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A review by jenbsbooks
The Good Samaritan by John Marrs
2.75
I really enjoyed The Family Experiment and Passengers, The One was okay ... set in a futuristic setting, I think it's a little easier to have suspension of disbelief. When the setting is more "real" like this book ... I find I'm much more judgmental and everything going on here just seemed so over the top and eye-rolling. I really debated just calling it a DNF ... I actually wish I had, but I pushed through.
The premise was interesting ... someone who works at a call center to help those calling in with suicidal thoughts, "helping" by actually encouraging/enabling them to follow through. There's a whole tragic backstory for Laura, that takes too long to connect (at least to me), who David was, the Henry situation ... then add in Ryan and everything he did. Crazy. Jumped the shark.
There's a prologue ... our MC Laura on the phone, walking through an "end of life" for two people. Then PartOne, 27 chapters from her POV (1st person/past tense). Some labeling/ ie "Four Months after David" ... and this was a little annoying. Was David the man in the prologue? Is that what we are to assume or is that just what the author wants us to think? The name David wasn't mentioned in the prologue, and doesn't come up until Chapter 4 when it was mentioned David kept calling in (which doesn't answer the question for sure ... and I felt was still misleading in the end).
Half-way through PartOne, the POV switches to Ryan (1st person/past tense) and the "chapters" reset to 1 (17 chapters in this section). Charlotte's husband. Here, we have some headers, ie "One Day After Charlotte" (there are enough clues to connect that Charlotte was the unnamed woman in the prologue).
Part Two - chapters reset to 1 again, 30 chapters in this section. Here, the POV switches between Laura and Ryan (every other chapter I think). Glancing at the Kindle copy, I wished the POV/header was included in the Table of Contents.
Part Three - Again, some of the "Two Months After ..." headers. New POV - Johnny also (four narrators listed, so this is the second male narrator). Epilogue (2nd female narrator).
Because there is some overlap in time (epilogue was a full recap from another perspective) it felt a bit repetitive at times for me. Same things, from another POV, which CAN be interesting, I think I'd just checked out a bit.
Just ... the things that were happening, the choices made, events that characters got away with ... really? Just too much.
ProFanity x28, some sexual stuff (nothing too explicit), violence/suicide
The Author's Note at the end ... It almost felt in bad taste to then acknowledge the organizations like the one featured in the book - after setting up the premise undermining such an program.
The premise was interesting ... someone who works at a call center to help those calling in with suicidal thoughts, "helping" by actually encouraging/enabling them to follow through. There's a whole tragic backstory for Laura, that takes too long to connect (at least to me), who David was, the Henry situation ... then add in Ryan and everything he did. Crazy. Jumped the shark.
There's a prologue ... our MC Laura on the phone, walking through an "end of life" for two people. Then PartOne, 27 chapters from her POV (1st person/past tense). Some labeling/ ie "Four Months after David" ... and this was a little annoying. Was David the man in the prologue? Is that what we are to assume or is that just what the author wants us to think? The name David wasn't mentioned in the prologue, and doesn't come up until Chapter 4 when it was mentioned David kept calling in (which doesn't answer the question for sure ... and I felt was still misleading in the end).
Half-way through PartOne, the POV switches to Ryan (1st person/past tense) and the "chapters" reset to 1 (17 chapters in this section). Charlotte's husband. Here, we have some headers, ie "One Day After Charlotte" (there are enough clues to connect that Charlotte was the unnamed woman in the prologue).
Part Two - chapters reset to 1 again, 30 chapters in this section. Here, the POV switches between Laura and Ryan (every other chapter I think). Glancing at the Kindle copy, I wished the POV/header was included in the Table of Contents.
Part Three - Again, some of the "Two Months After ..." headers. New POV - Johnny also (four narrators listed, so this is the second male narrator). Epilogue (2nd female narrator).
Because there is some overlap in time (epilogue was a full recap from another perspective) it felt a bit repetitive at times for me. Same things, from another POV, which CAN be interesting, I think I'd just checked out a bit.
Just ... the things that were happening, the choices made, events that characters got away with ... really? Just too much.
ProFanity x28, some sexual stuff (nothing too explicit), violence/suicide
The Author's Note at the end ... It almost felt in bad taste to then acknowledge the organizations like the one featured in the book - after setting up the premise undermining such an program.