Ghosted

Suicide is a tricky subject to write about. This is true when you're writing a novel, and also true when you're like Mason, the protagonist of this novel, and your job is to write about suicide. To write people's suicide notes for them.

Ghosted starts off in a Chuck Palahniuk sort of area, as you can kind of guess with the synopsis - a little misanthropic, a little nihilistic, and strung together with enough dark humour and adrenaline that you keep reading. Then, around half-way through the book, it takes a left turn and gets REALLY dark. The answer to the question “What kind of person writes suicide notes for other people?” is revealed to be “One with serious psychological and self-destructive issues”, and we also are reminded that no matter how messed up you may be, you need to be careful, because there are others who are way more dangerously messed up than you are.

I wasn't quite sure what Bishop-Stall was trying to say through the whole thing, though; it's clear from the subject material and the way that he writes about it that he isn't just out for entertainment, but wants something more. I left the novel not sure what that “something more” was, though.