Review: Good Story With Problems
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 21, 2013
This book is marketed as a compilation of eight stories, but it is unlikely that any one of the eight stories could independently represent a single tale that could be considered complete in itself.  As the reader progresses through the novel, the reader will also progress through a number of emotions.  Ranging from curiosity to incredulity to inspiration to unbelievable hope, the emotions wrought by the logical insanity of the characters entices one to turn the page even as one wants to throw it across the room and destroy it for being so oblique and immature.  Using basic scientific theories and catapulting them to impossibly fascinating applications, the author presents the idea that every person in every position of authority and every position of subservience presents an appearance that belies the reality and socially-unacceptable thoughts that abound within the confines of the professional's mind as well as the insane residents' minds.Annie Radford is placed in an asylum after she kills her young brother because, she proclaims, he is evil.  Not elaborating her theory, the reader must continue to turn pages to find that not a single person in the building is who or what they seem, and, for some unknown reason, Radford enters the asylum with a relatively sane mind, wanting to one day be released, and within a very short time, she truly is experiencing the very concerns she was originally and arguably diagnosed to have.  As she regresses in her thoughts and behaviors, a Nazi criminal is living alone in the attic, her room-mate turns out to be someone other than she thought, and brains are being experimented upon without the patients'--or any medically-qualified official's--knowledge.An impossible premise, the novel fascinates even as the editing misses an unbelievable number of type-o kinds of errors as well as a few truly mind-boggling errors.  One repeated error is the final character in many words is non-existent.  There is no real explanation for the discrepancy of one man's presence in the building, which cannot be explained here without revealing too much of the story;  however, while the author does clearly show the man exists in human form and not as a ghost, there is never a logical explanation for his presence or actions.The book would be recommended for those who like to think logically and use their imagination.  While it would not be recommended for a person who wants all actions to be possible using proven scientific theories, it is a great book for a reader wanting to try to solve the mystery before the author provides the explanations of why the actions are happening.The clues are there, but it may be a challenge to understand until almost all is eventually explained.  Perhaps the sequel will provide more information;  we shall see.