Borris, Albert.  Crash into Me.  2009.  257p.  Simon Pulse, $16.99.  (978-1-4169-7435-2).  Gr. 10-12.

Four teenagers—who connect on the internet—take an odyssey across the United States to visit the sites of celebrity suicides before they kill themselves in Death Valley.   The four in the suicide pact couldn’t be more different:  isolated Owen, the narrator; lying Audrey, the only one of the four who actually didn’t attempt suicide; Korean-American Jin-Ae, a scholarly lesbian; and alcoholic Frank, the driver.  Their bonding from the closeness of the two weeks changes their self-perceptions and their need for death.  Background is provided by past emails among them as they switch from totally depressive to finding hope in a future.  A student assistance counselor, the author knows his characters and his audience and eloquently speaks to them.