Fran ArrickCritiques

Classic, lurid YA of my childhood. Kind of makes sex work seem glamorous, which I doubt was the goal. Was the pimp really named Feather?

I loved this in 9th grade. Seemed like forbidden smut.

This book is about the exquisitely painful aftermath of a teenage boy's suicide. Anthony had seemed sad and angry for a long time, but then he seemed to get better and his family and friends felt relieved. Then, at the age of fifteen, he hung himself. The noose was made from one of his father's neckties. He didn't leave a note.

The story isn't really about Anthony, although the reader does get to know him through the memories of the other characters. It's about the impact his death had on his loved ones: his parents, his sister, his teacher, two friends and his would-be girlfriend. Everyone is blaming themselves, wishing they'd tried harder to help Anthony, wishing they'd noticed the signs that seem all too clear in hindsight, remembering little transgressions and disagreements and wanting to take it all back. Everyone is angry -- at Anthony, at each other. Everyone is bewildered -- why? All the characters were fully developed and I thought Jana, Anthony's love interest, a refugee from Czechoslovakia whose life had already been touched by death, was particularly well done. The reactions of the characters also rang true.

Speaking as a person who has been suicidal before, I think this book might actually be useful in suicide prevention. Many suicidal individuals believe they are a burden to their loved ones and won't be missed much, but this novel shows as well as any nonfiction study or memoir how much a suicide tears the survivors apart. If a person considering suicide reads Tunnel Vision, they might think the better of making their own loved ones suffer like this.