When a 17 year old girl runs down railroad tracks toward an approaching train, lays down on the tracks so the train can run over her, and yet miraculously lives to tell about it, I want to read about the thoughts and motives she was experiencing that led her to that tragic choice. Thankfully, she wrote a book, and Life, In Spite of Me, by Kristen Anderson, is exactly that: a look inside the thoughts, emotions, and circumstances that surrounded her choice on that fateful January day.
Since this is a book review, let me address the book issues first, and then deal with the message later. Without giving too much away, let me just say that it felt like the book moved very slowly at times, and it seemed to take three-fourths of the book for Kristen to get to the point where she realized that she had, in fact, attempted suicide. But then, it seemed that every other major section after that would begin with “Two years later” or “It had been 10 months since.” There’s nothing wrong with that, but the flow of the book felt good until suddenly the timeline hit hyperspace and the reader was rocketed past large chunks of time in the author’s recovery.
Two of the features that I loved about the style were the inclusion of personal notes to the reader from Kristen at the end of some of the chapters. These gave a nice, personal touch to the difficult issues she had dealt with, and acknowledged that the reader could be, as well. The other inclusion that I found helpful was the Afterword written by Kristen’s mother. Those pages really helped tie together some of the threads that still felt like they were dangling a bit at the end. She addressed the circumstances around the night of Kristen’s suicide attempt and also the personal guilt she’d felt over knowing something was wrong in Kristen’s life but not being able to “figure it out.” This also led to a resource page giving warning signs of depression and suicidal tendencies, which I think was extremely helpful for parents and others who are around teens.
But without a doubt, the best feature of this book is it’s undeniable message of hope in the light of horrible choices. Anderson never once backed away from her responsibility in what she did, and the book allowed us to see the way she struggled to come to terms with “what now?” after her failed attempt. She shows honesty, faith, doubt, and courage all the way through the book, and that is the one quality in this book that will resonate with readers every time.
You will not be disappointed that you pick this book up. I know I wasn’t.
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.
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Sounds like a great book paul..Wish I read more!