Well, that was certainly interesting. The Suicide Collectors is one of the strangest books I've ever read. Set in a dystopian future, a mysterious pandemic of suicide has grasped the world, dubbed the Despair by the living. More strange, groups of people clad in dark robes collect the dead, taking them because the Source demands it. This novel follows Norman, the first person who ever kills one of these Collectors, thus starting the only revolution that matters in this post-apocalyptic world. Conceptually, this novel is great. There's so much about it to love. The idea of people killing themselves en masse, without good reason, or so it seems, plays on the way suicide is viewed today, as though there were no warning signs. And the Collectors, themselves people who have a history with suicide, brush the story with eeriness. And then there's Norman, a man who is just angry, who starts the only fight against the Despair that's ever existed. However, when it comes to the writing, I can't say it's the best written novel I've ever read. It has its moments of creepiness, though nothing that borders on sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat horror, despite the fact that it carries its horror in the concept of the story itself. And mostly it's a lot of "he did this and then he did that", not pulling the plot into anything that held suspense or gravitas. And of course, by the end, there's a lot of questions that still aren't answered, which means that it's disappointing.All I can say is that this is a novel that was great in conception, but not so great in execution. First off, I don't know what anyone raves about when they talk about Stephen King. I mean he starts you off on this journey into the macabre only to like get tired of writing and plop a sucky ending on you. So I hate his books, have tried time and again and except for 'The Green Mile' and 'The Mist' I can't do it - he always ends them horribly. I call it the Stephen King Syndrome!With that said, when I began this book the journey really gripped me. I was enthralled - enthralled, like I'd never been in a book. This says a lot! He painted some really grim, horridly mesmerizing scenarios that surpass all other authors in my opinion.Then I started getting frightened, because it looked to be the Stephen King syndrome. Some of his books I was just like there shouldn't be any actual cause for this insanity just let it be!! The more I delved into 'The Suicide Collectors' that's all I could think. This can't possibly end with some weird alien or lameness thereof. Sometimes there are the unexplained, and well he AMAZED ME because although there was a definite answer to where the madness began, there was no lame ending or explanations. I can't say anymore without totally spoiling the book.Just a MUST READ, a NEW FAVORITE for me!
What do You think about The Suicide Collectors (2008)?
This was interesting - I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone. A little depressing & wierd.
—crazynoodle655
Interesting, but had many problems with the logic of a post apocalyptic world.
—yogesh
Good idea - could have been an interesting book. It wasn't.
—Katherine
