7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Richie's Picks: BLOOD BROTHERS, July 10, 2007
This review is from: Blood Brothers (Hardcover)
"Darkness, darkness be my blanket,
Cover me with endless night."
-- Jesse Colin Young
"Don't die, don't die, don't die. Can't you hear me? You can't die when we're doing all we can to save you.
"A few more minutes pass. The doctor tells me to stop. 'Still no pulse without CPR,' Guthrie says finally.
"The doctor breathes in deep and lets it out slow. 'Let's call it.' He removes his gloves, his face mask, his gown. He slams them into the trash. 'We can't do anything more.' He frowns and his big brown eyes glisten in the bright light.
"I don't want to stop. I want to tell the girl I'm sorry she's dead and won't ever go to college, or fall in love, or do anything she ever dreamed of doing. I'm sorry she won't ever be able to get mad over something stupid. I'm sorry, but we gave everything we had to give.
" 'Thank you,' Dr. Murphy tells us. 'For all your help.'
"I stand there and listen. All I can hear is a buzz from a machine. All I can see is the dead girl. She fills the room even though she's just a small, still body on the metal table.
" 'I can't do this right now,' Guthrie says. 'I'll be back in a few minutes to finish up.' I pull the sheet over the girl. I won't leave her there lying naked. On the way out, I leave the door cracked just in case there really is a soul and it needs to escape.
"I step into the waiting room in time to hear the wailing of the girl's mother, her father's anguish. Head down, I start thinking about Michelle, about Joey, about myself -- and it hits me. What right do I have to be so pissed about how they treated me? Everything that's happened with them seems as important as bird droppings when a teenage girl dies in front of you."
Clay Gardener, Med Tech One, is the youngest employee in a Georgia hospital. Nearly eighteen years ago, Clay himself entered the world in a far away hospital in Endurance, Texas, where his mother died giving birth to him.
For the past ten years Clay has been best friend and cycling partner to Joey Chancey. The pair met after the warehouse in Endurance, where Clay's dad had worked, burned to the ground and Clay's dad moved him and his sister to the Georgia town where his dad's old Vietnam War buddy -- Joey's dad -- lives. Clay, who with Joey, graduated from high school last month, has always wanted to be a doctor, but he doesn't have the grades or the money to pursue his dream. Instead, he's doing twelve-hour shifts at the hospital. Joey, the class valedictorian and football hero, is heading to Duke in the fall.
But after Clay gets off the tough shift that was marked by the teen girl's death (after a car accident), he wearily enters the shed in Joey's backyard -- the shed that has always been Clay and Joey's clubhouse and sanctuary -- and finds Joey naked and in a violent, psychotic state. Apparently it has something to do with a party Joey had been at. After an intense struggle in the shed, Clay has to call 911 and soon Joey is on life support at the hospital.
What has happened to the supposedly straight-arrow Joey and what is the deal with Michelle, the girl who was sort of with Clay but who has been coming on strong to Joey?
BLOOD BROTHERS is a gritty mystery which is relentless in its pacing because Clay has to sandwich his attempts to figure out what happened to Joey into those all-too-brief periods of time when he is not either working at the hospital or watching his friend's struggle in critical care.
The author's long career working in hospitals, beginning as a teenager, is clearly responsible for the vivid depictions of hospital work -- from the yucky and mundane tasks to the life-and-death climaxes -- which will hold the interest of all but the most squeamish readers. Chalk another one up to the Class of 2K7.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AMAZING FIRST NOVEL!!!, July 10, 2007
This review is from: Blood Brothers (Hardcover)
BLOOD BROTHERS explores the complexities of friendship amid the realistic backdrop of a hospital.
Clay can't afford a car or college and has always envied his best friend Joey who has a great family and a bright future. That changes in an instant when Joey goes crazy on drugs and attacks Clay. But it's Joey who ends up in the hospital, clinging to life. Clay blames himself and sets out to find out how Joey got the drugs and what really happened at a party. But will his discovery solve or sever trusted friendships? Even when the last page closes, the bittersweet story lingers like a fragrance of hope.
S. A. Harazin's experience working at a hospital brings the medical setting alive with fascinating details.
BLOOD BROTHERS is a suspenseful, emotional novel that will appeal to both reluctant and literary readers.
Librarians, teachers, parents, teens don't miss this amazing first novel from S.A. Harazin.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love books about survivors, February 10, 2008
This review is from: Blood Brothers (Hardcover)
Bad Girls Club
Every teen needs a place to call home and someone to believe in them and love them. Clay has never really had that. His father has emotionally abandoned him and forced him to help pay rent. So Clay has found his home in the hospital where he works and this gives his life meaning. Other than that, there isn't much that holds his life together.
But he has Joey. His bestfriend has helped him for a long time but Clay's life changes when Joey ends up in a coma and it looks like maybe he's not coming back.
I am amazed by Clay's resilience and ability to keep going even though everything is against him. I do love survivor stories and this is one you might like, too! I needed to know what happened at the end and worrying about both boys pushed me to read on, quickly, and find out.
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