Customer Reviews

Life Blood

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Morgan James, a filmmaker, is unable to have a baby so she decides to do a short film on people who adopt. She finds that the process is long, drawn-out and tedious, but then she hears of some women who recieved healthy, white babies in just a few months. She sets out to investigate the adoption agency and from there it is as if Hoover followed a formula for bizzare human experiment novels. There is the obiligatory vague person wandering around the doctors complex, the mysterious doctor who travels back forth between Central America and New York and Morgan, who upon discovering that her cousin is in the clutches of this madman, immediately goes to South America to resuce her, even though she has no proof that that is where her cousin is. It is so predictable that you can almost finish writing it for him after a certain point in the book. Some of the things that he has his characters doing are so stupid you want to slap them. This would make a great emergency book, you know the one that you keep in your glovebox in case you have a flat tire and are waiting for help.

I can't decide whether this novel is inventive or just ridiculous. Documentary-maker Morgan James is 38 years old, enjoys tenuous employment, has relatively no family, has recently broken up with the first man she has truly loved in decades, and is desperate to have a baby. Oh, yeah, and she just happens to be infertile despite no medical cause. That's perhaps the most believable part of this novel.

Morgan is written as too much of a martyr, but does enjoy some moments of clever determination and a smart (and funny) mouth. Everyone else, however, is simply too one-note, which lends an unfortunate air of predictability. Hoover manages to keep you guessing what the real secret of the novel is, but the reader will be only one step behind him. The action sequences are able, if standard. What I found galling was the callous treatment that infertility received. Yes, Morgan can't conceive, and she regards adoption as a viable option, which is good. However, it's obvious that the author didn't research his subject too closely. All the thoughts and feelings evoked are those any Discovery Channel documentary relays. The actual mechanics of reproductive endocrinology are only meekly addressed, and when they are, it is so horrific and base, it borders on disgusting. Even the ending leaves you questioning what's really going on.

This is not a novel I'd recommend. Too many genres, poorly-written characters and an absolutely inane plot unite in this below-average thriller.

One of those books that I wasn't sure if I'd keep going with until I was nearly halfway through, but ended up being a decent read.

I have now read a number of Thomas Hoover's novels I downloaded this when it was free but found that it was the weakest of the stories so far and would have given it 2 ½ stars if possible. Although the plot is good and it slowly builds up developing characters and details of location the detail in the plot is weak, particularly towards the end where too much depends on luck and things just happening in the right order. Still worth reading but I do not think I would pay the full price for it, strangely enough this is still available free at the time of writing but with a different cover.

I don't know who should be most offended by this book; the Mayan people, the citizens of Guatemala, or just women in general...

Empty characters, predictable plot and outlandish sequence of events. Don't waste your time, even if this book IS free!

This book is so poorly written I couldn't finish it.Tedious,cliche-ridden,predictable.

Did not get very far with this book. Author uses God's name in vain too many times. One can write a book without doing that

I thank God I can get my money back on this book. If I want a book written like a women I will buy one by a women author

Ralph W Holbrook