The 39 Deaths of Adam Strand

Gr 9 Up—Teenager Adam Strand is bored, self-absorbed, and desperate to have some control over his own life; he has committed suicide 39 times. However, after each act he has awoken hours or days later, physically unscathed. The people in his bleak factory town in rural Iowa have come to view his failed suicides as more of a nuisance than a miracle. Adam's narrative includes several nonlinear flashbacks dating back to his early childhood, but the primary story takes place over the course of the summer before his senior year. The chapter titles, which include the chronological number of the suicide contained within, help to clarify the time line. The lack of action may leave some readers restless; the novel is made up largely of static situations, such as Adam and his friends getting drunk and watching a dead cow decompose or Adam complaining about his parents' many idiosyncrasies. Galloway's exquisite writing, however, more than makes up for the slow pace. Using raw imagery, he perfectly crafts Adam's philosophical, meandering account of his life and deaths. He relates Adam's plight to that of Sisyphus, and also includes references to the works of Kafka, Twain, and Poe, among others. Secondary characters are well developed and easily distinguishable. Fans of gritty realistic fiction such as Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (Farrar, 1999) and Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (Penguin, 2007) will appreciate Adam's thoughtful, authentic adolescent voice, and the honesty and boldness with which Galloway treats the issue of suicide.—Liz Overberg, Darlington Middle School, Rome, GA