This is an important publication as it is the first book to engage in depth with suicidality and self-harm in a diverse range of queer youth. The authors draw on a range of social science perspectives in order to better understand why, despite some evidence of increasing societal acceptance of sexual diversity, LGBTQ youth are still at greater risk of self-harm than their heterosexual peers' -Jonathan Scourfield, Cardiff University, UK 'Elizabeth McDermott and Katrina Roen extend the boundaries of current thinking about suicide and self-harm for queer identified youth who are commonly positioned as inherently "risky" subjects. They offer insights into the embodied, structural and discursive conditions that generate emotional distress and hence they open up critical questions about how self-harming practices could be prevented. Drawing upon contemporary social theory, this book contributes to a deeper understanding of how young LGBT young people negotiate their emerging subjectivities in relation to normative ideas about sexuality, success and emotional life. Written in an engaging style and drawing upon rich empirical material, McDermott and Roen develop a compelling interdisciplinary approach that brings together insights from critical psychology, feminism, sociology and queer theory. The book also had immense applied value for professionals and policy makers who desire more critically reflexive, sensitive and hopeful ways of responding to the complex emotional lives (and deaths) of queer youth.' -Simone Fullagar, University of Bath, UK
