Review: The Most Psychologically Terrifying Novel I Have Ever Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 09 26, 2013
This story begins 100 years after a pandemic kills approximately 80% of the world's population and 50 years (two-and-a-half generations) after the government of what used to be most of the United States instituted the Life First mandate.  To insure the survival of what little populace remained, the government required that all persons be DNA type-matched and a GPS chip with alarm nanos be placed in all persons. The idea was that if a person became ill or had an accident, the most likely donor of blood, tissue cells or an organ could be quickly located and a transplant made, insuring that the stricken lived as long a possible.However, participation was not voluntary. If a person did not wish to comply with the mandatory "donation," he or she was declared a sociopath, imprisoned and was eventually "terminated" when someone genetically compatible needed a heart, a liver, a double lung or a double kidney transplant. Several "free states" had been formed prior to the enactment of Life First, namely Peoria (the original state of Florida), but now a person had to get there first and the GPS nanos made that virtually impossible.Using this viewpoint of a dystopian society, we follow Kelsey Reed, the daughter of a prominent Senator, who has been "matched" and must give up a kidney. Her mother had died and her best friend had been maimed in botched up situations and Kelsey decides to flee. And, as the reader can expect, she gets caught. Game on.This was the most psychologically terrifying novel that I have ever tried to read. With the current threat of bio-terror in our world and increasing government interference in our medical choices, the premise of this novel strikes more than uncomfortably close to home. This is the debate of "pro-choice" versus "right to life" taken to an all-new level. The idea that such a concept as Life First could actually become law after a terrorist attack feels actually more like a probability than a possibility.And the reason it feels so strongly that way is due to the author's writing skill. Not only are the mechanics of the writing top-notch (grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, editing), the structure of the story flows logically. This may be a dystopian situation but the author creates a reality that cannot be denied and there is no deus ex machina to miraculously save the day.However, that incredible skill to create a terrifying reality quickly became a negative in this reader's experience. There is not one page in this novel that contains a breath of fresh air or even a momentary chance to breath any air. There is not one genuine smile or even a small hint of laughter until the last 10 paragraphs of the book. Page after page, the terror builds with no relief.And page-by-page, the storyline caused my indignation, my anger and my distress to build. Even knowing that this was "just a story," I couldn't control my stress. I tried stopping every few chapters to rest my brain, but that didn't work either. Then I took to scan-reading, then reading just the first and last pages of each chapter only. But even that provided no psychological relief.I read prodigiously, especially mystery/thrillers from the likes of Child, Baldacci, Flynn, de Mille and Kellerman. I am used to graphic violence and terror, both in books and in my past career. But, in this instance, there was just too much tension and anger and stress written into every page.I am not a young person and, most times I know when to pace myself or just out-right stop doing something that is hurting me. And this was one of those times. I stopped.This is one of the very few books that I have not been able to read cover to cover, word for word. It is the author's excellent skill in developing her premise that initiated that action but it is also the author's choice to pace the conflict without even momentary relief that made the final decision for me.I received a copy of this novel through the Goodreads Giveaway program. That fact did not, in any way, influence my opinion of the book.