I was immediately intrigued by the premise of this book. Creepy mental asylum story with a seemingly incurable patient who terrifies everyone who comes into contact with him? Sign me up!
I initially liked the format of this book- via a blog, an inexperienced doctor recounts his time at a mental hospital, focusing around his dealings with a particular patient. I soon grew irritated when at the start of each new chapter/ blog entry, Parker would say things like, “Whew. All right, this one I have to write quickly, otherwise I’ll never finish it. Gonna have a killer hangover, but f*** it.” What? Why do you need to say that, it has nothing to do with the story and does absolutely nothing to further the plot. It’s one thing to respond to comments from readers, or talk about how people are responding to his blog (I had no problem with that), but just little comments like writing quickly or “I’m not going to summarize where we are,” become a repetitive nuisance. (Uhh why would you summarize what’s happened if we’ve already been reading the story?) I think that just added to my dislike for Parker.
This book could have been so much more- it was too rushed and I didn’t feel like I got to know much about Joe at all. If that was expanded on, it would have been a stronger story, and for me there would be an actual element of psychological horror. Although, this still wouldn’t have saved the ending. The only reason I pushed through was to see the resolution with Joe, and it was wildly disappointing.
I initially liked the format of this book- via a blog, an inexperienced doctor recounts his time at a mental hospital, focusing around his dealings with a particular patient. I soon grew irritated when at the start of each new chapter/ blog entry, Parker would say things like, “Whew. All right, this one I have to write quickly, otherwise I’ll never finish it. Gonna have a killer hangover, but f*** it.” What? Why do you need to say that, it has nothing to do with the story and does absolutely nothing to further the plot. It’s one thing to respond to comments from readers, or talk about how people are responding to his blog (I had no problem with that), but just little comments like writing quickly or “I’m not going to summarize where we are,” become a repetitive nuisance. (Uhh why would you summarize what’s happened if we’ve already been reading the story?) I think that just added to my dislike for Parker.
This book could have been so much more- it was too rushed and I didn’t feel like I got to know much about Joe at all. If that was expanded on, it would have been a stronger story, and for me there would be an actual element of psychological horror. Although, this still wouldn’t have saved the ending. The only reason I pushed through was to see the resolution with Joe, and it was wildly disappointing.