Customer Reviews

The Death Trip

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was prepared to love this story, but unfortunately, it let me down. The ending was too sudden and too ambiguous for me.

The good:

The premise of this story is great: a drug that lets the terminally ill have a fantastic end-of-life experience is being tested. The main character's grandmother volunteers to be a guinea pig in the experiment, thereby willingly forfeiting the remainder of her life. The main character, a writer, seeks to learn more about the way his grandmother chose to die.

Overall, the writing is good. There were a few typos, but that's normal even in publishing-house novels these days. Apparently, no one can afford a good editor.

The bad:

As I said before, the ending feels rushed, almost as if the author got tired of writing the story and decided to end it right where he was.

That said, I'm not sorry I read it. It was entertaining. I hope to see more from this author.

The Death Trip was a quick read and the story was surprisingly well done for such a short length. It did contain a few errors, but not very many. Chuck, an out of work aspiring journalist, originally starts researching the company behind the Death Trip experience to better understand his grandmother's choice to take the drug instead of living out the remaining few months of her life with cancer and Parkinsons disease. He is drawn to a mysterious women he meets online who suspects the company of evil intentions and wants him to gather the evidence to prove it. As he digs deeper, he raises the suspicions of the company's founder, who has a hidden agenda. The author takes a very controversial subject and presents the perspective from each side. The science behind the death trip experience was explained very well and was thought-provoking. The ending was a surprise and left up to interpretation.

The first half of this story reads like an early Greg Egan, posing questions on topic ranging from the nature of our experiences, ethics of euthanasia to politics of drug control. Despite some part of exposition being somewhat flat, mostly delivered through monologues, the reader does get drawn into considering those problems*. The end, sadly, devolves into a plain vanilla cloak and dagger story of megalomania and corporate greed, but does leave the protagonist, and the reader with him, with a tough if a touch contrived dilemma at the end.

Unlike some other reviewers, I did not have problems with pacing of the narrative. The plot does hinge too much on coincidences, but the characters are believable, reasonably well developed within the confines of the short form, and mostly free from stereotypes.

I certainly hope Ms. Stein will provide us with a full length collection of works in this vein soon.

*) As Edwin Schlossberg said, "The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think."

"The Death Trip" is a book that manages to approach a controversial topic yet not force an opinion on the reader. It was interesting to look at both sides of the topic, and the great writing style of the author made it enjoyable as well.

Setting/Story - There isn't much of a setting given at the beginning of the story, but there is enough of one to start the book off without the reader being confused. It starts out with an older woman named Vera being given the option to take a drug that will give her a "Death Trip" which is slightly like euthanasia. The patient is given a drug that lets them dream a wonderful dream that appears to them to last years while it truly only lasts a few minutes. Meanwhile, they die a peaceful death (NOTE: it is explained in much better detail in the book, and this complex procedure is explained very simply to the reader). After Vera has made her decision whether or not to take the "Death Trip" the story moves to her grandson, Chuck, who is a reporter/blogger. He becomes interested in the study through his grandmother and sets out to meet with the creators of the "Death Trip" while trying to help his internet girlfriend find out if they are up to something evil with this procedure.

Writing Style - The writing style of Marion Stein is very interesting and easy to keep up with. While everything is explained in great detail so that the reader can understand all the scientific aspects of the book, the story is able to remain extremely intriguing throughout these explanations. The story does deal slightly with the controversy of euthanasia, but it does not try to force either side on the reader at all; it states each side's views diplomatically and shouldn't offend the reader's beliefs. Also included are just a few typos, but they are minute and no problem at all. Lastly, there was no attempt to hide product or company names in the book, and often real companies or people would be included to give the story realism. It was slightly awkward at times but, like the typos, it didn't detract from the book much at all.

Warnings - Language; Sex

Overall, this is a book that is very difficult to put down. It exudes an air of romance, suspense, and drama all in one to create a wonderful scientific mystery.

I downloaded the sample of this short story/novella and was immediately hooked. For 99 cents, it was a no-brainer to buy. The author does an excellent job of quickly developing the characters and their relationships while moving the story along at a good clip. The plot touches on very sensitive topics, and shows both sides of the issues fairly equitably, though there's clearly a bias in the end. And the ending was perfection. I look forward to reading more of Marion Stein's work!

This novella (I guess) is a quick easy read. It's not my usual cup of tea, but the subject, the end of life, is something we need to talk about. The writing is nice, I spotted one minor grammar error, in character speech. the author advised me that she would correct it. I highly recommend this topical selection.

this was definetly entertaining but i hated how sudden the book ended it left you wanting to know what the hell happened but since theres no sequel to it...you will never know.....ever

Plot/Storyline: 3 Stars

This lengthy novella opened with a woman who has terminal cancer choosing to take the "Death Trip", which is a thinly disguised form of assisted suicide. The viewpoint then switched to the the woman's grandson, Chuck, who appears to be a ne'er-do-well young man with no real job or friends, outside of an internet girlfriend who he only knows by her internet nickname. Chuck had been close to his grandmother, who seemed to approve of him simply because he was a decent person in comparison with the rest of his family.

The story slides downhill at this point with the coincidence of Chuck's internet girlfriend turning out to be a huge opponent of assisted suicide. Most of the rest of the story was a lot of arguing back and forth to show both sides of the assisted suicide issue, with the `con' arguments not having anything to do with the decision made by Chuck's grandmother.

Toward the end, the story took an unexpected turn of being more about corporate greed and power. This was the portion that saved the novella from obscurity. Had the novella focused more on this plot development, it would have been far more interesting.

Mostly, it felt as though this novella was at war with itself regarding what the actual plot was causing the storyline to have a somewhat pointless feeling at times. The concept of "The Death Trip" was very original and was explained pretty directly without too much science lecturing.

I don't want to give spoilers, but I have to say that I didn't enjoy the `let the reader decide' style of non-conclusion.

Character Development: 4 Stars

Chuck, while unlikeable, was still a very human, three-dimensional character. The development was so well done that it felt like I knew the guy. Each of his actions had good character-driven motivation.

The grandmother in the beginning was also very well drawn, especially for her short-lived part in the novel. Her character generated plenty of empathy and understanding of her decision.

The internet girlfriend and other characters were pretty weak, though. I felt a little more could have been done to bring them to life.

Writing Style: 3 1/2 Stars

The sentence structuring was fairly simplistic, but worked fine for the setting. The descriptions were tight, befitting a novella. The dialogue was realistic and very nicely done.

Editing: 4 1/2 Stars

There were a few errors, but nothing that would spoil the reading experience.

Rating: R for Adult Situations, Language, and Sex

Dealing with testy moral issues like assisted dying and euthanasia is never easy - but the story weaves these together with compelling arguments for and against in the guise of a tale that begins with a Grandmother's letter to her dropout net-surfing journalist-wannabe grandson and pits him with (initially) and then against his new romance; a human rights activist who turns out to be the very kind of person that the inventors of the Death Trip want to be rid off.

Dealing with how society sees the burden of care being paid for and dealt with - our main character Chuck is torn between blowing the story of the big evil Pharmaceutical Company that wants to euthanise the undesirables and prove the activist right, or believe the softly insidious entreaties of the idea behind the science and the advances of the owner's daughter, with whom he has a torrid affair.

A good story that walks the line between the issues well but does have an almost deliberately rushed ending, as if a Sequel was the obvious answer - I would still definitely recommend the Author.

This is a difficult subject for a novel as it includes euthanasia and disabilities. However the subjects are treated sympathetically. It starts with a journalist, whose grandmother is dying, wishing to write a story about the clinic where she has spent her last days. It is soon apparent that all may not be as it seems and the reader is left in doubt as to whether the clinic is trying to help people end their days peacefully or there is an ulterior motive and the story changes to more of a medical mystery with the central character trying to get to the bottom of what is going on. The story is fast paced and you get a real feel for the characters particularly with the journalist's disabled girlfriend. At the end a decision needs to be made and the reader is left to think which way the story is going to go. I think the story ends with this moral dilemma but there are enough strings left hanging for there to be as sequel, if there is, I will read it.