Ever Meet "The Suicide Collectors"?

I assume you haven't because they are the figment of the imagination of author David Oppegaard. As I was perusing through the shelves of my local library yesterday, I was in search of something interesting to read and came upon the novel, The Suicide Collectors. The title intrigued me. I read the synopsis and decided to bring the novel home with me. I started reading it earlier today and after about 5 hours of straight reading, I closed the book and shuttered at the thought of Oppegaard's world!

Synopsis: "The Despair has plagued the earth for five years. Most of the world’s population has inexplicably died by its own hand, and the few survivors struggle to remain alive. A mysterious, shadowy group called the Collectors has emerged, inevitably appearing to remove the bodies of the dead. But in the crumbling state of Florida, a man named Norman takes an unprecedented stand against the Collectors, propelling him on a journey across North America. It’s rumored a scientist in Seattle is working on a cure for the Despair, but in a world ruled by death, it won’t be easy to get there." (Amazon.com)

Review:  David Oppegaard's The Suicide Collectors is a very impressive first novel, so much so that it was nominated for the prestigious Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. While it falls into a well known sci-fi sub-category of post-apocalyptic fiction (that of the road trip across a once-familiar country devastated by some catastrophe), Oppegaard makes it all fresh with memorable characters and with a unique and highly original premise for the devastation. The author's style reads quite well and the pace never lags. You come to care about the main characters, and the landscape is presented in a highly visual way so that you truly feel immersed in the world and in everything that is happening. Many reviewers of this novel praise the overall story but find the ending to be anti-climatic.  I think that's the reason that I liked the ending. It was unconventional in which the climax of the story actually happens off-screen. It makes for a nice change. There are hundreds of well-written post-apocalyptic novels (i.e., The Walking Dead, I Am Legend, The Handmaid's Tale, The Hunger Games trilogy, etc.) and this novel ranks among them.  A fast and engrossing read!

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars