Suicide Books

I heard about this book some time ago because I enjoy strange fiction, so I thought it sounded decent and I got it off Amazon. My first problem is that I read it cover to cover on a Saturday in about 2 hr (not worth the cover price). My second problem is that the story did not seem to want to follow its own plot. It wandered around like stoners talking about the meaning of life. I was pleased with the first 1/4 of the book, it was an original take on the afterlife, but it petered out fast into a series of poor shock attempts and apparently obvious attempts to seem confusing to appear deep. Overall I feel that the book is a failure on multiple levels.

I love a story that makes me feel as though I just dropped some GOOD acid. Honestly, I can think of no greater complement to pay a writer. This kinda fiction is a joy to discover. I look forward to reading more by Ramalli.

(aka Ash Lomen)

This novella is a crazy, thought-provoking, and extremely well written journey into the afterlife. Not as good as some of her shorter work... but this is still Gina, and all of her stuff rocks.

So, why should you buy this book?

Christ smokes weed.

'nuff said.

This is another in the Bizarro genre which means humor, shock, sick and some horror all wrapped up in a "book" that is really a short story expanded with blank pages, wide margins and large print to get to about 100 pages.

It was an enjoyable read with the exception of one section of shock included for no good reason and which detracted from the rest of the story.

Do not read this if you are easily shocked; have strong religious beliefs; or have a weak stomach.

Just a note to readers: this entire book is included in the Bizarro Starter Kit (Blue). The whole "book" is about 20 pages of that compendium. I discovered this after buying both.

Just a note to Bizarro publishers and writers: I really dislike the practice of publishing short stories as separate books and including the same story in a collection. It doesn't encourage me to want to rush out and buy more. I enjoy reading Bizarro, but not at $10 or more per short story. But maybe you're selling all the books you want to this way and I'm totally out to lunch.

This is a very entertaining addition to the Bizarro genre. Pogue dies running through the electric forest in the rain and wakes to find herself being escorted to a strange hotel. The hotel contains everyone who has died because both Heaven and Hell are under renovation. There is even a Purgatory level. Once at the hotel, Pogue hooks up with a teen who has committed suicide and a few other misfits. They run into a Goth Emo version of Lucifer, who they convince to take them to Jesus.

This is a hilarious story, with interesting characters and some great observations, such as the "white nothing" Pogue sees behind her after she dies and the eventual truth about where they really are. The ending is also very well done, and makes you think about who is really in control of your life. The writing style is top notch. The sentences flow smoothly into one another and the brief chapters make for a great page turner. It took me about an hour to blow through this story, and I will definitely read it again. The usage of fire plugs is also noteworthy.

this is more or less and oral biography told by the members themselves and those around them. a great read with a lot of info about one of the most influential rock and roll bands of our time.

It is hard to believe that a book about NYC's Suicide has not been done before whilst the Velvet Underground have a fair few books on the shelves about them.

No Compromise mainly consists of interviews with Rev, Vega and people like New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, Chris Stein from Blondie and many others. This book is a must for anyone into New York's seventies music scene. Maybe there could have been more analysis of Suicide's music, but I would rather read what the band have to say than pages and pages of boring speculation. No Compromise is well worth getting.

I was lucky enough to see Suicide play at Max's during the late seventies and have followed them ever since. Along with The Velvet Underground, Martin Rev and Alan Vega's sound has influenced many over the last thirty years and too many to mention here.

It is great that someone has been brave enough to get off their backside and write a book about them. This is the first book about Suicide since they started in 1971.

This book is an oral history of Suicide that documents not only their story, but also what was happening in music and politics in New York at the time. There are fresh interviews with Rev, Vega and comments from those that witnessed and were involved in Suicide's harrowing, moving, often funny and confrontational story.

The author does an excellent job with his research and calls on Chris Stein from Blondie, Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls and Jayne County to tell their side of the story. Lydia Lunch and James Chance also give their comments. There are also eye witness accounts and comments from fans such as Bobby Gillespie, Michael Stipe, Jim Reid, Bono, Moby and Marc Almond.

The chapter on Suicide supporting The Clash in '78 does not flinch away from the barrage of physical abuse that was thrown at these two pioneers by a vicious and misunderstanding audience. The book brings their story right up to date and also includes a chapter on their more recent side projects. No Compromise is a highly enjoyable read and a long overdue tribute to a pioneering band and the New York most of us never want to forget. One last observation. This book would make a great documentary or film.

The Book is a must for 70's nyc RnR sceen fans. It's very informative however needs an extreem make over as far as editing goes. The worst part is it's a gradual revelation or should I say death. At first I thought Martin Rev spoke a little scattered but when you see Alan Vega's qoutes feature similar grammar, you realize they are misquotes and punctuation errors. Misplaced periods are all over the book or should I say jotted notes!

Suicide, New York's electronic, pioneering stroppy legends finally get the book treatment. Suicide were sadly not featured in Legs McNeil's excellent Please Kill Me and No Compromise thankfully gives them the chance to fire off their story.

Author, David Nobakht, has gone for the oral approach and No Compromise is packed full of exclusive interviews with Rev and Vega where they discuss their influences, poverty, struggle, rejection, confrontation, sound and surviving New York right up to the present day. There are also comments from the people that were there and the people that were influenced. This book captures the grime of seventies New York and Suicide's uphill struggle to gain recognition, which they eventually did years later. With many of New York's legends now sadly gone and CBGB's facing closure, we should not take Suicide for granted and it is cool that a book has at last been dedicated to them and a fine book it is too...

David Nylund's book "Treating Huckleyberry Finn" is written in a simple and straightforward style which helps the reader in understanding an extremely complex issue.

As a new therapist I found the book extremely helpful in providing tips for assisting clients labeled ADHD; with great insights for both parents and teachers of these clients. Mr. Nylund's SMART approach to treating this issue is extremely helpful. The case examples presented help demonstrate both the philosophy and various techniques of the SMART therapy approach.

I found the book easy to read and very thought provoking. ADHD is a multi-facated issue and Mr. Nylund does a great job of asking challenging questions regarding the issue. I highly recommend this book to anyone whose life is challenged and blessed by having high energy children and adolescents in their life.

Why Nylund would choose to classify Huck Finn as ADD/ADHD is odd. Did he take other factors into account, such as Huck's physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic father, who is a criminal and often absent? Or the fact that he comes from a single-parent, broken home (having lost his mother at a very young age)?

Still, may be helpful to thopse dealing with ADD/ADHD (parents or therapists).

As a therapist and a father, I have found this book remarkably insightful. I have met many children (including my own!) who fit the ADHD description. People who pay attention to this book and listen to what David Nylund is saying will be more likely to find answers to the ADHD question.

ADD is a real condition. How do I know? Because I have it. And while I do not take Ritalin, (There are so many other medications out there to treat my condition it's sad he only mentions one of them) I know all to well what life is like when I miss a day of my medication. NOTHING gets done. My parents (I'm 17) grow frustrated when they find me spaced out and staring at the walls instead of folding the towels, which they had watched me start some three hours ago.
Anyway, what I wanted to say is that ADD is not just some made up "disease" created to alleviate guilt of parents for not being able to "control" their children. It is all to real.

As a graduate student in a counseling program, I found this book to be a great read. Nylund does a great job of explaining his SMART approach to working with children labeled ADHD. While I do agree that ADHD is a real problem for some children, I do feel that too many children are diagnosed with this disorder, resulting in the overdiagnosis and labeling of children at very young ages. With this overdiagnosis comes over-medication of children as well. I think that Nylund's approach offers an alternative for those children and their families who may wish to to tackle ADHD from a different perspective by focusing on the strengths of the child and family instead of treating the ADHD from the deficit model. Great book! I plan to utilize this approach in my work as a counselor.

An odd novel, but an exciting one.
A teenaged boy is drawn into the search of a kidnapped baby.
But there was a flaw.....When the babys' guardians were contacted by the abductor, they did not behave realistically!
They loved their baby so why would they start joking around about future marriages the second they got off the phone???!!!That was highly dumb.
But the rest of the mystery was a great read.

This was a very well writen and entertaining book. Margaret Mahy does a great job in spreading out the action and discribing all of the caricters. The setting is one that most people can not relate to and I think that makes it more interesting. The book may be a little bit confusing but that is only because the caracters themselfs are confused.

Ellis, the main character in the story had just come home from college and is trying to get over is best friends suicide. This book is about 24 hours of Ellis first day back. The 24 hours of exacly what he needs to cupe with his friends suicide.

The book was very exciting and action packed. Full of car chases and drinkig, along with lust, and an incredibly weird neiborhood. This book was a very fast read and I enjoy every weird moment of it.

The author Margaret Mahy really used the young character in the story 24 Hours. I really found how she wrote the book was really suspencful and thrilling. I find myself entering the book as the character. She used figurtive language to add to the story but the language was still understandable by anyone who would read this story. I liked how she used the young teenager in the story making the events in the story believeable. Meaning they really could happen to anyone. That is why I liked this book so much was because I could really relate to the characters. I recommend this book to anyone who likes reading about challenges, hardship and true life.

I do enjoy this book very much because it is really interesting, attractive and mystery especially in the epilogue part. You can't guess what the ending is if you not read throughout the whole story, when you read more, there will a force put you to continue to read. Although this is my first time reading Mahy book. I am quite impressive not only the content of the story, but also her writing style and she use many different kinds of words to express her view.
This story starts with a seventeen-year-old boy, Ellis who just graduates from prep school and start a holiday. In the next twenty-four hours, he meets a friend, Jackie who brings him go to a mystery world that cannot escape. Inside the world, Ellis loses his hair, becomes a tattoo, help find a kidnapped child, fall in and out love and persuade an old friend from suicide¡K Every thing is strange. Although the situations are quite adult, it can reflect the normal life that everyone may encounter, so that it is suitable for every age group.
I like this book very much so that I rate it with a four stars, but there are a little blemish which is the beginning of the story, everything happen too slow and a little bit boring, you want to pay more attention to the person at every parts because it will turn up at the most important part and act as a key person. On the whole, if you want to know what happen to the Ellis¡¦s life, does he success to find the kidnapped child and success to persuade his old friend. I am strongly recommended to you.

I enjoyed the book 24 Hours very much, it was very interesting! However I would have to rate this book with 4 stars. Simply just becasue I didn't like the beginning. The beginning part of the story is very boring until you reach the middle where all of the action starts. To me Margaret used tons of details and quotes in the beginning such as, " retreating, like precisely spaced bloms in a park garden, they rose on long green stems that curved elegantly at the top, then blossomed into hoods of deep crimson." That was one part that really got me involved in the book, with the words flowing all perfectly together. However, she used to much detail to set the stage. To me it seemed to take six chapters till we finally got to the action. Some people might like that, but personally I am not one of those people. so if you stick with the book I assure you that you will not be disappointed int the end, because this book has a fantastic and puzzling ending!

at least don't be childish and ridiculous. I enjoy Ellen Gilchrist's work, including this one. This is one of my favorites. Gilchrist's work features the lives of women and mostly take place in the South. She has the ability to make you think you know the unique characters that she creates. Anna Hand is one of the best and most unique.

Ellen Gilchrist is a talented & really sensitive author. I've been reading her books for years, & my favorite characters are Anna, Rhoda & Olivia. The "Anna Papers" is a book about Anna Hand, a character that comes up again & again in Gilchrist's novels. Anna is an author, a sensitive woman living between extremes- happiness & depression, love & loneliness...I think the whole series is very good -especially "I cannot get you close enough" & "Net of Jewels". But this book is also not a disappointment.

Don't miss a single Anna book! I just hate that she was "killed off"!

Isn't it about time for Gilchrist to do a Companion? A Gilchristian Companion for the Hand Family, Miss Crystal, Nora Jane, and (last but not least) Rhoda?

I own all of Ellen Gilchrist's books and I am in the process of re-reading all of them in order. It's enriching my life in so many ways. I had to write a review to respond the two negative reviews that were posted before this one. The person who wrote the "Anna loves to do it" review is either about 12 years old or very ignorant. If that is all they took from The Anna Papers, they can't be a very perceptive reader. This book, like all of Ellen's work, is about art, poetry, science, love, loss, and family. It is NOT about furniture and clothing as the reviewer who wrote, "This is great fiction?", stated. The answer to your question, by the way, is a resounding yes. If you love "chick lit", The Da Vinci Codes, James Patterson, Nicholas Sparks, etc, then you will not appreciate the wonderful Ellen Gilchrist. However, if you are looking for some compelling literary fiction which will make you laugh, cry, love life, and THINK, then pick up any of Ellen Gilchrist's treasures....the best part is, she's 70 years old and still writing and teaching. Keep up the great work!

Sorry, but I thought this book [wasn't very good],and I will never read another Ellen Gilchrist novel. If I wanted a book full of descriptions of clothes and furnishings, I'd buy a magazine. Felt nothing for the characters,who I thought were all shallow.

Sheri Heller, a beautiful young New Yorker, met a tall, handsome, elegant Belgian on a plane. Soon Baron Jacques de Borchgrave had seduced her and treated her to exotic trips and expensive clothing. She was swept off her feet, but after they married (as is so often the case), her new husband's mask of gentility came off. This is a story of runaway narcissism and sexual deviance. There is a lot detail about some rather untypical sex, so it's not reading for the easily shocked. Sheri de Borchgrave is an intelligent observer of her own life, and the book is fascinating and well-written. I have never read anything like it.

I thought this was an excellent story. I don't recall quite how I stumbled upon this book but I am very glad I did. I also had the pleasure of seeing the Baroness on a talk show telling her story to the world. It is truly a fascinating story of good and evil. When Sheri meets Jacques you are very quickly caught up in their captivating romance. As he wines and dines her, buys her expensive clothes and takes her on exotic vacations this book at first seems like a wonderful romance novel. Then as Sheri falls for Jacques she begins to see a tiny hint of his dark side but she pushes it out of her mind because she thinks its just a difference of his European nobility and her American nature. I think many of us who have been swept off of our feet by Mr Wonderful can often relate to Sheri as she sees a warning sign or two but turned a blind eye because she wanted to believe the best in her prince charming.

After Sheri moves to Belgium to become the Baroness she sees Jacques dark side begin to unveil itself and Sheri finds her self in a world of manic depressive behavior, incest, wild sex parties and mental abuse all of which seems to be covered up by Jacques family. It is entirely a world to which most of us cannot relate but you feel for Sheri as she realizes she is trapped in a marriage in a foreign country with a mentally disturbed person and this hedonistic lifestyle and she doesn't know how to get out. Will Sheri get out, will she be able to 'cure' her husband, what will occur next, just when she thinks she's seen it all she learns something else.

It is a classic story of a rich family who's money and power covers up their mentally ill son and the poor woman who is romanced into the lifestyle and before she realizes it she is trapped and doesn't know how to get out and has no one to help her.

This book will completely draws you in from beginning to end.

I have read this book more than once, and do not agree with the one reviewer who states that it is a ludicrous piece of work. I think it's great but...

The former Sheri Heller, now Baroness Sheri de Borchgrave, obviously meant
not to speak about her fears for the breast operation over the telephone because she had an inkling the Baron then would not wish to carry on with the wedding plans. He was correct to accuse her of that. She should never have married him, and then to stay with him after he began his cruel
mistreatment? Come on, people! She really enjoyed that nobel lifestyle!

If she didn't, why did being called Madame la Baronne tickle her? Why did
she go into length about the lofty titles of Belgium, the descriptions of the castles, and the many course meals with fine wines and all that?

Sheri knew what she was doing when she snagged her Baron; it was just very
convenient for her when he died and left her the Baroness for life!

"This year's most fabulous book" -- those were the words of the New York Times Book Section. Quite an accolade... and I also remember the review said that the book was the most fun, the best summer book, and a terrific read. Naturally I was intrigued by such fulsome praise and bought the book -- and I was not disappointed! I think the reviewer above must be a friend of the Baron's family, otherwise one cannot help but get swept away into the beautiful romance and ultimate betrayal of a young, beautiful and innocent girl by the Jekyll/Hyde man that manipulated her.
This book starts like a Harlequin Romance. Young Sheri meets the man of her dreams (and everyone's dreams) on an airplane -- the place your mother told you you would meet great men. She glimpses into the jet-set life-style of this aristocratic person. The story goes on, the romance continues to its fruition ... but then ---
Hey, unlike the person above, I don't want to give anything away. Read this! It's entertaining and there are definitely lessons to be learned. I wish Sheri de Borchgrave well ... she deserves it after what she went through with the Baron!!!!!

The story of the marriage of the American Sheri Heller and a Belgian nobleman Jacques De Borchgrave.
The problems begin when Sheri doesn't want to undergo the plastic surgery asked by her husband, who wanted a bigger bosom!
This book is a festival of mud-slinging on her ex-husband and his family. They are, for the author, a bunch of lesbian and bisexual cuckolds. She didn't forget to add in the book photographs of the incriminated villains.
How did the author find a publisher for this ludicrous and totally uninteresting story and for the horribly bad porn?

This is a small booklet, just the right size, to give to someone newly grieving the loss of a child to suicide.

It doesn't matter if your child was a teenager or an adult, the feelings of loss of a child to suicide are the same. This is a very good basic book to help deal with a lot of the emotions that the parents go through. The small size makes it a good choice as a first help, as after such a terrible loss, the mind just can't concentrate very long at a time.

We lost our 29 year old son to suicide 2 years ago and I still pick up this book and read it occasionally. I have bought several of these to give to newly grieving parents.

I was disappointed . Not at the content,although there were alot of typos but mostly because this is not a book but a pamphlet. This would be something consistant with material that would be distibuted through a support group for survivors...for free.The shipping cost was more than the pamphlet,total cost being 7.24. Had I known that I would have selected something a little more substantial...like a BOOK.

I would call this a "pamphlet" as opposed to a book but the most maddening thing about it is that there are typos in the book. I was going to give the book to a family member but I refuse to do that when there are typos in there. Call me small minded for saying so but the typos in the book were too distracting for me to appreciate the "pamphlet's" content. The book has been revised a couple times, why wouldn't the editor have caught this? I can't understand that.

Little more than pamphlet size, there is valuable information and comforting answers in this book. Very useful as an introduction for denser books of meaning, like "Dying to be Free" or "Why Suicide" for someone who has just become "a survivor."

I read the pamphlet, but mainly I wanted to pass it on to a friend whose 27 yr old daughter suicided. A book that got closer to what I was looking for is called: "The Eagle and The Rose" by Rosemary Altea. It supported at an emotional level that there is live after death and my friend would see his daughter again.

The first half of this book dealt with the story itself including the suicide and the life of the author's son `Ben'. The second half covered the different mood disorders that afflicted Ben and methods of treatment.

There is one basic reason I gave this book four of five stars. This book did not talk about childhood depression. In brief areas throughout the text the author hinted to depression and a manic depressive (bi-polar) illness. However the majority of the text and history provided of Ben's life was about his ADHD, dyslexia, and other learning disorders. The author ranted for many chapters about how she tried to help him with his studies and how school was a problem for him and how she wanted Ben to do better in school, but he was not getting the assistance he needed. Long story short, she focused the primary emphasis of her text on his learning disabilities and not on his chronic depression or manic-depressive disorders, which in the end were the causes of his suicide. Based on these facts I would rate this book lower, however it did do a much better job in the second half of the book with thorough descriptions of the various mental disorders for diagnosis purposes and treatment methods as well as a section for suicide awareness and avoidance.

If you want a book which describes the trials and tribulations of a child with various mental health issues, buy this book.

If you want a book about suicide prevention, or a book with an in-depth look at adolescent depression or manic depressive (bi-polar) mood disorders than look else where because this book falls short in these areas.

The book is good, but Carlson kept losing me when the story of her son turns into a textbook for teachers. It does, however, have some strong points for anyone who has ever lost someone to suicide. A "Good" Book.....

This is a touching story, but suicide isn't the only aspect of Childhood-Onset Bipolar Disorder. This gives some good information, but isn't that well written. There's a new book that has a lot of practical information in a very usable format that addresses the daily challenges of Bipolar Disorder, not just the suicidal tendencies, much better. It's called "If Your Child is Bipolar."

If you've ever experienced the loss of a loved one by suicide, you probably have wondered. Carlson's book is helpful in so many ways, but especially in helping life get back on track. Having lost her son to suicide, Trudy Carlson picks up the pieces of her family life and moves ahead in the best way she can, and becomes an inspiration to others along the way. Though every family is unique and each story different, the death of a child is perhaps one situation with common threads: grief, pain, guilt, hopelessness. Carlson shows us how to deal with these, suggests options that could help (and which the reader may not have been prepared to consider) and shows by example that while life after a suicide is not the same, the difference it brings about is not necessarily bad. I've read this book a few times and now have given copies to friends. It amazes me that you can mention "suicide" in a group of people, and suddenly everyone has a story about it. I found this book comforting, uplifting, and helpful. You know Ben Carlson. You know Trudy Carlson. They are us.

As the mother of a teen suicide myself, I highly recommend this book. For those of you who are grieving from the same tragedy, it will answer many of your "Why" questions. And for those who have loved ones suffering from depression or bipolar disorder, you will learn how you may prevent their suicide. All depressed and bipolar people are at high risk for suicide. Trudy eloquently describes how triggers may prompt a suicide but mental illness causes it. She also describes quite accurately many of the confusing behaviors these individuals display: anger from limit-setting, logical leaps that are hard to follow, and a jovial attitude when experiencing deep pain. She did a marvelous job in her discussion of the relationship between loss and depression. This book also includes a detailed section on medications that I've seen in no other book like it. A must read!

the hype for this book was better than the actual book. I'm sorry that I purchased it.

Do I have your attention yet? Once in awhile a book comes along that is so well written and so captivating that it leaves you simply breathless in it's wake, and 'The Bleeding Season' is just that book.

Using a similar theme to Stephen King's 'The Body' and Robert R. McCammon's 'Boy's Life', one of a group of boys struggling towards adulthood and beyond, 'The Bleeding Season' is no camp follower or second contender to either of the mentioned famous stories.

Told in first person by Alan Chance, one of five boys growing up in Potter's Cove, a small town on the coast of rural Massachusetts not far from New Bedford. Life was seemingly happy until their teens, when Tommy was killed by a careless driver. Only Alan, Donald, Rick, and Bernard remained, now deprived of their leader. The boys grow into men, Alan into a failed writer and menial night security job, Rick to a bouncer after a one year stint in prison, Donald into a dead end word processing job, and Bernard into a used car salesman after injuring his knee in Marine training.

And then, just shy of their fortieth birthdays, Bernard commits suicide, leaving behind only a duffle bag and a strange recorded message filled with doubts and fear for the rest. Alan cannot let go of Bernard, feeling compelled to discover the deeper meaning behind Bernard's final and lonely goodbye. What he uncovers is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

Alan, Donald, and Rick find out that Bernard was never who they had thought he was, and slowly begin to uncover a long trail of purely dark evil that had been festering underneath their very noses. From past to present, Bernard's ghosts and demons begin to haunt their sleep, spewing out bodies in their wakes and leaving behind a sense of utter darkness. Even when Alan looses first his job and then his wife Toni, he still cannot turn away from the secrets hidden inside their past.

Greg F. Gifune's writing is real and raw, deeply poignant, excessively talented, and leaves behind naked emotion painted with words. Rarely will I read a book that can't be found for less than forty dollars and tell my listeners that it is worth the cost, but 'The Bleeding Season' definitely is. Buy it, read it, then resell it if you can. But if you are like me, the impact will be too completely brutal for you to do anything other than clutch the book to your chest as you scream out, 'Why? Why? Why?'

Gifune has mastered the creeping horror and intense dread of confronting the darker side of humanity and beyond, the demons that dwell both inside and outside the human flesh, and he serves them up on a shattered platter here for our minds to devour. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, no aficionado of horror should miss it, definitely a 10 star novel. Enjoy!

This book is very well written. The characters are developed and the story is solid. Fate of one of the characters is blurred in the final chapter, which is unfortunate.

However, those reviewers throwing around five star reviews obviously have not read Ghost Story, Pet Semetary or even Son of the Endless Night.

This book is good. It isn't The Shining

This was my first experience with Gifune and I came away from this novel with ambivalent feelings, to say the least. This is truly a work of dark fiction. His writing is exceptionally intelligent and his atmospherics can give you a creepy feeling up your spine. Yet equally, I was disappointed with other elements which I shall share later.

I have seen comparisons of "The Bleeding Season" to Stephen King's "The Body" yet I find it perhaps more similar to his coming-of-age and returning to finish unfinished business portrayed in "It." Five childhood friends (Alan, Tommy, Rick, Donald, and Bernard) form a lifelong bond growing up in the small town of Potter's Cove on the rural coast of Massachusetts, although Tommy, their spiritual leader is tragically killed when hit by a car as a teenager. Unknown to the boys at the time, this sad event sets in motion a series of events that changes them and their hopes and dreams forever and culminates when they approach their forties with the suicide of Bernard.

Bernard seemingly had always been the most vulnerable of group, a notorious liar and exaggerator who was always accepted as part of the whole even though he seemed to have the least to offer. After his unexpected suicide, the three survivors receive an audio suicide/farewell note from him that is filled with philosophical accusations, painful revelations, and critical evaluations of each of them from his perspective.

As hurtful as the thoughts and comments in the audiotape are, Alan, the "conscience" of the group, cannot let Bernard's spirit and memory go without delving deeper for meaning and substance behind Bernard's death. Contributing to their need to find out "why" is the fact that each of the friends experience the same macabre dreams that contain a dead Bernard and other creepy symbolism. With very little to go on but his duffle bag, a photo of an unknown woman, and their own memories, the three surviving friends, prodded by Alan, begin an investigation that quickly reveals Bernard was never who or what they thought he was.

Indeed, a trail of mutilated bodies begins to turn up along with more clues and indications that their deceased friend was perhaps surrounded by a darkness and evil that none of them had ever suspected. A race against time ensues as the investigation risks friendships, marriages, and sanity as the three move ever closer to discovering the source of the evil that may or may not ultimately claim them also.

My problem with "The Bleeding Season" was twofold. The pacing was ponderously slow in the first half of the book. Although I felt I knew where things were headed, it took an awful long time to get there. Secondly, while the characters were fully developed by Gifune, I found myself not caring about any of them on a deeper level--I never felt invested personally in their struggle. Even Alan was unsympathetic to me as he clumsily handled his relationship with Toni and as he stubbornly stayed on task through sometimes confusing dark philosophical musings. The only compelling factor left to me as the reader was to discover the ultimate source of the evil to solve the mystery.

I have seen many blurbs on other horror books likening the storytelling to "an early Stephen King". In most, if not all of those cases, I disagree wholeheartedly. Mr. Gifune does write like the early Stephen King. Group of childhood friends, one dies early on the other commits suicide (not a spoiler, you'd find this on the back of the book). Bernard is the friend who commits suicide. He leaves behind an audiotape in which he makes some startling statements and revelations. The remaining friends must piece together memories they had forgotten or purposely pushed way down into their subconscience to find out exactly what their friend Bernard was up to and in to. Then the creepiness ensues. The characters are so well developed you feel like you know them. The plot never lets up, yet is not rushed. It takes an extremely talented writer to actually make one feel uncomfortable or truly scared and Mr. Gifune delivers. The essence of suspense is palpable. No exaggeration-I literally had goosebumps reading one passage. "The Bleeding Season" is by far one the best books I have ever read. I hope many more readers discover Greg F. Gifune-they don't know what they've been missing!

How on earth can you condemn this novel? I love it. It is a really great work and I very much love the word usage and imagery throughout. I found the looking hindsight style of the novel to be very interesting and engaging. I was always wondering what really happened. The novel reads like a memoir and do not doubt that the author's own personal experiences helped to shape this work.

Brian Krans has a gift for painting vivid memories of a college freshman looking to shed his geeky high school self. Chris, the first reference of the book, knows college is his chance to start over ... to do everything that he didn't accomplish in high school. He has a chance to be someone.

Flipping between past, present, and journal entries, Krans hooks readers with a mystery ... why Chris' best friend and roommate killed himself. Then Krans leads readers on an adventure on how Chris and Ethan met and what kind of trouble they seemed to run into.

Krans' strength is painting the vivid and all-too-real college experience ... from meeting a cute girl to his first college party to his first sexual experience to hanging out with Ethan and the First Prentiss guys. Not only do readers get a glimpse of college life from a guy's point of view, but can believe the tales. I found myself laughing out loud several times at Chris' dialogue ("Chris will puke.")

The one weakness I had was the journal entries were a little long, mundane, and a little abstract. OK, I have another weakness ... the shortness of the book. I would have loved to read more characters and tales from college.

Overall, the book was a good read, where I needed to know why Ethan killed himself. Krans tells a good story with humour, insightfulness, and truth. I look forward to his second novel.

A Constant Suicide should be required reading for incoming college freshmen. Brian Kran's debut novel is brutally honest about the struggle for identity and the tragic consequences sometimes associated with it. I'd recommend this book to those college-bound and to those who'd like to reminisce about a period of life full of endless possibility.

I did not know what to expect when I began this novel. However, Brian Krans' first novel, A Constant Suicide, is well written and developed. It sucked me in right away. The story jumps around from present to past to excerpts from a journal entry and back to the present. The characters were easy to identify with. We all can look back to college years and remember the pressures and stigmas and cliches. Everyone will get something different out of this book. Sometimes the people you are closest to are the farthest away.

Brian Kran's debut novel, "A Constant Suicide", is to be commended for the accuracy of its title. Indeed, reading this novel is akin to repeatedly slashing your wrists or ramming into a bridge abutment at 100 mph. It makes a compelling case for the sweet release of suicide, if only to save oneself the psychological damage of having to read a second offering from the same novelist.