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eantoinette285 's review for:
The Ninth Life of Louis Drax
by Liz Jensen
I've seen this book around throughout the years but never read it, obviously. When I heard the movie was in production, it made it even more interesting to me so I had to give it a go (the fact that Jamie Dornan will be a lead role is purely a bonus). I finished it last night but had to sleep on my thoughts before writing my final review this afternoon.
Take The Shining, The Sixth Sense, Insidious, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and roll it into a big, old ball.. voila! You now have Louis Drax.
A mysterious nine year old boy who seems to keep cheating death, and winds up in a coma after a near fatal fall, makes for a peculiar plot. No one in his life is particularly likable, so just be cautious of everyone. Even Louis himself is a brat, and pretty cynical for a child. His mother craves attention from the very get-go and plays the irresistible damsel in distress that men can't help but fall for. Pierre Drax is a doting father, but when you find out he left his first wife while they went through the process of adoption in order to be with Madame Drax, he loses cool points. Lastly, there's Doctor Pascal (who will be portrayed by Dornan in the film adaptation) is slightly despicable. A married man with two grown daughters, It's wonderful to see how he takes solace in helping his pediatric coma patients, but it's far less wonderful when he's immediately attracted to Madame Drax and having an affair with her in the hospital where her son attempts recovery.
Throughout this story, you get the perspective of the doctor and of Louis while he's under. Pascal struggles with his emotions and with finding a breakthrough in the child's condition. During Louis's perspective, things get a bit more creepy. We meet Gustave, a man covered in bandages who is skin-and-bones, who walks Louis through a forest area of the subconscious and gives him things to do between the living and the dead.
Some of this story can only be explained as unbelievable. I wasn't buying it when Doctor Pascal was head-over-heels in love with Louis's mother within such a short time. In one chapter, he discusses his adoration for his wife, Sophie, and the next, he's kissing Natalie Drax in the corridor of a hospital. There's also a scene towards the end when seemingly out of nowhere there's this massive fire and the whole hospital has to be evacuated. There's chaos and people die, and I was left wondering what I just read.
The reason I gave this book the four stars was because of the experiment Pascal runs with the help of others to try to find out Louis's story and lure him out of his coma. This is where the novel got a bit of a Frankenstein feel to it, connecting the doctor to the patient and asking the patient questions that would be answered through the doctor. It gave this work an interesting twist and made it the psychological thriller it deserves to be.
Take The Shining, The Sixth Sense, Insidious, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and roll it into a big, old ball.. voila! You now have Louis Drax.
A mysterious nine year old boy who seems to keep cheating death, and winds up in a coma after a near fatal fall, makes for a peculiar plot. No one in his life is particularly likable, so just be cautious of everyone. Even Louis himself is a brat, and pretty cynical for a child. His mother craves attention from the very get-go and plays the irresistible damsel in distress that men can't help but fall for. Pierre Drax is a doting father, but when you find out he left his first wife while they went through the process of adoption in order to be with Madame Drax, he loses cool points. Lastly, there's Doctor Pascal (who will be portrayed by Dornan in the film adaptation) is slightly despicable. A married man with two grown daughters, It's wonderful to see how he takes solace in helping his pediatric coma patients, but it's far less wonderful when he's immediately attracted to Madame Drax and having an affair with her in the hospital where her son attempts recovery.
Throughout this story, you get the perspective of the doctor and of Louis while he's under. Pascal struggles with his emotions and with finding a breakthrough in the child's condition. During Louis's perspective, things get a bit more creepy. We meet Gustave, a man covered in bandages who is skin-and-bones, who walks Louis through a forest area of the subconscious and gives him things to do between the living and the dead.
Some of this story can only be explained as unbelievable. I wasn't buying it when Doctor Pascal was head-over-heels in love with Louis's mother within such a short time. In one chapter, he discusses his adoration for his wife, Sophie, and the next, he's kissing Natalie Drax in the corridor of a hospital. There's also a scene towards the end when seemingly out of nowhere there's this massive fire and the whole hospital has to be evacuated. There's chaos and people die, and I was left wondering what I just read.
The reason I gave this book the four stars was because of the experiment Pascal runs with the help of others to try to find out Louis's story and lure him out of his coma. This is where the novel got a bit of a Frankenstein feel to it, connecting the doctor to the patient and asking the patient questions that would be answered through the doctor. It gave this work an interesting twist and made it the psychological thriller it deserves to be.