Together We Will Go

Together We Will Go by J. Michael Straczynski.

Not sure how to feel about this one

On one hand, 12 strangers getting on a bus for a cross-country roadtrip ending in their collective suicide by driving into the ocean is a pretty compelling setup. On the other, the same things which make it compelling also make it very difficult to pull off. I'm not an author, so I'm not sure how a book like this should be written, but IMO this isn't it.

The overall structure is there I think; you have a varied group of people from different walks of life, each with their own reasons to end it all. They're introduced gradually, giving the group dynamic time to develop. And there are secondary plotlines going to on to provide some impetus for character development during their journey. Unfortunately the dialogue and actions of the characters end up feeling kinda... juvenile? Their motivations are all very real, serious problems, but the way Straczynski writes them somehow makes it hard to treat them as such. It somehow feels too cheesy, which is not something I thought I'd ever say about a novel involving a suicide pact.

It's a shame because I really liked Becoming Superman, Straczynski's autobiography, and I know he's capable of writing great stuff from that. Maybe this is one of those great stories for other people, and if even one person catches their suicidal ideation early and gets help because of it that's a huge win, but for me personally it falls pretty flat as a story.