SUICIDE TANGO: My Year Killin’ It With A Shrink

Suicide Tango: My Year Killin’ it with a Shrink is the story of the lively, smart, spirited, and exceptional Tripsy South. Emma “Tripsy” South is a seventeen-year-old girl who possesses heightened abilities to influence those around her, yet she still struggles to make it through a usual day. Just like a typical teenager, she thinks that people are dumb and that life might not be worth living. Having been around the block with visits to therapists, Tripsy ends up in the office of Dr. Jon Moore, a licensed therapist who specializes in suicidal teenagers. Tripsy comes in being labeled as suicidal, but he will have to work through Tripsy’s many layers to figure out her true self. Tripsy tells Dr. Moore (aka “Dorkus”) from the start that she has one year left to live; Moore must use everything he knows to help Tripsy and keep that from being true.

Dr. Moore will have to work through his own demons from an emotionally-abusive childhood to find a way to understand Tripsy, a patient who is completely different than all his previous ones. The mere fact that Tripsy has been in his presence sets him a little off in his daily life, but their discussions, or lack of, in each session cause Dr. Moore to re-examine his own life, changing the session’s dynamic to the therapist becoming the student on teen suicide.

From the first page, the reader should be prepared to read about the dark topic of suicide. After meeting Tripsy, each part of the book pertains to a different area of suicide including the different ways of doing it, why you’re doing it, how to write a letter with an explanation or just love, etc.. It gets a little graphic in the parts that Tripsy goes into detail explaining things during the sessions. There is also reference to and use of drugs, mainly marijuana, by both teenagers and adults. Throughout the whole story there is adult language starting mainly from Tripsy, but spreading as the book progresses to other characters. Even though I know suicide is very prevalent among teenagers and adults alike, if given the choice, I would prefer not to have to read about it. With the reader knowing and remembering that this story is meant to be a satire, it still did not read well to me. I feel that this type of story requires a reader with specific interests in this subject and who doesn’t mind so much language and suggestive material. If you do enjoy this story and want to read more about Tripsy, look for her next book coming out, Darlington.