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A review by kaje_harper
Strong Medicine by J.K. Hogan
4.0
This book has one of the most broken characters I've met in M/M, but the things that happened to Jonah as a child are not quite the standard abuse tropes of M/M. Still, close enough that this needs a big trigger warning on it. Jonah survived his bad times, and has managed to reach adulthood, but he's deeply damaged and circumscribed by what he went through.
Twice a year, his panic attacks and hallucinations begin to crowd him, until he reaches the point where even his reclusive life as a writer is impossible. Then he checks himself into a local psychiatric inpatient hospital to weather the worst of it. But his past is also a reason, or perhaps an excuse, to refuse drugs and dodge therapy. Jonah is locked in a holding pattern, living half a life. He thinks that's probably the best he'll ever manage.
Cameron was a childhood TV and music star, whose controlling father has created a fictional perfect life for the family band. It wouldn't be so bad, except fictional Cameron is straight, and real Cameron is deep in the closet. He took to drinking, and one day he drank too much and crashed with a blood alcohol level that could not be ignored. His connections do get him a placement as both orderly and patient at the psychiatric facility, doing public service hours, and getting some counseling. Cameron's not an alcoholic, but he is at loose ends, cast out of his band, and unsure of his future.
These two young men meet, and have an instant connection, facilitated by Jonah's teenaged crush on Cameron's fictional character. But the obstacles to them having a real relationship are both internal and external. Jonah has a lot of healing to get through. And unless Cameron breaks free of his father's influence, and Jonah is able to leave the hospital, they're playing with fire that has nowhere to go.
I appreciated that this is another book which uses real, extended psychotherapy to treat a damaged character. It was also cool to see Jonah's perception of the doctors and their motives change. I liked the slow arc of his progress. The climactic events were not allowed to sink to melodrama (although the childhood trauma verged on it), and the ending was nicely but not impossibly warm.
Twice a year, his panic attacks and hallucinations begin to crowd him, until he reaches the point where even his reclusive life as a writer is impossible. Then he checks himself into a local psychiatric inpatient hospital to weather the worst of it. But his past is also a reason, or perhaps an excuse, to refuse drugs and dodge therapy. Jonah is locked in a holding pattern, living half a life. He thinks that's probably the best he'll ever manage.
Cameron was a childhood TV and music star, whose controlling father has created a fictional perfect life for the family band. It wouldn't be so bad, except fictional Cameron is straight, and real Cameron is deep in the closet. He took to drinking, and one day he drank too much and crashed with a blood alcohol level that could not be ignored. His connections do get him a placement as both orderly and patient at the psychiatric facility, doing public service hours, and getting some counseling. Cameron's not an alcoholic, but he is at loose ends, cast out of his band, and unsure of his future.
These two young men meet, and have an instant connection, facilitated by Jonah's teenaged crush on Cameron's fictional character. But the obstacles to them having a real relationship are both internal and external. Jonah has a lot of healing to get through. And unless Cameron breaks free of his father's influence, and Jonah is able to leave the hospital, they're playing with fire that has nowhere to go.
I appreciated that this is another book which uses real, extended psychotherapy to treat a damaged character. It was also cool to see Jonah's perception of the doctors and their motives change. I liked the slow arc of his progress. The climactic events were not allowed to sink to melodrama (although the childhood trauma verged on it), and the ending was nicely but not impossibly warm.