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sarah1984's review against another edition
1.0
29/7 - Super boring. Super depressing. Super triggering if you have a fear of getting sick and needing an ambulance or the hospital.
I really have no idea what Connelly was going for with this book. Frank Pierce is an ambulance driver who is so badly burned out that he's seeing hallucinations of the patients he couldn't save. His wife has left him because of what the job has done to him and he's swigging from a flask while on duty. He has no hope. He tries to quit for his sanity but his captain doesn't take him seriously because of how many times he's already quit and then ended up arriving for his shift anyway.
His fellow ambulance officers aren't much better off. There's the one who drives so fast and so recklessly that he keeps wrecking the vehicles. There's the one who has found God and believes that it's all down to fate and nothing he does will change the outcome, so why hurry. There's the one who behaves like a cop, using excess violence against anyone who looks at him wrong. There's the partner we meet at the start of the book who discusses one of the dispatchers in the most crass and offensive manner and (in my opinion) sexually harasses her over the radio when she's giving out the jobs. And that's not even considering the deplorable staff at the main hospital Frank drops his patients off at.
The hospital is called Our Lady of Mercy, but everyone calls it Misery because of the treatment the patients receive. The ER doctor is known as Hazmat, for (as far as I remember) unknown but easily imaginable reasons. Then there's the security guard who refuses to let patients' family to get past the waiting room or the intake nurse who tells patients "We treated you yesterday for alcohol poisoning and discharged you this morning, now you're back again. Why should we bother with you when you just keep doing this to yourself?". Then there's the way Frank's main patient, Mr. Burke, is treated at the hospital. His family are rarely allowed into see him, despite his critical condition; the doctors seem mystified with what to do with him, how to help him, other than keeping him sedated so he won't pull his intubation tube out and doing CPR and shocking him when his heart stops (multiple times a day for the two days he's in the hospital). This was written in '99, so it's nineteen years old, but even back then they had more treatment options for a heart attack than just stick him on a bed and leave him there till he can no longer be revived.
Reading this is enough to make a reader, even one with no previous concerns (which isn't me at all), terrified of the idea of needing an ambulance or being admitted to hospital for any reason at all. I'm not suggesting that aspects of this aren't a realistic portrayal of life as an ambulance officer suffering from burnout, but I can't believe all these issues could be happening to so many ambulance officers from the same dispatch centre at the same time.
I really have no idea what Connelly was going for with this book. Frank Pierce is an ambulance driver who is so badly burned out that he's seeing hallucinations of the patients he couldn't save. His wife has left him because of what the job has done to him and he's swigging from a flask while on duty. He has no hope. He tries to quit for his sanity but his captain doesn't take him seriously because of how many times he's already quit and then ended up arriving for his shift anyway.
His fellow ambulance officers aren't much better off. There's the one who drives so fast and so recklessly that he keeps wrecking the vehicles. There's the one who has found God and believes that it's all down to fate and nothing he does will change the outcome, so why hurry. There's the one who behaves like a cop, using excess violence against anyone who looks at him wrong. There's the partner we meet at the start of the book who discusses one of the dispatchers in the most crass and offensive manner and (in my opinion) sexually harasses her over the radio when she's giving out the jobs. And that's not even considering the deplorable staff at the main hospital Frank drops his patients off at.
The hospital is called Our Lady of Mercy, but everyone calls it Misery because of the treatment the patients receive. The ER doctor is known as Hazmat, for (as far as I remember) unknown but easily imaginable reasons. Then there's the security guard who refuses to let patients' family to get past the waiting room or the intake nurse who tells patients "We treated you yesterday for alcohol poisoning and discharged you this morning, now you're back again. Why should we bother with you when you just keep doing this to yourself?". Then there's the way Frank's main patient, Mr. Burke, is treated at the hospital. His family are rarely allowed into see him, despite his critical condition; the doctors seem mystified with what to do with him, how to help him, other than keeping him sedated so he won't pull his intubation tube out and doing CPR and shocking him when his heart stops (multiple times a day for the two days he's in the hospital). This was written in '99, so it's nineteen years old, but even back then they had more treatment options for a heart attack than just stick him on a bed and leave him there till he can no longer be revived.
Reading this is enough to make a reader, even one with no previous concerns (which isn't me at all), terrified of the idea of needing an ambulance or being admitted to hospital for any reason at all. I'm not suggesting that aspects of this aren't a realistic portrayal of life as an ambulance officer suffering from burnout, but I can't believe all these issues could be happening to so many ambulance officers from the same dispatch centre at the same time.
poodlemama99's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
lmrewis's review against another edition
4.0
Reads like a train of thought. Excellent. Good for anyone feeling burnt out.
wunderbread384's review against another edition
4.0
This is an incredibly intense book...not in the sense of hard to put down because you want to see what happens next, but hard to put down because the author gets you so involved in these intensely emotional and physical situations. It's like watching someone go crazy right in front of you, and Connelly really draws you in so you feel almost like you're going crazy alongside the main character (Frank).
The pacing is also clever in the same way...you get hit again and again, thrown into the action, until you feel almost as worn down as Frank does. Call after call he's stuck working, and chapter after chapter you feel the same way reading. More than many other books, this one really involves you maybe not emotionally, but mentally.
The pacing is also clever in the same way...you get hit again and again, thrown into the action, until you feel almost as worn down as Frank does. Call after call he's stuck working, and chapter after chapter you feel the same way reading. More than many other books, this one really involves you maybe not emotionally, but mentally.
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