Based on the official description, I figured this book would have a melodramatic bent. But in no time at all, the bent went for broke and stayed there till the end. That said, it's very well written, moves along quickly and serves up several doses of suspense. For those reasons, I'm comfortable giving it 4 stars even if it isn't quite my cup of tea.
Becky Gerard and her husband of 20 years, Carl, have an almost 16-year-old daughter, Meghan, who's been in and out of doctors' offices and hospitals for years. All that time, there's been no firm diagnosis and no let-up in Becky's all-consuming attempts to find one (and ultimately, of course, a cure). The book begins as Becky is leaving Boston on an airplane, reluctantly leaving her ailing daughter for California to visit her dying mother. When she gets a just-at-takeoff text from Carl telling her he's taken Meghan to the hospital yet again, the news throws Becky in such an emotional meltdown that she gets thrown off the plane.
Chapters shift among perspectives of various characters, and next up is pediatrician Zach Fisher, who still gets nightmares about the death of his young son Will. Turns out he's the physician examining Meghan this time around, and he wastes little of it coming up with a diagnosis of mitochondrial disorder, the same disorder (aha!) that resulted in his son's death. Others at the hospital aren't as ready to accept Zach's conclusion, though; not only is there no specific set of symptoms, Zach has earned a reputation for diagnosing way too many patients with the disorder. Becky, though, has no reservations whatsoever; instantly, Zach achieves demigod status - and the devil take anyone who disagrees (including her husband, who after all this time is far less inclined to grasp at straws).
Becky, now firmly allied with Zach, not only grasps the straws, she darned near squashes the life out of the suckers. Her emotional outbursts are epic, especially as Meghan's episodes become increasingly serious - prompting the medical community (sans Zach, of course) to conclude that Meghan may be a victim of her mother's Munchausen by proxy. Along the way, readers also learn that secrets abound - not every character is as he or she seems - thus building excitement to learn the truth. Near the end, the story takes a darker turn, resulting in a conclusion that for me was half expected, half not.
The overarching question, I guess, is how far would a mother will go to save her sick child, especially when the rest of the world is conspiring against her (and as a mother/grandmother myself, I concede that there are few, if any, boundaries). Overall, this is a story that should appeal to anyone who enjoys relentless angst mixed with a hefty dose of medical details and a few thrills. I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for giving me the opportunity to read and review an advance copy.
Saving Meghan by D.J. Palmer (St. Martin's Press, April 2019); 374 pp.
No comments:
Post a Comment