Living through a pandemic, what we thought was insane and impossible has now become familiar through news reports filling our TVs and phone screens. Two years’ worth of lockdowns, mask mandates and many other restrictions were put into place. Robert McGill boldly drives this notion further in his dark and comedic novel, A Suitable Companion for the End of Your Life, taking a familiar event and distorting it into a story that seems so far away from our own world. He creates a dystopian world that sheds light on issues prevalent in our own society, such as suicide, addiction and eating disorders. The only difference is how plague outbreaks are dealt with. Its citizens are turned into “flatpacks,” where they are deflated and preserved, hoping to bring them back to life once a cure has been discovered. 

A Suitable Companion for the End of Your Life takes place in a very similar world to our own. Places like Tkoronto share our culture but bring its own sci-fi element to throw us for a loop and keep us on our feet. This novel tells the story of Regan, a teenage girl who, having decided to kill herself, orders a flatpack off the dark web. When a plague strikes one of this world’s countries, flatpacking is invented as a form of saving the diseased. A coma-like state that turns people with the plague into a deflated body with a valve on their neck, so that once a cure is found, they can be inflated again. What they didn’t know, though, was that once inflated, not only would their memories be wiped, but these flatpacks would emit a deadly gas – eventually killing anyone trapped in their vicinity. Alternating between the present, shown through Regan, and the past, mysteriously displayed to us through letters from an unknown character, we slowly start to piece together the history of this world. As Regan interacts with her flatpack named Ülle, things start to take a turn. Ülle’s off-gassing is having no effect on Regan; two more flatpacks arrive and a mysterious van is watching them from the street. As Ülle’s amnesia is lifting and Regan starts to change her mind about dying, these two perspectives become one, ending in a mind-blowing moment that left me wanting more.

McGill does an amazing job using a distinctive and curious style for the layout of his novel while using a format that’s very familiar. He alternates between two different perspectives in every chapter, but doing so alongside the shifting plot lines results in an enticing experience that I never had before. Coming out of a pandemic, it’s understandable that many authors will write about the events of the last two years, but Robert McGill takes it to a new level. With two alternating stories that not only change perspective but points of view, switching from third-person to first-person, you’re left in a daze trying to process the chapter you just read while there’s no time to prepare yourself for the other storyline. In a way, this mimics the emotions of a pandemic – the confusion, dissociation and disruption that many of us felt. McGill not only tells the story of a pandemic and its society’s response to one, but he also skillfully embeds the numerous feelings of it within the narrative. 

McGill has created an extravagant dystopian world within this novel, taking the pandemic that we all experienced and cranking the dial up to 100. Reading A Suitable Companion for the End of Your Life felt like looking at our world through a distorted lens, “where people are treated like IKEA furniture.” While this world seems insanely outlandish, there are echoes of truth and reality in it. McGill mentions eating disorders and addictions, but uses a seemingly normal teenager to focus on suicide. Remember, Regan wants to die; going so far as to plan her own death via flatpack. I really enjoyed seeing this story through Regan’s eyes, as she’s a realistic character that’s very relatable. Her flaws, strengths and even her manner of talking are all very true to what teenagers are like – easily reminding me of my younger self. If it wasn’t for the sci-fi elements of her story, I would believe that she’s real. Her character development also drew me in the more I read, showing us Regan’s growth regarding her suicidal thoughts. She’s given multiple opportunities to give up and succumb, but she finds herself diving deeper and deeper into the mysterious flatpacks that she was given and ultimately deciding to live. 

However, I wanted Regan’s eating disorder to be fleshed out more. It’s no secret to us that Regan struggles to eat properly, showing us the many glasses of alcohol that she downs and making sure to mention her empty stomach. Although this aspect of Regan’s life adds another layer of depth to her character, it doesn’t seem to go anywhere else – it’s like a dead end with no resolution, or maybe an element meant solely for the sake of angst. The ending highlights her growth by no longer having those suicidal thoughts. But it would have been rewarding to see how this large aspect of Regan’s mental health could have affected the choices she makes. Maybe even seeing a statement being made about the pandemic and the effects it can have on mental health. I personally found myself struggling with my own mental health during the pandemic and it would have been validating to see this discussion mentioned in a novel, especially one so focused on the effects a pandemic might have on a person. 

An amazing addition to this quirky story was the relationship that’s formed between Regan and Ülle. Compared to Regan’s relationship with her own mother, the intimacy she shares with Ülle is heartwarming and tender. Regan’s in need of a stable mother figure, and when she decides she no longer wants to live, that mother figure appears on her doorstep. Regan and Ülle both eventually end up taking care of each other, becoming the stability that they both need – Regan taking care of Ülle until she’s fully inflated and, by the end of the novel, Ülle doing the same for Regan. These two characters form a bond, as Ülle goes from being an end-of-life companion to someone who gives Regan a reason to live. McGill compares Ülle to Regan’s mother multiple times throughout this novel. Ülle even calls Regan “Mama” when she’s first unpacked and Regan dresses her in her mother’s clothes. This is an interesting technique that McGill uses to introduce the idea that Ülle is supposed to be the caregiver here, not Regan. They go through traumatic experiences together and it’s poetic that their roles are reversed, coming full circle. Regan, the suicidal teenager who starts this novel wanting to die, orders herself a means of death that ultimately makes her want to live and provides a forever companion. McGill beautifully speaks on the perils that many teenagers face and how, when given the attention and support that they need, they can bounce back – proving to be more resilient than we thought. 

A Suitable Companion for the End of Your Life discusses mental health, parental relationships during a pandemic and the hardships of being a teenager. There couldn’t be a better time for the release of this novel, as we slowly move beyond our own pandemic and assess our scars. The dark humor of this novel allows us to take a comedic view of the past few years of our lives, truly trying to understand what we just went through and how many of us have changed, mentally and physically. Robert McGill takes many relatable topics and twists it into a frightening and mysterious story that leaves you questioning everything, from what’s really happening to situations a little too close to home. This novel might make you uncomfortable, but it just tightens its grip on reality. Life isn’t always easy and neat; it’s full of difficult and excruciating situations. Sometimes we need to be uncomfortable for us to open our minds beyond our own experiences.