This book is principally aimed at men suffering from depression and who may have contemplated suicide. Given that suicide is a big killer of men, I understand why the author is aiming for that market - we should be trying to reach out to them and help them.

I don’t fall into this category, being female, but I still found the book interesting. I would have liked to see more on the author’s personal story of overcoming depression - it felt to me this wasn’t explored enough. I have read for example Matt Haig’s book Reasons to Stay Alive and this book reminded me of that but I think it could have benefited from more exploration of the issues.

The tie in of going from suicide to success is an interesting one. Often those (men and women) who feel like they have nothing to live for, feel that way at least in part because they feel they don’t have success, are struggling financially, don’t feel they contribute something to the lives of those around them. The authors story of coming back from suicide to success and in fact being able to employ others and give them jobs is a good way to demonstrate that suicide is a long term solution to a short term problem. If that door hadn’t been locked, he wouldn’t have been around to create the company, provide those jobs and provide that service. I’m not suggesting that those he employed would have been financially destitute because that door wasn’t locked, but their lives would have been different in some way.

Overall, I enjoyed this short read but would definitely have liked to see further development of some of the issues - the longer read would have been worth that. I definitely agree that male or female we all need an Alex.