Shock [Import] [Paperback]

Robin Cook (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pan Books (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0333902815
• ISBN-13: 978-0333902813
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (161 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,583,327 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Doctor and author Robin Cook is widely credited with introducing the word 'medical' to the thriller genre, and over twenty years after the publication of his breakthrough novel, Coma, he continues to dominate the category he created. Cook has successfully combined medical fact with fantasy to produce a over twenty-seven international bestsellers, including Outbreak (1987), Terminal (1993), Contagion (1996), Chromosome 6 (1997) and Foreign Body (2008).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars did Cook really write this book, September 1, 2001

By 

Karen B. Nelson "Book addict" (Layton, Utah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shock (Hardcover)

I own and have read every one of Robin Cook's books, some several times. They are riveting, exciting and well written.
With Shock, I was in shock. Here are two female post grads from Harvard, no less, with newly acquired Doctorates in Economics and Microbiology. Then in comes Laverne & Shirley. How Cook expected to pass this off as a well written mystery beats me, the two girls giggled, argued, made a mockery out of average intelligence(to wit, the first and only day on the job, like no one noticed they took 1/2 hour breaks every hour, met at the water fountain and disappeared with no notice) and it was supposed to be a medical mystery. The only mystery is how he managed to keep a straight face as he wrote it. Would not recommend it at all. Unless you get it free or on loan, but remember, I told you so.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A tacky and deritative medical thriller without any thrills., September 16, 2001

By 

E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shock (Hardcover)

How low can he sink? Robin Cook's new medical thriller, "Shock," is shocking in only one respect. How can an author with Cook's reputation write a book so hackneyed, wooden and lacking in suspense as this one?

The protagonists are Joanna Meissner and Deborah Cochrane, two beautiful and brainy doctoral students. Yet, for all of their intellectual prowess, these two women see nothing fishy in an advertisement in the "Harvard Crimson" for egg donors. The ad offers forty-five thousand dollars to every egg donor that the clinic accepts.

Naively, the two women go to the Wingate Infertility Clinic, and they donate their eggs. They women take a glorious trip to Italy with their newfound wealth. Over a year later, they decide to look into the fate of their donated eggs by finding employment in the Wingate Clinic and doing some snooping. Joanna and Deborah predictably find out that the Wingate Clinic is engaged in some very questionable and unethical research. Will the ladies be able to get the authorities to help them before they are captured and killed by the nasties who run the clinic?

Joanna and Deborah are two of the most ridiculous sleuths that I have ever seen. They are like two overaged Nancy Drews, coming up with one presposterous plan after another. Their dialogue is stilted and silly and their behaviour is immature and inane. Deborah dresses like a hooker to avoid being recognized at the clinic and her ridiculous getup becomes a silly recurring joke. The book peters off at the end and Cook offers no real resolution to the asinine plot.

The premise of the book, namely that fertility clinics are the ideal setting for reproductive chicanery, has been done before many times. Cook breaks no new ground here. "Shock" is witless, dull and without any literary merit whatsover.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Get this guy an editor!, November 18, 2001

By 

Meg Brunner (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shock (Hardcover)

Predictable medical thriller about two young women who agree to donate some of their eggs in return for a hefty sum (ostensibly to help infertile couples). Though they are nervous, the procedures go well and when they get their checks, they promptly take off for a year in Italy together. Happy go lucky. La la la.

During that year, though, they begin to get curious about whether or not their eggs ended up being viable. So, as soon as they return to the States, they put in a call to the clinic to ask if any of their eggs were successfully transplanted and turned into babies. As you'd expect, the clinic is completely unwilling to release this information. Completely contrary to what you'd expect (from two Harvard Ph.D.'s), the girls decide to commit about eight different felonies in order to steal that information for themselves. Okay, now, sure -- most women would love to know whether or not they are fertile before it comes time for them to actually start trying to have children. But how many of us would rob, steal, trespass, and commit fraud to find out? I mean, for Pete's sake.

Anyway, of course they end up finding out the clinic is actually up to no good. Human cloning and blah blah blah. I found it ironic that when they tell a doctor friend of theirs what the clinic is up to, he responds pretty nonchalantly to the whole story -- he's probably read this story a thousand times before too, huh? Pretty much the only TRULY interesting part of this book was when one of the clinic patients went into a dressing room named "Dorothy Stevens" (p. 57) and came out of it minutes later named "Dorothy Washburn" (p. 58). Gasp! What did those mad scientists DO to her in there? (...)