Help! I’m Alive
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A powerfully emotional story of four people touched by a teen’s death, award-winning author Gurjinder Basran’s Help! I’m Alive is a clear-eyed exploration of meaningful connection in the modern era
After video footage of Jay’s death is shared on social media, a suburban Vancouver community is left to try to make sense of what happened to Jay and whether his death was an accident or a suicide.
Help! I’m Alive explores the aftermath through the eyes of four people all suddenly confronted with who they have been and how they should be in the wake of such loss. Jay’s former best friend, Ash, wonders what happened to their friendship and questions the relationships he has now; Winona, Jay’s troubled girlfriend struggles with guilt and abandonment; Anik, Ash’s older brother, is on a search for the meaning of life but hasn’t left his basement apartment in months; and Pavan, Ash and Anik’s mother, finds Jay’s death lays bare all her personal and maternal anxieties.
Unflinching but life-affirming, Help! I’m Alive is a Gen Z and Gen X coming-to-terms story about loneliness and connection, love and suffering, and the moments that bring us together and drive us apart.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Basran's striking if uneven latest (after Someone You Love Is Gone) follows four characters dealing with the aftermath of a teenager's death. Jay McAlister's surviving friends and family are left to grapple with whether Jay's fatal fall from Vancouver's Lions Gate Bridge was intentional. A "suicide game" has been making the rounds online with Jay's peers with a common symbol of a blue whale, of which Jay and Winona, his self-harming not-quite-girlfriend, received matching tattoos. Basran covers the 100 days leading up to Jay's death with stories of Jay's former friend Ash; Ash's older brother, Anik; their mother, Pavan; and Winona. None seems to have known Jay very well, creating an unfortunate distance that largely keeps the reader from getting invested in their emotional arcs, though a subplot involving Anik undertaking a pilgrimage from Vancouver to a small island town on foot is more successful. On the road, Anik meets Rose, a trans woman with a knack for social media marketing. "#AniksWay" turns into a popular hashtag and gets the two featured on local news, which leads Ash and Winona to them. The story concludes with a dramatic and symbolic encounter, which brings the disparate story lines into startling cohesion. Despite its flaws, this makes for a satisfying drama.
