Review: You don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 3, 2013
The main character Marie seems perfectly normal as she begins her first year of medical school. There is nothing more important to Marie than becoming a doctor. At the university, she meets tall, dark, handsome Dustin. They are physically and emotionally connected and have wonderful, mutually fulfilling sex. They seem to be in love and Marie’s life seems to be everything she dreamed it would be.But first heartache and then tragedy find Marie and she begins to confuse reality with fantasy. We think of mental illness as something that people are born with. You either have it when you’re young, or you don’t. This story makes the reader ponder the question, is schizophrenia the mind’s way of coping with heartache and tragedy. It asks a question about the origins of mental illness while bringing the characters to life in a captivating and well-written story.During this difficult time in Marie’s life, it would be a great comfort if there was someone who could be with her; someone who could be supportive. But she is alone. Her mother has lost touch with reality and her father has never really been there for her. He loves her but he is too stuck in his rigid thinking. He will soon find out that you don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it.Consciously Dead is a thinking person’s horror story. Is mental illness physical; biological? Are there things that can trigger a change in the biology of the brain which can cause anyone to develop a debilitating mental illness?But this story is not so much about mental illness as it is about love, hope and courage. Marie will need hope and courage to claw her way back to reality. But more importantly, she will need love. She will need the special kind of love that only a father can offer. It is the one thing she has needed all along.I highly recommend this unique and fascinating story and give it a solid five stars.