#Michael Ford

[cherrybblossomplays]

move in day 📦

[fidjiefidjie]

Belle matinée 🆕️🫎🎅🌲

Michael Ford & The '53 Fords 🎶 Snow Snow Snow

(Sandra Boyton)

[ahosia3]

Można by pomyśleć, że powinienem przewidzieć reakcję ludzi, z którymi żyłem piętnaście lat. W tej chwili jednak mam wrażenie, że zupełnie nie znam rodziców. Teraz muszę ich uważać za ludzi, którzy mają własne uczucia. Co za męka.

~Michael Thomas Ford:"Notatki samobójcy"

[teenageread]

Review: Suicide Note

Synopsis:

I'm not crazy. I don't see what the big deal is about what happened. But apparently someone does think it's a big deal because here I am. I bet it was my mother. She always overreacts.

Fifteen-year-old Jeff wakes up on New Year's Day to find himself in the hospital. Make that the psychiatric ward. With the nutjobs. Clearly, this is all a huge mistake. Forget about the bandages on his wrists and the notes on his chart. Forget about his problems with his best friend, Allie, and her boyfriend, Burke. Jeff's perfectly fine, perfectly normal, not like the other kids in the hospital with him. Now they've got problems. But a funny thing happens as his forty-five-day sentence drags on: the crazies start to seem less crazy. Compelling, witty, and refreshingly real, Suicide Notes is a darkly humorous novel from award-winning author Michael Thomas Ford that examines that fuzzy line between "normal" and the rest of us.

Plot:

Jeff is not crazy, and although he will not tell the others why he did it, he knows the psychiatric ward is not where he is supposed to spend the next 45 days. Found bleeding out in his bedroom on New Year's Day, his parents sent him to the hospital where this 45-day program with daily and group therapy is supposed to help Jeff come to terms with what he did. With Cat Poop, Jeff’s nickname for the head doctor, Jeff is with four other patients: Alice, Hyuliet, Saide, and Bones. Now these kids were the real crazies, well maybe not Sadie. Making a joke of his therapy session, Jeff is waiting forty-five days out and tells Cat Poop that his attempt was just a dumb thing to do. Jeff was not planning on spending the days alone, making friends with Sadie, or connecting with Martha (new member), Jeff begins to see the other crazies, as just children, caught in a messed up place where he was. When the truth as to why Jeff tries to take his own life, becomes apparent, Jeff begins to accept that side of himself and realize that others will too if he gives them a chance. 

Thoughts: 

This book made headway in 2008 when it was released. Where the main plot (without spoilers) is not that outrageous compared to today’s media, in 2008 it was still often an untalked-about subject, especially in youth groups. With witty writing, Ford made it hard for readers to take Jeff seriously, as our boy was constantly cracking jokes and making light of his situation. This made this dark serious matter of a novel, something light and easy and something that readers, young readers especially, can enjoy despite the heavy content. Where at times I wish Ford would have taken things more seriously, he kept the theme light throughout the entire novel, even as Jeff's suicide attempt becomes clear.​​ The one part I hated about this novel is the sex; why I hate it is because I was not expecting it. Most of the time it felt unnecessary, and I felt that Ford could have done a better way of explaining the situation, without the graphic details that he wrote. I see the purpose of it for the overall plot, but definitely did not enjoy reading those chapters without the plot contexts. Jeff is an okay character to be telling the story from as despite the lightness of how he tells the story, he is very honest with what is going on around him and the trauma facing his fellow patients. Sure reading the doctor's name as Cat Poop the entire time was a bit annoying and immature, but that is who Jeff was as a character. It had a bit of a re-telling vibe to the story, as the novel reads like a retelling of the day; after it has already passed. With each chapter in the novel being a day of the forty-five-day program, you can see the massive progression Jeff has made throughout the novel Overall, it is a solid read, with an important message of how suicide is never the answer, and that it is always okay to be yourself.

Read more reviews: Goodreads

Buy the book: Amazon

[melis-writes]

THE GODFATHER (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola.

[thomashagen]

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone

THE GODFATHER PART II (1974) dir. Francis Ford Coppola

[lauraisakilljoy]

“we need more complex characters!!” if Lost were released today all of the characters would be cancelled immediately

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

He did say he could, and so he did!

Leverage S03E02/S03E16.

[iriashouse]

marriage is scary, what if he’s not Michael Corleone in Sicily with the bruise and his black suit bringing me a gold necklace???????????

[a-slashersfinalgirl]

who was gonna tell me that weirdmagedon is just the distortions version of the apocalypse

[ivebeendressingforrevenge]

[lostfan23]

[hideyasoups]

who was gonna tell me about this photo???? I am losing MY MIND

james looks like he's seen enlightenment and Mr Fassbender over there looks like he's been eating the lipsticks for breakfast????

im gonna go touch hella grass

[teenageread]

Review: Every Star that Falls

Synopsis:

This much-anticipated sequel to the acclaimed fan-favorite novel Suicide Notes is a funny, touching look at what happens when you give up trying to be someone people want you to be and become exactly who you are. Jeff spent forty-five days in the psych ward of a hospital after a suicide attempt. Now that he’s home and has accepted that he’s gay, he’s ready to reenter his life feeling stronger and more comfortable being his true self than ever before. But it’s hard to come back to an old life when you have a new perspective on it. Returning to school is complicated, and his mother’s anxiety isn’t helping. Jeff will also have to figure out how to reconnect with his best friend, Allie, whose boyfriend he kissed before he went to the hospital. To make things even more complicated, a fellow patient from the ward suddenly appears at school, which brings up all kinds of mixed emotions for Jeff. Luckily, he’s got new friends from a local community center for queer youths to help him through it all. And some may turn out to be more than just friends…

Plot:

It was the morning after Jeff returned home, after spending 45 days in a psych ward after trying to kill himself on New Year's night. Through his time at the hospital, Dr. K (yes no more Cat Poop), helps Jeff realize that he’s gay and helps him come to terms with this and accept himself. Now back at home, Jeff wants to return to school, but his mother’s anxiety about what others might think is holding him back. Finding support in his father, Jeff navigates his way back into his old life, including as Allie’s best friend. More upset that he didn’t feel comfortable telling her, Allie assures him that no one at school will care if he’s gay; which for the most part is true. No one cares, except Rankin. Transferred to his school, Jeff is reconnected with Rankin who does not want to tell others about their psych experience together, and when partner up on a project tells JEff about his home life struggles and tells Jeff that he’s not gay. Along with reconnecting with Rankin, Jeff joins an LGBTQ+ group, where he meets Chrys and Goldie, two boys who catch Jeff’s eye. To top everything off, Allie convinces Jeff to join a musical where for their understudy show they are going to do a gay spin-off of Grease where Jeff as Sandy will be kissing Burke as Danny. Sure, this life is more complicated than the 45 days he spent working on himself, but with his support in place, Jeff is ready to tackle his new life, make some new friends, and maybe find someone or someone to love. 

Thoughts: 

Michael Ford is back after all these years to tell us Jeff’s tale outside of the hospital. Unlike the previous novel which had a set 45 days, this novel expands a few months into Jeff’s life back at home. As it has been a few years since Ford wrote as Jeff, the voice of the story is a bit different. Jeff, while still witty, is less sarcastic and takes things more seriously than previously. Before he would only refer to his doctor as Cat Poop, whereas in this novel he only says Dr. K with no reference to the previous nickname. This novel also has a 2023 mindset that being gay is no big deal. No one cared, not his dad, grandmother, Allie, Burke, or any other character Ford brought into the high school. Sure some jokes here were made, his mother was anxious, but unlike how Ford led us up to this giant revel in the predecessor, in this novel it was met with a shrug and the plot continued. Where the first novel was dark, Ford really makes this novel all light, as nothing bad truly happens to Jeff, especially compared to the first novel. Friends are happy, life is happy, and all the drama is because Jeff is unable to express his thoughts and is unable to deal with his complicated romantic feelings. Otherwise, all drama with Allie, Chrys, the Grease Musical, and even Rankin, is solved fast and easy and wraps up nicely. Even the sexual tone is gone, as Ford wrote some pretty in-depth details of what happened between Rankin and Jeff, in this novel Jeff acts as a blushing bride when thinking about his first kiss with the guy he’s into. It probably is the years between Ford writing the novel, however, based on the writing style, plot points, and general theme of the novel; it feels like a completely different story, one of sunshine and rainbows and not darkness but substance.

Read more reviews: Goodreads

Buy the book: Amazon

[melis-writes]

THE GODFATHER (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola.