The writing is absolutely beautiful. There are so many creative turns, alternate universes, poetic interludes and deeply personal prose, that it feels like a novel. I couldn't put it down. - R. Brodsky, Amazon 5-star review
A Book About Suicide Unlike Anything You've Read Before
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ON JULY 18, 2018, ELIZABETH ANNE VALUSEK, a Peace Corps volunteer, killed herself without warning. Why? To answer that haunting, cosmic question, her father, an award-winning writer, scientist, educator and healthcare professional, embarked on an intense three-year forensic investigation, a biopsychosocial autopsy, an epic Homeric odyssey.
Contrary to popular opinion, conventional wisdom, and the deadening, simplistic, one-dimensional narrative of "mental illness" that permeates all public discourse about suicide today, he unearthed a staggeringly complex, interwoven series of incidents and accidents, factors and forces, causes and clues, which, ultimately, made sense of his daughter's devastating death. Suicide, he concludes, is largely a social phenomenon. Valusek's story is an intimate, visceral, darkly humorous, literary, scientific and existential tour de force spanning time and space and a dozen parallel universes, with not just one, but two unexpectedly happy endings -- here, and elsewhere in the multiverse. This is a book about suicide, love, hope and the healing power of the imagination unlike anything you've ever read before. |
It took the universe 13.8 billion years to create my daughter and just twenty-eight years, three months, and six days to kill her. - JAY E. VALUSEK, from the book
Girl of Light & Shadow aims to inform, inspire, and influence three main audiences: (1) those who may be contemplating suicide, especially young people, who wonder how they got here and how they might turn things around, (2) those who have lost a loved one, especially a child, to suicide, who wonder how to make sense of what happened and what to do with all the pain, and (3) medical and mental health professionals who work with clients in distress, who wonder why no matter what they do, year by year, suicide rates just keep rising.
WARNING: Mature content (profanity, graphic imagery, sexual situations). May not be appropriate for children or adolescents under 17.
WARNING: Mature content (profanity, graphic imagery, sexual situations). May not be appropriate for children or adolescents under 17.
If my story, if Beth's story could spare one more human being one more night of solitary torment in the clutches of the Minotaur, believe it or not, that would make the whole unspeakable tragedy well worth speaking aloud. - JAY E. VALUSEK, from the book
THE AUTHOR READS A 7-PAGE EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 4, "FREE FALL", ABOUT BETH'S BIRTH . . . AND DEATH:
Praise for Girl of Light & Shadow
Man, can Valusek write. He makes this complex story so compelling. Passionate, emotional, scientific, wry, fierce, laugh-out-loud funny, searingly honest. A book about suicide and so many other things. Rich with pain and hope, mystery and revelation, loss and joy and 'our marvelously malleable humanity.' A totally convincing argument for social solutions to suicide risk, and a beautiful challenge to the monolithic myth that suicide prevention is a matter for mental health professionals alone. As heartwarming as it is heartbreaking, Girl of Light & Shadow is all about love. An extraordinary gift to the world. - HEATHER FISKE, PhD, author of Hope in Action: Solution-Focused Conversations About Suicide
Valusek brings us into a hell that every parent dreads -- where our children make decisions with tragic consequences. He narrates a shocking series of events with great skill, weaving in other authors' and researchers' work on a myriad of topics from suicide and mental health to hope. Valusek beautifully chronicles the life of one living in both light and shadow. And I absolutely loved the ending -- especially the 'script change' and the non-medical circle of support that Beth, her family and friends created together. It's a model for what people need to recover. - SARA KEMP, LPC
Moving and beautiful, sad and real, perceptive, raw and amusing. Girl of Light & Shadow touched me so deeply, I will never forget. I believe this book will resonate with many others. - MATT LELAND, MEd
Click to read 5-star reviews
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Table of Contents
PREFACE: THE WHY QUESTION
ACT ONE: ANNIHILATION
Chapter 1: Beth Please Don’t
Chapter 2: Suicide Notes, Part One
ACT TWO: THE TWISTED PATH
Chapter 3: Progenitors
Chapter 4: Free Fall
Chapter 5: Impact
Chapter 6: Entropy
Chapter 7: Shadows
Chapter 8: The Safe & Suffocating Cell of Silence
Chapter 9: Insanely Shy
Chapter 10: Brain Damage
Chapter 11: The Second Flowering
Chapter 12: Suicide Notes, Part Two
Chapter 13: Something Larger than the Self
Chapter 14: Breakdown
Chapter 15: Cruel & Unusual Punishment
ACT THREE: ALTERNATE ENDINGS
Chapter 16: Last Minute Script Change
Chapter 17: Descent into Hell
Chapter 18: Aftermath
Chapter 19: Smart Cookie
Chapter 20: Turn Me into Song
CODA: THE THREAD
Appreciations & Apologies
Further Reading
About the Author
ACT ONE: ANNIHILATION
Chapter 1: Beth Please Don’t
Chapter 2: Suicide Notes, Part One
ACT TWO: THE TWISTED PATH
Chapter 3: Progenitors
Chapter 4: Free Fall
Chapter 5: Impact
Chapter 6: Entropy
Chapter 7: Shadows
Chapter 8: The Safe & Suffocating Cell of Silence
Chapter 9: Insanely Shy
Chapter 10: Brain Damage
Chapter 11: The Second Flowering
Chapter 12: Suicide Notes, Part Two
Chapter 13: Something Larger than the Self
Chapter 14: Breakdown
Chapter 15: Cruel & Unusual Punishment
ACT THREE: ALTERNATE ENDINGS
Chapter 16: Last Minute Script Change
Chapter 17: Descent into Hell
Chapter 18: Aftermath
Chapter 19: Smart Cookie
Chapter 20: Turn Me into Song
CODA: THE THREAD
Appreciations & Apologies
Further Reading
About the Author
