Customer Reviews

Saving Max

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

When I started Saving Max, I found the story of a desperate mother trying to find help for her sometimes-violent autistic teenager intriguing. However, during the first third or so of the book, my enjoyment of the story was substantially impacted (negatively) by the writing; so much so at times that I wasn't sure I was going to continue reading. Now that I have finished the book (and I'm very glad I kept reading, by the way) and look back to the beginning, it feels like two or three different people wrote it--or perhaps one person over several different periods of time.

In the first third or so, the author seemed to be working overtime throwing "25 cent words" into the story. I have a pretty good vocabulary and not only were there words used that I don't hear/read very often, there were words I could not remember having read before (tenebrous, nubilous, kilim, expiation and malefic just in the first 20 pages or so, and that's leaving out all the psychiatric terms). Not to say that boosting the reader's vocabulary is a bad thing at all--it just felt forced, like the author was parading her grand vocabulary for ego's sake.

There was also too much melodramatic description for my taste--"The darkness is voluptuous velvet.", "Her whisper is a feather in the wind." and "The air between them is dry powder hungry for the flame." to provide just a few examples on a SINGLE page. Not to say that similes, metaphors and analogies have no place in writing--of course they do!--for me, they just feel overused at times and/or too grandiose for the story being told.

In contrast, most of the final half of the book is an exciting mystery in which the writing did NOT detract from my enjoyment of the story. I generally only read for a short while at bedtime each night, so it can take me a few weeks to finish a book; I read the last half of this one (about 200 pages) in two nights because it was so suspenseful that I had a hard time putting it down!

It is not unusual for me to finish a book and be torn on what rating to give it. It IS pretty unusual, however, for me to feel so differently about one part of the book than I feel about another. So I'm left with deciding whether to give it 4 stars to encourage people to read it for the excellent last half, or to give it 3 stars because the first half almost discouraged me from finishing the book. In the end, I chose 3 stars, but I hoped that by including plenty of explanation about what I both liked and disliked about the book, you can make your own decision whether to read it based on YOUR likes and dislikes.

Finally, for those who are very sensitive to violence, especially involving children or mental illness, be forewarned--there are some fairly harrowing parts of the story, especially in the last half, that you would likely find disturbing.

Danielle Parkman is a single mother who has combined a successful career as an attorney with parenting her teenage son Max, who has Asperger's syndrome. As the story opens, Danielle's parenting skills are being tested by Max's violent outbursts and she is concerned for his emotional wellbeing because of his expression of suicidal thoughts and drug use. Danielle takes Max to a psychiatric hospital for assessment in the hope of finding treatment which will help to manage his volatile behaviour. The assessment leads to a recommendation is that Max requires in-patient treatment for more specialized psychiatric assistance and he is admitted to the Maitland Psychiatric Unit.

Thus begins a nightmare for Max and Danielle.

Max is found bloody and unconscious next to the bed of a murdered patient: a boy named Jonas. The circumstances mean that Max is the prime suspect, and Danielle herself becomes implicated in the crime. Danielle's fight to clear Max leads to an investigation involving a number of interesting characters and events as Danielle seeks to uncover the truth.

I enjoyed this novel although I found parts of it disturbing. On one level, this is suspenseful fiction. On another level, it raises a number of `What if?' questions about medical diagnosis and treatment. The characters, particularly Danielle and Max, are finely realised.

`To have a child who has friends, goes to school, has a future - these are the dreams of a race of people to whom she and this woman no longer belong.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Danielle is a successful lawyer and the single mother of a bright teenage boy called Max. Max has Asperger's Syndrome as well as some other behavioral issues. Danielle takes Max to a highly regarded psychiatric facility for assessment, where they meet another mother and son called Marianne and Jonas. The experts conclude that Max has severe issues and is uncontrollably violent, which Danielle disagrees with. However before she can remove Max from the facility, she discovers Jonas stabbed to death and Max cowering in the corner of the room, covered in blood and clutching the murder weapon. Danielle's first impulse is to protect Max by trying to cover up his part in the murder, which leads to them both being charged (she is charged as an accessory to murder). Danielle remains convinced that Max is innocent and she is prepared to do whatever it takes to get him off.

The book starts slowly but once the murder takes place, it tears along from that point. I felt that a few sections were over-written but generally it was easy to read and quite engrossing. I had two main problems with it, hence the 3 star rating. One was that we never really get to know Max at the beginning, so I didn't particularly care about him or have any reason to doubt the official line about what had happened. Therefore Danielle's behaviour felt totally irrational and unlikely, particularly given that she was a lawyer. I felt like the story lost believability.

It's a credit to Antoinette van Heughten's writing that I remained glued to this book despite those problems. It's very readable. Be aware that Max's autism is not a key element in the story and it's not the book to read if you want to find out more about Asperger's Syndrome.

As a special education teacher I am often attracted to books that deal with people with special needs and the legal system. SAVING MAX is the third such book published in 2010 I have read. Though the book is melodramatic and chockfull of ludicrous plot devices and pulp romance novel conventions it still manages to engage. I think the book is readable because the author does such a great job of creating the nightmare scenario in which the heroine Danielle finds herself. I had to keep reading to find out how everything would resolve ridiculous as Danielle's actions and those around her are portrayed. The writing in the book is quite uneven and for some reason the beginning of the book is stuffed with complex words as if the author wanted to show off her intelligence but by the end things have degenerated to the point that the journal entries of the murderer that should be horrific are so overwrought they are almost laughable. Still for a quick page-turner the prospective reader could do worse.

This book is a subgenre, romantic suspense. I was initially intrigued by the premise of the child, one with Asperger's syndrome. However, this book is so heavy handed that I bet you can guess who is the "bad guy" less than 50 pages into it. I certainly did. The plot revolves around a lawyer mother with a teenage son who is forced to admit him inpatient to a psychiatric facility. While she stays across the street in a hotel, she befriends another mother who has also admitted a child, who is in even worse shape. This mother is an inspiration because she gave up a medical career to stay at home and take care of her disabled son. However, first her son attacks this inspirational woman's son and then things go from bad to worse between the two.

This book is formulaic, so soap opera like, that it is hard to imagine anyone enjoying it. Mira is part of Harlequin but it uses the same basic Harlequin formula for writing, just slightly longer in length. Harlequin is commercially successful in the romance and romantic suspense genres and it got that way by demanding certain lengths, plots, endings and so forth. You had to squeeze yourself into this niche as an author or find another publisher. This may make good business sense but it does not make good writing.

Perhaps this was inspired by Steig Larsson's MILLENIUM TRILOGY. Like that series, there is Asperger's syndrome, a mystery, psychiatry, a seriously evil person or persons. But it is as if Harlequin said "use our usual formula for romance and suspense but toss in Asperger's, psychiatry and a mystery to resemble Larsson's a bit. "

The story was enough to finish the book, but I didn't love it. The plot was very far fetched to the point of being, in my opinion, ridiculous at times.

I was initially frustrated. The lead character, Max's mom Danielle, wasn't a very sympathetic character to me. She seemed pushy and impatient and grating in many ways. This, and the fact that I was reading it in short spurts most of the time, made the story languish.

But once you get to the bloody scene in the hospital things begin to pick up and there are a number of twists and turns that keep you guessing. And of course, Danielle is vindicated to some degree (I won't spoil it any more than that).

In the end I found it a story where the "hook" is greater than the prose - the creative storyline better than the writing that describes it. Once the story picked up some steam it was entertaining for the most part - I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened - but it left you kind flat at the end.

Plot: Max, a teenager with Asperger's disorder, who has recently begun to show signs of depression and violence toward his mother, is committed to Maitland, a psychiatric institution, in order to be evaluated. His mom, Danielle, a high-powered lawyer, who has no other living family, is devoted to her son, but her life is about to get even more complicated, when Max is found at the scene of a crime, and all signs point to him as the perp. Now Danielle must do whatever she can - including breaking the law herself - in order to clear her son's name.

Pros: Does an excellent job of capturing what it's like to be the parent of a special needs child, including the frustration in dealing with the mental health system. Also gives a fascinating, if sometimes hard to read, profile of someone whose concern for her child masks an indifferent heart.

Cons: V. florid style in places and the occasional awkward metaphor. Some of the characters' actions didn't seem believable to me, and I thought the author overloaded the courtroom scenes with drama. Just my opinion.

Danielle's autistic son Max has always presented a bit of a challenge to his single mother, but they've always had a close relationship. Now that he's a teenager, things are getting more difficult. So she decides to bring him to the best pediatric psychiatric facility for evaluation and diagnosis. But instead of making things more clear, Max's admittance to Maitland seems to make things worse. Danielle doesn't believe the staff when they tell her about his behavior, and they think she's in denial. Then Max is found next to a murdered patient.

What follows is a thriller that leads Danielle on a path to save Max and prove his innocence, even though the evidence against him looks very bad. With Saving Max, Antoinette van Heugten has weaved a thrilling story that kept me turning the page to see if he really did it...at least once I got to the murder. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen until about a third of the way through the book, so I spent those first 100+ pages waiting for it to happen. After that, things picked up and I had a hard time putting the book down.

The only issue I had was the gory details about the murder and about other events that are relevant to it. As a mother, I found some of the details especially difficult to read. It actually made my stomach turn in a few places. I just wasn't expecting that so I wanted to mention it here. Otherwise, it was an interesting thriller with lots of courtroom drama as well. Just be forewarned if you have a weak stomach.

Sixteen years old Max Parkmans suffers from Asperger's Syndrome though he is rather high functioning. His single mom, Manhattan attorney Danielle, worries 24/7 about her son. However, her concern goes viral when he turns violent towards her and she learns he is using drugs; her fears go stratospheric when she reads his journal as his writings and musings are violent and suicidal while the accompanying art is fiercely worse. He has turned increasingly aggressive even hitting and bruising his mom.

Max's doctor suggests Danielle enroll her teen in the Maitland Psychiatric Asylum in Plano, Iowa. She has doubts, but her qualms for her son overrides all else. However, after he is welcomed, the staff informs her Max suffers from horrific schizophrenic psychosis and that to help him she must stay away. Soon afterward, Max is arrested and treated as a competent adult standing trial in the murder of another patient, and his mom also arrested as an accessory to the homicide.

Saving Max will hook readers, especially the parents of a child on the Autism Spectrum. The story line is fast-paced from the moment the mother and her son arrive in Iowa and never slows down with several incredible realistic twists until the final courtroom denouement. Readers will understand how far Danielle will go to protect Max, but Antoinette Van Heugten's medical-legal thriller is his story as he struggles with his relationships with others.

Harriet Klausner