Reviewed by Mick

This is a Romeo and Juliet type story of two young lovers that can't make it work between them, opting for a darker solution to their problems.

I enjoy Katie's writing and I enjoyed reading "A Suicide Note". This is a well thought out story and Katie has overcome a hurdle that many of our young writers, and writers in general, stumble on - rushing a story. The narrative unfolds with a disciplined structure and the fact that we don't learn of the main character's name (Rebecca) until towards the end demonstrates the author has a firm grasp on her story. Too many people (myself included at times) tend to get all that information out of the way in the first few paragraphs and then get into the story.

There were a couple of moments that need to be addressed. Make sure the story is proof read a few times before getting it out there - "I didn't he had left since he car was still there..." (I thought about changing this Katie before posting but I think it's valuable that you see mistakes like this so you can learn from them).

Two other points I would direct the author to involve structure and motivation. With regards motivation, I found Erik's suicide came over as a little lame to me. I found it hard to see his death as credible because a simple fight is not sufficient motivation to end it all. If Erik was emotionally unstable for some reason, perhaps a sting of failed relationships or seeing his parents argue and break up, this should be explored and developed as a motivational tool. With regards structure, the end of the story turned the whole story on its head. The bulk of the writing is a traditional type of story and yet the last paragraph turns it into a suicide letter. I would work on this Katie and perhaps try a re-write. To solve this structural problem you could look at writing the whole story as a letter (this doesn't come through if that's what you were trying to do) or you could simply start writing a letter or diary entry at the end of the story.

Katie is an exciting young author with vision beyond her years. I recommend this story and if you're really impressed try "The Snow Globe" too.