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That was pretty disappointing, really. I once read some advice that said if the author's name is larger than the title of the book, you should avoid it. This book may be evidence to support that. I mean, it was published in 1988 sure, but it was basically a Nancy Drew mystery with a medical setting. With the level of writing prowess to match...
There isn't much of a synopsis I can provide that isn't covered by the book's description. There are outbreaks of Ebola, and a doctor from the CDC is investigating to find out why. That's really just about it.
The first half of the book was really iffy. I've studied epidemiology and I find it very interesting, so I enjoyed it, but it really reads like a documentary discussing what would happen if a serious disease were to break out and what steps would be taken to contain it. Now, having studied epidemiology, it really wasn't saying anything new to me, either, but it felt like the author really wanted you to know that they know what they're talking about here. What's worse, it's re-described for every subsequent case. Each and every time she goes into a room with a patient, the book describes her putting on her protective gear bit by bit, observing sterile procedures, minimizing chances of spreading or contracting the virus, washing her hands once she's done... no seriously, we get it. They do the same fucking thing for each case.
The second half of the book was a bit better, although it was your standard generic action movie style story of rushing to get to the evidence/whatever before the bad guys get to the protagonist. I have to confess I kinda skimmed through some of it because I was in a hurry to come write a bitchy review. Nothing new here, and nothing all that interesting either really, although it's not a complete waste of time if you're just looking for a distraction for a couple of hours. It also requires a bit of suspension of belief when you start delving into motives and whatnot, but as long as you're not looking for any real mental stimulation...
Unfortunately for this book, the somewhat interesting descriptions of how to handle a virus outbreak is interrupted by cheesy romance drama. The entire country is at risk from a seriously infectious virus that has a 94% fatality rate, and her boss stops to hit on her. When she rebuffs him, he spends the entire rest of the book making her life (and very important job...) difficult because his nose is out of joint from the rejection. What's WORSE - She feels GUILTY about not going along with it and wonders (over and over again) if she should have just slept with him. Oh and also two other guys are hitting on her throughout the book but she's just so humble and self conscious that she doesn't really realize it.Gee I wonder if one of them will turn out to be the bad guy? Nah it couldn't possibly be... oh he was? I see.
Again, the book was written in the 80s, and it is an attempt at making a strong female lead. I suppose it was probably written before "Mary Sue" became a "thing", but I suspect Dr. Blumenthal wouldn't fare very well on the Mary Sue Litmus Test. She's so self conscious and has no confidence in her abilities, and meanwhile everyone around her is falling over themselves to describe how cute she is and how amazing she is at her job and oh also she is the only one who discovers all these links between things (because everyone else is too busy hitting on her to notice, I guess) and she manages to fight off assailants and come out smelling like roses on the other side of the door afterward. Every now and then it seemed like there would be an injection of an attempt to tone it down a bit, but every attempt at giving her a flaw just turns into yet another unexpected benefit for her. It was unfortunate because of how grating it became.
And then there was the dog. For the first half of the book, each and every time a new outbreak happened, the book would spend a paragraph explaining how she got someone to take care of her dog. Then when she comes back, a paragraph describing how the dog is so happy to see her. There was no purpose for this dog except filler. Which made me very suspicious.
Yep. The dog dies. Slain by the bad guys. Suddenly and without much warning, and no real mention afterward either, except when she gets a new one in the epilogue.
There was absolutely no reason for any of it to be included other than a transparent attempt at throwing sympathy to the character. Which, because it was transparent, just made me roll my eyes.
A lot of it made me roll my eyes, really. It was almost good in a lot of ways, and I thought the disease aspects were handled really well, but the rest of it was just so shallow that it was difficult to really enjoy fully.
There isn't much of a synopsis I can provide that isn't covered by the book's description. There are outbreaks of Ebola, and a doctor from the CDC is investigating to find out why. That's really just about it.
The first half of the book was really iffy. I've studied epidemiology and I find it very interesting, so I enjoyed it, but it really reads like a documentary discussing what would happen if a serious disease were to break out and what steps would be taken to contain it. Now, having studied epidemiology, it really wasn't saying anything new to me, either, but it felt like the author really wanted you to know that they know what they're talking about here. What's worse, it's re-described for every subsequent case. Each and every time she goes into a room with a patient, the book describes her putting on her protective gear bit by bit, observing sterile procedures, minimizing chances of spreading or contracting the virus, washing her hands once she's done... no seriously, we get it. They do the same fucking thing for each case.
The second half of the book was a bit better, although it was your standard generic action movie style story of rushing to get to the evidence/whatever before the bad guys get to the protagonist. I have to confess I kinda skimmed through some of it because I was in a hurry to come write a bitchy review. Nothing new here, and nothing all that interesting either really, although it's not a complete waste of time if you're just looking for a distraction for a couple of hours. It also requires a bit of suspension of belief when you start delving into motives and whatnot, but as long as you're not looking for any real mental stimulation...
Unfortunately for this book, the somewhat interesting descriptions of how to handle a virus outbreak is interrupted by cheesy romance drama. The entire country is at risk from a seriously infectious virus that has a 94% fatality rate, and her boss stops to hit on her. When she rebuffs him, he spends the entire rest of the book making her life (and very important job...) difficult because his nose is out of joint from the rejection. What's WORSE - She feels GUILTY about not going along with it and wonders (over and over again) if she should have just slept with him. Oh and also two other guys are hitting on her throughout the book but she's just so humble and self conscious that she doesn't really realize it.
Again, the book was written in the 80s, and it is an attempt at making a strong female lead. I suppose it was probably written before "Mary Sue" became a "thing", but I suspect Dr. Blumenthal wouldn't fare very well on the Mary Sue Litmus Test. She's so self conscious and has no confidence in her abilities, and meanwhile everyone around her is falling over themselves to describe how cute she is and how amazing she is at her job and oh also she is the only one who discovers all these links between things (because everyone else is too busy hitting on her to notice, I guess) and she manages to fight off assailants and come out smelling like roses on the other side of the door afterward. Every now and then it seemed like there would be an injection of an attempt to tone it down a bit, but every attempt at giving her a flaw just turns into yet another unexpected benefit for her. It was unfortunate because of how grating it became.
And then there was the dog. For the first half of the book, each and every time a new outbreak happened, the book would spend a paragraph explaining how she got someone to take care of her dog. Then when she comes back, a paragraph describing how the dog is so happy to see her. There was no purpose for this dog except filler. Which made me very suspicious.
There was absolutely no reason for any of it to be included other than a transparent attempt at throwing sympathy to the character. Which, because it was transparent, just made me roll my eyes.
A lot of it made me roll my eyes, really. It was almost good in a lot of ways, and I thought the disease aspects were handled really well, but the rest of it was just so shallow that it was difficult to really enjoy fully.