“The Weight of Him” by Ethel Rohan
Published by St. Martin’s PressFinished 2/12/17 - 3/5 stars
One night while the family was sleeping Billy’s oldest son,
Michael, walked out of the house and hung himself in a tree. His suicide took the family by complete surprise
and seeing as how he didn’t leave a note, no one really knows why he did
it. One thing Billy does know is that he
doesn’t want Michael’s death to be for nothing.
He is determined to bring attention to suicide in the hopes of
preventing others from taking their own lives.
He decided to accept pledges/donations to a charity for him to loose
half his weight (he is truly obese), to create a walk in the town to bring
awareness, and create a documentary to share the story of Michael and others affected
by suicide. If Michael’s death can stop
someone else from dying, then it will all be worth it. But what about the rest of the family…..is it
worth it to them?
The idea behind this story is a good one. There are too many suicides in the world,
especially teens. I love the fact that
Billy takes this on as his new life mission, which helps him to heal as well,
but I feel like the story is missing a lot that could have made it a better
book. I think Michael’s character needed
more development and back story and truly, so did the rest of the family. For example, Billy has a daughter that you
know almost nothing about and therefore, I’m not even sure why she’s a
character in the book at all. I also found the storyline to be quite
slow. It took me longer than it should
have to read this book simply because there was nothing drawing me back to pick
it up and read more. I did feel for
Billy though – he had a very tough time with Michael’s death and had to work
through surviving it without any true help from his own family.
Thank you to Net Galley and St Martin’s Press for an advance
copy of this book in return for an honest review.
