Dr Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets

Frenchie Garcia is one of the best characters I’ve read in a while thanks to a classic technique: the exploration of mortality. Instead of focusing on her own, however, Sanchez constructs a story wherein Frenchie ponders the suicide of a guy named Andy with whom she spent one adventurous night. Frenchie’s own mental state is fragile enough to suggest she, too, might take herself out of the world but the more compelling threat is what her own rationale might be. She’s in search of a deeper truth not to life, but to ending life.

A satisfying story with great exchanges of dialogue, a sprinkling of Emily Dickinson, and a very effective exploration of coping with death.