The book followed the stories of a group of characters boarding a bus bound for the end of their lives.
There is a serious subject matter at hand here, which is dealt with well. It’s a very readable book and it did keep me reading but I felt like some parts were missing something. I don’t feel like we got to know Mark very well, the orchestrator of the whole thing, and his motivations were not quite covered to my satisfaction by the end.
I’m really not sure whether I’d recommend this or not, whilst I enjoyed it, it didn’t blow me away or say anything particularly unique about the struggle with suicide.

Written in an epistolary style with texts, emails, as well as journalling. I found this book to pull in all of my emotions. I was laughing, crying, getting angry. All the emotions. I truly enjoyed this book. I loved the feeling of "one last time" "one more for the road" ideaogy that they lived by while they were travelling to San Francisco.
So it followed a team leader and a driver who put an ad online to group together a bus load of people who have had enough of life. And they will travel cross country to a cliff with a beautiful view and as the sun rose they would drive off. And what the reader gets in return is a wonderful structured story about life, death, regrets and hope. I have to say that maybe this isn't for everyone and they should maybe check for trigger warnings because there will be plenty in this book, but for anyone else I think you'll love it

The original impression that I got from the cover of this novel, was of that seminal scene in 'The Italian Job', with the final refrain of the Quincy Jones composed, 'the Self Preservation Society' playing through my mind. I am not sure if this was the intent of the author, whose name I recognised from years of sci-fi fandom and comic book love. This , however, was enough to get me interested and, I don't know about you, but when you trust a writer to keep you going through various media, even when you haven't specifically read a full length novel, you go with your gut.


And I was neither wrong, nor disappointed.


Some may contend that writing a novel about a group of people who need, quite literally, a final push to kill themselves via a hired coach as in extremely bad taste. In that case I would A) contend that they were exactly the audience for this book, and B) the subject of suicide and suicidal ideation is not talked about anywhere enough for my money.


It feels wrong , in a way, to be laughing at the situations which this rag tag bunch of misfits get into, as organiser, Mark, and driver, Dylan, an ex-soldier, navigate their way to San Francisco to watch one last sunset together...as they and the 10 individuals who answered the carefully phrased personal ad, drive off a cliff together.


The title is both intent, statement, and question. As each of the passengers records their journey to this point in their own way, you become so invested in their actual journey, that you cannot really work out just what is going on. These people all have completely valid and thought out reasons to no longer be here. Will their journey show them that they have so much to live for, so that they decide not to do it?


You might feel uneasy and even angry about the way that these people talk so casually about ending their lives, any attempts they have made, and what they are leaving behind for loved ones-if, indeed, they feel they have any .


You might feel uneasy and awkward as hell laughing out loud at some genuinely hilarious moments peppered through the novel which paradoxically intensify the underlying sadness that these quite wonderful people do not feel they have a reason to go on living. The minutiae of Mark's plans, the worry he has that no one will have translated his ads so that he will go on his final trip alone, and his painstakingly detailed maps to go to certain places, and avoid others, smacks of a National Lampoon-esque family trip.


And here in lies the rub-this is a side of suicide that you just don't see, read about or hear because it is those who survive, that write the story of the ones who died , who are left to grab at straws of reasoning, to make some sense of it. Here, for each of the characters, several reasons from mental health conditions, disillusionment with society, terminal illness and more all play their contributing factors.


Who gets to decide what is worth living for , anyway?


This novel challenges your assumptions on those with suicidal ideation being 'attention seeking' whilst those who complete their suicide plans were 'crying for help'.


It is a dangerous and challenging misapprehension to make. Take it from someone who has been there, more than once, throughout a fraught and , frankly , trauma filled life.


This time last year I was approaching breaking point with no help in sight, and thanks to a timely intervention, was able to arrange Zoom CBT sessions. The pre-assessment interview was supposed to be an hour long, and about half way through, when I uttered the phrase, '....and that takes us to what happened to me by the time I was 18...' the counsellor looked at me in disbelief and exclaimed 'How are you even walking and talking?'


And I laughed like I hadn't been able to for so long, because you carry that burden for so many years that it becomes a part of you, and it is not until you start talking to someone else that you realise, actually, you been through shit and then some.


You have to laugh. My daughter is a mental health nurse specialising in suicidal ideation of teens, and she and I have some of the darkest yet most hilarious conversations you could imagine. This week we were making sure that she knew what my funeral is going to be like, or else I will haunt her. Any listeners would have been appalled at us rolling around laughing about these subjects but trust me when I say, if there comes a time when it is too late to have those conversations, you don't want to be sitting there being asked by a funeral director about what songs you want your loved one to be carried into church to. You really don't.


We are so very very bad at talking about death, and autonomy in your manner of death and this novel not only takes popular assumptions, it challenges them and takes you down an uneasy path. I would absolutely recommend it to any readers who feel they can deal with a potentially distressing subject, and  who enjoy a fantastic, human story so well told, that I cried buckets.


You realise that you, too, are on this bus with them, and part of you hopes that someone in their life will out two and two together, and realise just what they are doing before it is too late.


As someone who has had suicide wedge its way into my life far too often to want to count, and who lives in a town which is known world wide for a terrible cluster of deaths amongst teens and young people, this is a book that helped, and healed, and made me, for one, feel seen and listened to.


Thanks ever so much JMS, this was the book I didn't know I needed and whilst it took me a long time to finish, I am so glad I stayed around to get to the final page.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, and I'm struggling to review it. It was a powerful premise, but also very painful to read. It deals with suicide head on, and whether it be because I am suffering in my personal life at the moment, I stopped reading and couldn't return to it.
It was very heavy at times, but then the lighter moments felt like it had diminished the trauma of suicide on people and their families.

Mark Antonelli is a failed writer who is planning a cross country road trip for an adventure and he's picking up like minded people on the way. However, when they all get to their San Francisco the bus is going over a cliff and they'll all drive out of this world together; all the riders of this particular bus are suicidal.

The synopsis sounded so intriguing; although at first this sounded like a very dark and depressing subject the story was so heart-warming and full of hope. The topic of suicide is talked about in an impartial and rational way which was interesting and didn't flinch from a very difficult subject but the characters were so well written that I couldn't put the book down without knowing how this particular journey would end.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a dicey topic to handle. I picked it up after looking at the blurb and remembered the contents of the said blurb as I started to read the book. Since it is an infrequent occurrence, I thought it would colour my reading experience, but it did not. Basically, irrespective of what you know about the storyline, you will not expect all the turn of events.
I am also partial to a well-written multi-cast where almost all are equally important ( some barely more than others). We hear many voices, but all are distinct (a little too much so in some ways, with regards to the reasons why they are all planning the trip- since we only have one of each). The resulting book is entertaining, sad and heartfelt in equal measure. The author skirts a fine line in the way suicide is viewed, and except for feeling sad for some of the stories, I was able to look at it subjectively for the individual people.
We have a group of people brought together for a common end goal (quite literally), but there are still some unsaid things and unexpected events before reaching that endpoint.
It is a quick read with the passage of the story, even with the twists and turns. I would not call it an easy read, but I am glad I gave it a chance. I would recommend it for those looking out for a quirky but emotional book with offbeat content.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

‘A road trip to the end’ - cover tag line.

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Together We Will Go’ by J. Michael Straczynski in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a great admirer of Straczynski’s writing for film and television and so I was very interested in reading this novel. It is about a potentially triggering subject and JMS addresses this in a poignant dedication to absent friends and in an endnote where he writes: ‘Together We Will Go is an examination of the intense feelings that often underlie suicidal ideation and depression’. He also provides information about The Samaritans.

As for the plot: Mark Antonelli, a failed young writer, is planning a cross-country road trip. He buys a beat-up old tour bus and hires Dylan, a young army vet to drive it. He then puts out a discreet ad for others to join him along the way. Yet this is going to be a road trip like no other: his passengers are all fellow disheartened souls who have decided that this will be their final journey.

When they arrive in San Francisco, they plan to find a cliff with an amazing view of the ocean at sunset, hit the gas, and drive out of this world. Yet as they cross state lines, complications to the initial plan arise linked to the differing laws relating to assisted suicide in the states that they are passing through. As a result they need to keep a low profile. Not always easy to do.

This novel has an ensemble cast and I was glad that I kept a brief note of their names, characteristics, and backgrounds as they were introduced as this proved very helpful as more passengers joined.

It is an epistolary novel, told through the texts, emails, voicemails, and the daily journal entries that the characters write as the price of admission for this trip.

I found this an extraordinary novel that continues my admiration for Straczynski. It is intelligent and thought provoking combining drama with moments of humour and contemplation about the meaning of life and death. Its characters were well realised and came alive on the page.

Overall, I found ‘Together We Will Go’ an ambitious and courageous novel; though I recognise that given its subject matter it likely isn’t suitable for some readers.

Highly recommended with the above caution for its subject.

Together We Will Go is a compelling and deeply thought-provoking contemporary epistolary novel about a group of folk who no longer wish to exist and want to shuffle off this mortal coil altogether. 29-year-old apathetic and unsuccessful writer Mark Antonelli’s ream of rejection letters from prospective publishers keeps growing exponentially, and despite having had such feelings since his high school days they begin to fuel even more intense feelings of suicidal ideation. He decides to seek out other individuals who are also ready for departure, so he places a hidden invitation in the Personals section of HomepageAds.com reaching out to those who would like to join what he calls "the weirdest cross-country party ever". Their destination will be sunny San Francisco, CA. Upon arrival they will ditch the driver, find an appropriate seaside cliff with a stunning view of the pacific ocean and then just as the sun kisses the horizon, they will hit the gas and drive out of this world. As the price of admission, each member will be asked to write their story, upload it to the WiFi hotspot on the bus and periodically update it. Once they log in and create a username, they can link the system to their email and text accounts to provide an accurate real-time record of their thoughts and messages leading up to that fateful day.

Rarely do people tell the truth about how they are feeling due to being afraid of what people might think of them, but since they will no longer be here when the journal entries are found and they will literally be speaking from the grave, Mark encourages everyone to finally inform everyone in their lives how they really feel, no holding back. But once the idiosyncratic group come together they find that their feelings about passing on are no longer as straightforward they once were. This is a compulsive, engrossing and beautiful, life-affirming read about the power of friendship and learning to love oneself, and despite having chosen to read it because of its original plot, StraczynskI weaves a completely different story from the one I envisioned, and in a positive way. They end up, hilariously, being chased across States by the authorities and it becomes a rather entertaining bleak comedy. It's deeply sardonic with philosophical rumination aplenty and through the use of text messages, emails, online journal entries and audio transcripts the characters’ thoughts and actions are revealed, and we get to know the twelve suicide tourists. As the bonds grow between each other they also grow between the reader and the cast of characters until you become thoroughly invested in seeing them thrive. Highly recommended.

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.

4-5 stars

...’Together we will go, heigh-ho the derry-o, together we will go’ .... or will they??? ‘By the time you read this, I’ll be dead’, thus says one of those on the suicide bus, the price of admission is to upload your story. It’s one last party you don’t come back from, a collective last will in more ways than one. It’s the idea of Mark Antonelli, a twenty nine year old failed writer, who posts an ad, buys the bus, a driver and obtains a disparate bunch of passengers for one last trip of a lifetime. It’s told in a variety of ways including texts, emails and narrative which is remarkably cohesive. It’s a no holds barred look at suicide and assisted suicide which is done realistically and sensitively.

First of all, let’s look at the characters who are on the bus for a variety of reasons ranging from chronic and constant pain, other health issues or because some elements of society have decided they have no use for them except to bully and body shame - they’re all distressing reasons but that punches you in the abdomen. I like nearly all the characters but especially Karen Ortiz whose descriptions of her pain are fantastic; Tyler, what a phenomenal person he is; I love Shanelle just for herself; Zeke and his hugely overwhelming love for Soldier which makes you cry and Dylan who is a bit of a hero. As for Lisa, I initially think, let me of the bus please she’s doing my head in but she sort of grows on you! I like the combination of the darkly humorous with the frustration and anger mixed in with some philosophical thoughts and attitudes on suicide and assisted suicide. There’s a growing friendship, a bond, a sense of solidarity, togetherness and even love in one case and it’s quite intense as you may expect and a bit surreal in places. . It’s absolutely heartbreaking at times such as the statistics on millennial suicides so it’s also designed to shock you but it’s also very thoughtful, thought provoking, surprisingly entertaining for such a dark almost taboo topic and it’s absolutely gut wrenching in others.

Overall, I think this is a brave book but also an important one for a variety of reasons such as being able to talk about the topic openly and it raises issues and hopefully discussions on the rights to free will. It’s a well written novel that is hard to put down.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Titan for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.