Tabitha’s Death

Jordan
Elizabeth
Genre: 
Young Adult

Tabitha has just lost her best friend in a car accident. When she turns to her boyfriend for comfort, he takes her virginity and confesses he slept with the now dead best friend. Instead of becoming angry at them both, she continues to mourn her friend and decides to join her in death. She borrows razor blades from her neighbor who is a cutter and slits her wrists. Instead of seeing her best friend, she finds herself in another world where everyone has committed suicide and is now enslaved to the “Gray Man”. Each person has to complete the tasks he sets before them in order to be allowed to die a final death. Many of the people Tabitha meets have been there for years.

The premise of this book is original, as the author offers the reader an alternative to Heaven or Hell by painting a vivid picture of purgatory. The creatures that inhabit the land are described well, the Gray Man is a character you love to hate, and the characters of the realm are interesting and some are a bit creepy. The theme of suicide runs so rampant through the book that the reader may be put off by it. The overwhelming sadness of the characters’ back stories may make the reader put the book down and never finish it. Some of the characters Tabitha meets come across as the type who give up on life too easily while others are strong, which makes the idea of them committing suicide a stretch. The story has a surprise ending that has good overcoming evil and a happy ending.

Carly Fulmer