With An Advance Technology That Helps To Extend Lifespan of The People // Book Review: Suicide Club by Rachel Heng

Publisher: Sceptre
Publication Date: July 10th, 2018
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fiction
Buy Links: Kinokuniya Malaysia | MPH Online
Rating:
Source: Huge thanks to Pansing Books for the review copy

Synopsis

What are you doing to help yourself? What are you doing to show that you're worth the resources?

In a near-future world, medical technology has progressed far enough that immortality is now within grasp - but only to those who show themselves to be deserving of it. These people are the lifers: the exercisers, yogacisers, green juicers and early nighters.

Genetically perfect, healthy and wholesome, one hundred-year-old Lea is the poster girl for lifers, until the day she catches a glimpse of her father in the street, eighty-eight years after their last encounter. While pursuing him, Lea has a brush with death which sparks suspicions. If Lea could be so careless, is she worthy of immortality?

Suicide Club wasn't always an activist group. It began as a set of disillusioned lifers, gathering to indulge in forbidden activities: performances of live music, artery-clogging meals, irresponsible orgies. But now they have been branded terrorists and are hunted by the state.

And Lea has decided to give them a call.

I hope I don't spill much information here except my thoughts on this book. Enjoy my review!

Immortality is now only within grasp happened in the near-future world and for that, only people who show that they really deserve it. The people who deserve are the 'lifers'. 

I think the premise of this story itself is very interesting. It set in the near-future where people able to extend their lifespan to more than 100 years with their advanced technology such as self-renewing skins and more. It was scary yet something to ponder about that put me a lot of thoughts when reading this book. Are you really want to live forever but only eat something nutritious and no relaxing activities you can do because that consider being illegal and suicide is illegal too. Hence, there are groups that 

Suicide Club is something that different from what I read before. Lea, the main character - the Lifers who her life revolves around 'healthy mind, healthy body' - no night activities or anything and only eat healthy food but no fruits. No eating carbs or any sugary sweet food/dessert. It was a truly boring and dull life, Lea and those Lifers live. I cannot think about how can they like that. It really is a stressful life. She leads a perfect life has a great job, get to live in a beautiful place and has a fiancee. I do feel like she is kind of a robot. Something happened to Lea that she is now being under observation and need to join a WeCovery Group because they thought Lea wants to kill herself, hence by joining the group she will able to talk, to share, to express their thoughts within the group.

And then, there is Anja. A violinist from Sweden lives in New York with her mother, who is now brain-dead but her heart is still beating and that, she cannot be claim dead. 

The plot of the story during the half of the chapters are really slow and only after that, it starts to spring in "action". The world-building in the Suicide Club is really compelling yet creepy. It wasn't a mystery/thriller book but the way they lead their dull lives give some chilly and creepy feeling. I guess it seems way too real and then there's a Suicide Club where people do not want to live forever.

All in all, Rachel Heng's writing is amazing has a brilliant premise and world-building that put me still to keep on reading until the end of chapters. Although, honestly, I find it slow, disconnected several times and see people having to live with the dull characters is quite a tough one, to say the least. Overall, it is a good read.