After reading Tabitha Suzuma’s ‘A Note of Madness’ I couldn’t resist reading the sequel ‘A Voice in the Distance’. I read a few pages a couple of days back and yesterday I finished the whole book. It is not often that I read a whole book in a day. Here is what I think.
‘A Voice in the Distance’ continues the story of ‘A Note of Madness’. Flynn, who is diagnosed with bipolar disorder, manages to stay normal by medication and periodic medical checkups. Jennah and Flynn now live together and are very much in love. Flynn wins music competitions and he is a star even before he has passed out of music college. Then one day the medication stops working as well as before. Flynn gets into a manic depressive state. He tries to commit suicide. He is taken to hospital. The doctor increases the dosage of lithium. Flynn discovers that it makes his hands shiver, which means that he can’t play the piano as well as before. Then one day Flynn decides not to take the medication. It improves his piano playing. But he starts getting hyperactive as before. And then Jennah discovers what Flynn has done and she feels betrayed and all hell breaks loose. Will Flynn be able to manage his condition without taking medication? Will he be able to salvage his relationship with Jennah? Will Jennah continue to be together with Flynn inspite of the everyday difficulties and complexities that come with it? The answers to all these questions form the rest of the story.
‘A Voice in the Distance’ is a bit different from ‘A Note of Madness’. The first thing that is different is that it is told through the voices of Flynn and Jennah. The chapters which contain Jennah’s narration are longer than those that contain Flynn’s. Jennah gets a bigger share of the story. The second thing that is different is that while ‘A Note of Madness’ was more about depression, ‘A Voice in the Distance’ is more about how the family and friends and loved ones of a person suffering from depression cope with the situation. We see how Jennah handles the situation and how she has to make difficult choices. We also see the situation from the point of view of Flynn’s parents, his brother and sister-in-law, his friends Harry and Kate and Jennah’s mother.
The third thing in which ‘A Voice in the Distance’ is different from its predecessor is with respect to the ending. The ending is sad, even heartbreaking. But it is also satisfying. I know that is a contradiction in terms, but it is true. It is classic Suzuma. In contrast, ‘A Note of Madness’ had a happy ending.
I don’t know whether there will be a third volume in the series. I would love to know what happened to Flynn and Jennah after the events described in ‘A Voice in the Distance’. The last passage of the book continues to haunt me, and as a reader I should leave it at that, but I can’t resist the temptation to find out what happened next.
I will leave you with some of my favourite passages from the book.
They say depression is an incredible sadness, an unbearable mental pain. No, it doesn’t have to be so dramatic. Sometimes it is nothing more than feeling tired. Tired of life. In therapy they tell you to remember that the bad spells pass. That things do get better, that medication does work, that things don’t stay the same. I can’t see how this is supposed to help. Ultimately everything ends with death. What they should say is : things might get better for a while, but eventually you will go back to being nothing, and all the pain and suffering will have been in vain. I wonder what Dr.Stefan would have to say to that. They say that depression makes you see everything in a negative light. I disagree. It makes you see things for what they are. It makes you take off the fucking rose-tinted glasses and look around and see the world as it really is – cruel, harsh and unfair. It makes you see people in their true colours – stupid, shallow and self-absorbed. All that ridiculous optimism, all that carpe diem and life’s-what-you-make-of-it. Words, just empty words in an attempt to give meaning to an existence that is both doomed and futile.
His face is like a waxwork, and I realize suddenly with startling clarity that the body and the person are two different things. Two different entities, somehow fused. The body is the one I am looking at now, attached to all these machines, the heart still struggling to pump, the lungs still struggling to breathe, valiantly fighting to stay alive. The person is another being entirely, the perpetrator of this crime, the one who ruthlessly swallowed forty tablets sometime in the middle of the night, then lay down beside his girlfriend to die. The person tried to kill itself, tried to kill its own body. I understand for the first time why attempted suicide used to be an imprisonable offence. It is, after all, attempted murder.
Have you read ‘A Voice in the Distance’? What do you think about it?
You really like Tabitha Suzuma. 🙂
I would have read this too since it’s a sequel. I wonder if she had always intended to write two books or whether it was a decision she took after she heard readers reactions. It’s one of those illnesses that is hard on every one. On those who suffer from it, as well as on those who live with them.
What I find awful is that most of those medications come with such heavy side effects.
Yes, she is awesome, Caroline 🙂 It is really sad that the medications come with side-effects. It is really hard on the person who is taking it. If you do get to read this book, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
I actually first read this review and then A Note of Madness’ 😉 Your selected quotes are hauntingly beautiful, it makes me feel sorry for Flynn, but also respect an awe for his perseverance. I can only fathom (just a little) what it is like to look at the world through his eyes and thinking these bleak thoughts.
Glad to know that you liked the review and the quotes, Chinoiseries. Flynn thoughts as depicted in the book are really bleak and realistic. But there is a sunny side to him too which is beautifully depicted as well.
I hadn’t heard of this writer before, but the books sound interesting. I love the description of depression that you quote here. I checked on her website and can see that it’s something she has struggled with personally and so the descriptions ring true. It’s a good sign when you are so haunted by the book and the characters that you want a sequel.
Nice to know that you liked the look of her books, Andrew. Yes, the depiction of depression in the book are very realistic and take us inside the mind of the main character. If you do get to read this book, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.
[…] reading Tabitha Suzuma’s ‘Forbidden’, and then her ‘A Note of Madness’ and ‘A Voice in the Distance’, I have been waiting for her next book ‘Hurt’ to be released. I was very excited when it was […]