Review: 3 3/4 Stars
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 23, 2010
Plot/Storyline: 3 StarsThis lengthy novella opened with a woman who has terminal cancer choosing to take the "Death Trip", which is a thinly disguised form of assisted suicide. The viewpoint then switched to the the woman's grandson, Chuck, who appears to be a ne'er-do-well young man with no real job or friends, outside of an internet girlfriend who he only knows by her internet nickname. Chuck had been close to his grandmother, who seemed to approve of him simply because he was a decent person in comparison with the rest of his family.The story slides downhill at this point with the coincidence of Chuck's internet girlfriend turning out to be a huge opponent of assisted suicide. Most of the rest of the story was a lot of arguing back and forth to show both sides of the assisted suicide issue, with the `con' arguments not having anything to do with the decision made by Chuck's grandmother.Toward the end, the story took an unexpected turn of being more about corporate greed and power. This was the portion that saved the novella from obscurity. Had the novella focused more on this plot development, it would have been far more interesting.Mostly, it felt as though this novella was at war with itself regarding what the actual plot was causing the storyline to have a somewhat pointless feeling at times. The concept of "The Death Trip" was very original and was explained pretty directly without too much science lecturing.I don't want to give spoilers, but I have to say that I didn't enjoy the `let the reader decide' style of non-conclusion.Character Development: 4 StarsChuck, while unlikeable, was still a very human, three-dimensional character. The development was so well done that it felt like I knew the guy. Each of his actions had good character-driven motivation.The grandmother in the beginning was also very well drawn, especially for her short-lived part in the novel. Her character generated plenty of empathy and understanding of her decision.The internet girlfriend and other characters were pretty weak, though. I felt a little more could have been done to bring them to life.Writing Style: 3 1/2 StarsThe sentence structuring was fairly simplistic, but worked fine for the setting. The descriptions were tight, befitting a novella. The dialogue was realistic and very nicely done.Editing: 4 1/2 StarsThere were a few errors, but nothing that would spoil the reading experience.Rating: R for Adult Situations, Language, and Sex