I thought this book was very scientific with a very personal side. It was helpful to me as my sister recently committed suicide and I have a medical background to understand his writing. Someone without psychiatric/medical/psychology background might have difficulty with the technical aspects. Plan to pass it on to my family.

This book is just an excellent combination of personal and academic. It is very well written. It has got substance and depth to it. It breaks some new ground.

Family and friends of people who have died by suicide, who know the emotional wreckage it leaves behind, who know that suicide is a sum producer of much more pain that it solves, are more not less likely to do it themselves. Why?

Partly, "people desire death when two fundamental needs are frustrated to the point of extinction; namely, the need to belong with and connect to others, and the need to feel effective with or to influence others." Well, for survivors, the second part of this has been pretty well challenged. The first part gets challenged too: the topic is still somewhat taboo, despite that everyone knows that talking about it is important, there is real difficulty to it. Connection, on the issue, takes work.

The ideas and the feelings expressed in this book come across as real and true and well grounded. I thank Thomas Joiner for writing it.