My Heart and Other Black Holes

TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE

I both loved and hated the ending of this book. Overall, the book spoke true about how it feels to have depression and what it does to the mind and the body. I enjoyed the premise and the connection between the two individuals. I hope what the author intended to share was that if it great to have someone with whom you can share things and speak your truths. I hope that it is taken by other readers that it can be anyone–a parent, a friend, a stranger you meet online–but the important thing is that you are safe and that you are open with yourself and with others. However, the book could also be taken in saying that you need someone to fall in with with you in order to not be suicidal or perhaps that life is only worth living if you fall in love with the hot jock, who happens to also fall in love with you. But who am I kidding? I'm a sucker for cuteness and for that reason, I also enjoyed the ending. I think the final message could have still landing as strongly, if not even stronger, if they stayed platonic friends, or perhaps even had a small hint of a potential relationship.

Otherwise, the book was good. It's a tough subject to talk about and I'm glad we got to see through the eyes of someone who is actively suicidal, unlike other works that this could be compared to.


Quotes:
“Does a dead body still have potential energy or does it get transferred into something else? Can potential energy just evaporate into nothingness? That's the question I don't know the answer to. That's the question that haunts me.”

“Depression is like a heaviness that you can't ever escape. It crushes down on you, making even the smallest things like tying your shoes or chewing on toast seem like a twenty-mile hike uphill. Depression is a part of you; it's in your bones and your blood.”

“I wonder if that's how darkness wins, by convincing us to trap it inside ourselves, instead of emptying it out.
I don't want it to win.”

“I will be stronger than my sadness.”