction, you find the price that people have had to pay to achieve this might outweigh the benefits.  Meat, alcohol, and sugar (even those naturally occurring in fruit) are all restricted if not banned outright, and real food is prepared less and less often with people often relying on nutritionally balanced “nutripaks” instead of trad(itional) cooking for sustenance.  There are restrictions on music, and oh so many directives to protect ourselves from any kind of potential damage.  This is a society that stops just short of literally wrapping its people in cotton wool, and I wonder whether all those extra years are worth it if you can’t enjoy all of the things that you might like to do.

At the outset of the novel, Lea is a model citizen.  She is healthy, exercises regularly, and takes care of herself in all of the prescribed ways (and there are MANY prescribed ways to take care of yourself).  Successful, she is being considered for promotion at work, and will be eligible for true immortality, rather than just long life, once available.  The only slight blip on her record is her father who left years ago and who is now considered “antisanct” or non-lifeloving – just about the worst thing you can be in this world.  But a small incident puts her on a watch list as someone with potential suicidal tendencies, and Lea’s eyes are opened to the realities of the world she lives in.  In some ways, Lea’s character is quite a difficult one, and I struggled to like her as I found her to be selfish, proud, and dismissive of others, although she is very much a product of her environment in this respect.  She is fascinating though, particularly as the reader gets to know more about her past, and the story was thoroughly engaging even if I didn’t love Lea’s character immediately.

With people living longer, there might be concerns around overall population figures and overcrowding, but in Suicide Club, the population figures are dwindling due to falling birth rates.  Why the birth rates were falling, and why the population was reducing so drastically wasn’t fully explored, and I would have liked to have understood this element of the world more fully.  There are a distinct lack of children in the novel, and I expect that with people living longer, they are able to put off having children for some time, focussing on their careers, friends, social lives etc. with having a family something to consider further down the line.

And then there’s suicide, which is the antithesis to this society.  With the technological advancements that enable us to live longer, it has become increasingly difficult to end your own life should you wish to do so.  Technology such as DiamondSkinTM (making our skin impervious to damage and healing rapidly) and SmartBloodTM protect us not only from our environment and those that would cause us harm, but also from ourselves.  Whilst this could be considered a good thing, for those who don’t want to live forever, having immortality forced upon them is unpalatable, and some are willing to resort to drastic measures to avoid this fate.  Of course, the Ministry – the mysterious power behind it all – don’t care about this.  What they care about are the population figures, which suicide reduces further. 

There are certain elements of dystopian novels that I always look out for, and one of those is a class structure.  I like to see how authors use the world they’ve developed to set some apart from others, and Heng does this really well in Suicide Club with life expectancy being the key differentiator.  At birth, everyone is given their number – their life expectancy, based upon their genetic make-up.  For people like Lea – “lifers” with significant age spans – it’s a ticket to the upper echelons of society, as opposed to the “sub 100s”.  I thought that this element of the novel was done brilliantly, and it works so well, with the lifers largely ignoring those beneath them, and everyone else feeling subservient to these near perfect beings.

I thoroughly enjoyed Suicide Club, and I loved the world in which it’s set and the way that Heng brought this to life.  The technological advancements sound wonderful in many ways, although how these are used would need to be considered carefully should such things come to pass.  This is a dark novel, and one that I highly recommended.

I found this a little hard to get through. I really could not get on with the protagonist and some of her choices/reactions but really it just felt a bit flat. It wasn’t bad and I loved the idea and the world building but it just felt a little lack lustre and seemed to lose itself. It may appeal to some but it personally wasn’t for me.

If your life can continue indefinitely but you have to live according to set rules is that really a life worth living. Heng explores the world where your genes and adherence to good practice can potentially mean you are immortal. But what are you missing out on? Interesting premise and a promising debut novel.

I struggled to get into this book, now whether that was down to it being a little out of my usual reading genres or my inability to connect with the main character I don’t know.
Once I got into it though I found it almost enjoyable, but not something I would recommend to others though.

In a near-future world, medical technology has progressed far enough that immortality is now within grasp -but only to those who show themselves to be deserving of it. These people are the lifers: the exercisers, yogacisers, green juicers and early nighters.

Genetically perfect, healthy and wholesome, one hundred-year-old Lea is the poster girl for lifers, until the day she catches a glimpse of her father in the street, eighty-eight years after their last encounter. While pursuing him, Lea has a brush with death which sparks suspicions. If Lea could be so careless, is she worthy of immortality?

Suicide Club wasn't always an activist group. It began as a set of disillusioned lifers, gathering to indulge in forbidden activities: performances of live music, artery-clogging meals, irresponsible orgies. But now they have been branded terrorists and are hunted by the state.

And Lea has decided to give them a call.

I really struggled to get into this book. Once I did, I kind of enjoyed it and thought it was just going to be a slow burner up until about the last third where it seemed to just run out of steam and ultimately found it hard to finish.
I loved the idea of this book and with the living age rising all the time, it raises a lot of interesting points to current topics of healthcare, but it felt like it just needed more.. the characters and plot just didn't do the premise justice.