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A review by justinkhchen
The Patient by Jasper DeWitt
2.0
2.5 stars
Probably worked just fine on a Reddit forum (the story's origin), but extremely unpolished as a published novel; The Patient has some interesting ideas, but they are clouded by surface-level development and amateur quality control.
I have not been this distracted by spelling and grammatical mistakes for a long while, but The Patient has extremely noticeable amount of them; which is odd because the author acknowledged he has revised and expanded on the original Reddit submission prior to publication, and there was clearly an editor attached judging from the acknowledgment — so it's a little baffling why the final product still feels like it was copied and pasted from an online forum, without the refinement of a publishing house.
The writing is 'enthusiast' level rather than professional, with a 'made-up-as-we-go-along' quality to its plot; the characters are plagued with unrealistic reaction and stiff dialogs (most of the arguments among medical professionals come across as childish whining of 'I'm right and you're wrong'). The genre-switching mechanic in its final act shows potential, but the current execution is deeply flawed with some obvious inconsistencies, making it easy to question its logistic, without appreciating the bold choice.
I think context really hindered my experience with The Patient; if I have encountered this in an online forum, I would've enjoyed it as an above-average #creepypasta. But by removing it from the interactivity, anonymity, and questionable authenticity (is it actually a true story?) of that environment, it is just an ill-conceived, under-written draft of a story that got printed way before its due date.
Probably worked just fine on a Reddit forum (the story's origin), but extremely unpolished as a published novel; The Patient has some interesting ideas, but they are clouded by surface-level development and amateur quality control.
I have not been this distracted by spelling and grammatical mistakes for a long while, but The Patient has extremely noticeable amount of them; which is odd because the author acknowledged he has revised and expanded on the original Reddit submission prior to publication, and there was clearly an editor attached judging from the acknowledgment — so it's a little baffling why the final product still feels like it was copied and pasted from an online forum, without the refinement of a publishing house.
The writing is 'enthusiast' level rather than professional, with a 'made-up-as-we-go-along' quality to its plot; the characters are plagued with unrealistic reaction and stiff dialogs (most of the arguments among medical professionals come across as childish whining of 'I'm right and you're wrong'). The genre-switching mechanic in its final act shows potential, but the current execution is deeply flawed with some obvious inconsistencies, making it easy to question its logistic, without appreciating the bold choice.
I think context really hindered my experience with The Patient; if I have encountered this in an online forum, I would've enjoyed it as an above-average #creepypasta. But by removing it from the interactivity, anonymity, and questionable authenticity (is it actually a true story?) of that environment, it is just an ill-conceived, under-written draft of a story that got printed way before its due date.