SuitabookHold still
Nina LaCour
- Reading
- Consider checking in before and after reading, especially around the suicide and depression material. Allow space to pause, talk about difficult feelings, and notice how different characters seek or offer support.
- Themes
- Grief and starting over: Caitlin is left alone after Ingrid’s suicide and struggles to recognise her new life, while family and new friends become part of her movement towards renewed hope. The story gives sustained attention to grief as an ongoing process rather than a single event, while placing renewed connection alongside pain.
- Depression and suicide: Ingrid’s journal chronicles what is described as her descent into depression and becomes a way for Caitlin to encounter Ingrid’s final period. The book?s stance on this remains unclear.
- Connection after loss: Caitlin receives help from family and new friends, encounters first love, and uses Ingrid’s journal to reach towards people connected with Ingrid and herself. The book presents this favourably.
- Worth knowing
- The central death and its aftermath are emotionally intense. Depression is part of Ingrid’s story, while Caitlin’s grief, fear, shaking, isolation, and struggle to find hope receive substantial attention.