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anatomydetective's review
3.0
To paraphrase a David Foster Wallace title: A well-written story collection I'll never read again.
drewjameson's review
3.0
Adrian is obviously a very smart, very talented man, but he tends to do the same thing over and over. He writes a lot about reluctant doctors/med students with severe emotional distress, who may or may not have spiritual or psychic connections to angels and devils. Many of these stories blended together: they were all odd in the same way. Some of them feel like notes or exercises for his novel The Children's Hospital. But when he's on, the man is on. "Stab" is one of the best, most chilling and touching stories I've ever read. It's incredibly unique, and he executes it with surgical (pun intended) precision.
lmurray74's review against another edition
3.0
I haven't read all the stories here yet, there's only so much medicallly themed literature I can put up with after my own experiences. I'll maybe read the other stories later but maybe not. I did really enjoy The Sum of our Parts and Stab I also found somewhat compelling but the darkness that overshadows these stories is only bearable so long.
neuroteri's review against another edition
2.0
I would not want to be this dude's therapist, that's for sure.
croft's review against another edition
5.0
Chris teaches us a lesson: you are going to die. MEMENTO MORI. It doesn't matter how fast you can run or how many friends you have, death awaits you and being alive is painful.
Stories surrounded by sorrow and pain, stories recommend for those who are tired of Mr Wonderful slogans: stories for those out there who are ready to accept that life isn't a fairytale.
Stories surrounded by sorrow and pain, stories recommend for those who are tired of Mr Wonderful slogans: stories for those out there who are ready to accept that life isn't a fairytale.
tdstorm's review against another edition
1.0
It's not that Chris Adrian is a bad writer. In fact, he's good at evoking emotion. The problem is that the emotions he tries to evoke are not ones I want to be feeling. Too many of these stories were either disgusting or sadistic or just plain depressing. Reading Adrian's book just reinforces that my perhaps-overly-traditional aesthetic makes me crave redemptive moments and hope. He has such great premises: these are tales about a literal guardian angel, a civil war re-enactor, a kid who finds out he's the antichrist, a changeling. But the stories move from their very captivating, albeit dark beginnings ("Someone was murdering the small animals in our neighborhood" ("Stab"); "I'm in fourth grade and fucked-up" ("High Speeds")), to even darker endings. These tales thus become the opposite of enchanting. I define enchantment as conjuring magic from the ordinary. Adrian conjures bleakness from the potentially redemptive. He's a pediatrician, and I'm sure he witnesses lots of depressing shit. So his conjuring bleakness from redemptive possibility might be more true to life. But I don't like it.
kn1tt3r's review against another edition
4.0
I am utterly taken by Chris Adrian's combination of childhood, illness, and divinity.
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