The Graceview Patient by Caitlin Starling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
The Graceview Patient follows Margaret, ‘Meg’, Culpepper, who suffers from a debilitating autoimmune disease known as Fayette-Gehret syndrome, for which there is no cure.
Meg’s world has shrunk smaller and smaller as her symptoms and pain have caused her to continually isolate herself, and cut herself off from family and friends.
When offered the opportunity to participate in a all-expenses-paid experimental medical trial at Graceview Memorial, though she has her doubts, Meg agrees to take part. She doesn’t really feel she has much other choice.
During the course of the trial, she needs to move into Graceview for a few months as a full-time inpatient. It’s explained to her that they will basically be completely destroying her entire immune system, and then regenerating it in the hopes it will eradicate her syndrome in the process.
As she settles into the hospital she meets nurses, another patient and others involved with the study. The further she gets into it, the weaker her grip on reality, and the weaker my understanding of the story.
I was following along swimmingly until about the halfway point, and then the fever dream quality took over to the point that I had no clue what was happening anymore. Seriously, what the hell happened?
If you asked me about this book, besides what is written above, I couldn’t tell you. While I truly appreciated the unsettling atmosphere Starling created at this hospital, as well as the Medical Horror elements, as far as the story goes, I didn’t ultimately end up enjoying it as much as I wanted. I can appreciate it, but I wasn’t crazy about it.
I frequently mention that I’m not a big fan of fever dream stories. Every once in a while, one will come along that I’m able to connect with, for example, The Starving Saints, also by this author, but that unfortunately wasn’t the case here.
As mentioned above though, the atmosphere is fantastic and it is definitely an intriguing plot. If you are a Reader who enjoys fever dream style narratives, and don’t mind maybe walking away with a few questions, you could end up loving this one. It’s worth a read.
The audiobook is very well narrated by Xe Sands, who did a phenomenal job upping the tension with their emotional delivery. I do feel the audio format is a great option for taking in this story.
At the end of the day, even though this isn’t my favorite from this author, I will always continue to pick up her work. I respect so much her range of ideas and her creativity with her concepts. I never know what I’m getting into when I pick up one of her books, and I love that.
Thank you, St. Martin’s Press and Dreamscape Media, for providing me with copies to read and review. As an atmopshere girlie, I’m glad I checked this one out!