Content Warning: Suicide and mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia.
September is National Suicide Prevention Month. Suicide (like many other mental conditions) can affect anyone, no matter their age, background, or other identity markers. During this month, the goal is to raise awareness: to give hope, share valuable information, and change the public perception of suicide.
Adolescents are especially at risk, particularly those who are of color or identify as LGBTQ+, so reading stories of suicide—and related mental health disorders like anxiety and depression—is critical for college students. These stories teach us about causes and signs, make us more empathetic towards vulnerable groups, and may even save a life. When we read books, both fiction and nonfiction, that deal with these topics, we spread awareness of suicide and encourage support for a diverse array of mental health challenges.
In the library’s front display, you’ll see The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, a novel in which protagonist Nora Seed finds herself in a library of books that each contain a different reality. This fantasy/science fiction bestseller asks questions like, how might Nora’s life have been different if she made x choice instead of y? Would it be better? And what makes life itself worth living?
If you’re looking for a graphic work, check out the beautiful, lightly humorous graphic memoir Everything is OK by Debbie Tung. This book explores the everyday struggles of a girl with anxiety and depression, including her learning to embrace self-love. Tung opens up about deeply personal struggles, emphasizing messages of vulnerability and kindness to oneself. A more darkly humorous graphic memoir is Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michealangelo, and Me by Ellen Forney, a story about an artist with bipolar disorder and how it affected her work over years of attempting to return to mental stability.
In the queer vein, I recommend the autobiography Ordinary Girls: A Memoir by Jaquira Díaz. Díaz, who is both queer and biracial, struggled with depression, substance abuse, and sexual assault. She lived in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach while her mother struggled with schizophrenia. And yet, her novel encompasses a sense of honesty, triumph, and hope. Additionally, More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera follows sixteen-year-old New Yorker Aaron Soto after enduring his father’s suicide, his own suicide attempt, and other struggles—when he begins to fall into (unrequited) love with a friend named Thomas.
Mental health and suicide also weave their way into the genres of psychological suspense, horror, and the paranormal, relative to both biological and found family—for example, V. Castro’s work of paranormal fiction The Haunting of Alejandra. Alejandra, who feels herself struggling with darkness, can see a crying ghost in a white dress. After delving into her family history with her therapist, Alejandra learns this is La Llorona, a vengeful mother of Mexican legend—and it will take the inherited courage of her foremothers to banish this ghost once and for all.
Into the Water by Paul Hawkins is a psychological suspense novel set after a single mother is found dead at the bottom of a river. The story follows a lonely teenage girl who finds herself in the care of her aunt. The story plays with memory deception as well as the link between the past and the present. On the horror end, Where Black Stars Rise by Nadia Shammas and Marie Enger is about a Lebanese immigrant therapist, Dr. Amal Robardin, whose schizophrenic client, Yasmin, is visited by a frightening nightly presence. Messages in the classic horror collection The King in Yellow lead Yasmin to disappear. While retracing Yasmin’s steps, Amal ends up in the realm of the King in Yellow—and with the help of a mysterious guide, it’s up to her to save herself and Yasmin from being permanently trapped.
My last two books for this reading list are more realistic fiction, and deal with suicide and its impact on families and victims directly. The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork is about Victoria Cruz, who wakes up in a psychiatric ward after her suicide attempt. She still doesn’t want to live, but when she meets a doctor of the ward and three other patients, she starts to better see a life she can make for herself. Meanwhile, The Tender Land: A Family Love Story by Kathleen Finneran is about one of a family dealing with the death of a son and brother who committed suicide.
If you or someone you know is struggling:
Suicide & Crisis lifeline: Call or text 988.
Susquehanna University Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) support line for students: 570-372-4751.
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