Read It: Beat The Reaper

There's so much buzz off this book I wanted to hate it.

The author, local SF resident Josh Bazell, wrote the story while finishing med school cuz apparently he doesn't need sleep. Not only that, rumor is he's snagged a cool mill in advances. I want to hate him, too, but he writes too well. Dammit.

The protag's an ex-mob hit guy, but you kinda forgive him cuz he only got into the mob to find out who killed his grandparents before he's sucked into the lifestyle. Yeah, he realizes the irony. He falls in love, experiences a change of heart about killing and gets betrayed by his mob buddies, sending him straight into the arms of witness protection.

While serving out his new life as a doctor, he's recognized by a mob patient who threatens to tattle if he dies or doesn't make it through surgery. The book follows the protag as he runs around the hospital trying to do his job and, you guessed it, beat the reaper after his own head.

The book is awesome. The protag reminds me a bit of Chuck Palahniuk's heroes but a little more cut and dry good. Yeah, I know - weird that I'd think of a ruthless killer as "good" but somehow it works. The hypocondriac in me freaked at all the med lingo but it was so compelling I couldn't stop reading. A lot of tidbits come in the form of overused footnotes which I got into as the novel progressed.

The weak point - as with most action-y thriller dude novels, is the romance that supposedly turns the protag's life around. The girl is a flat character and their relationship bizarrely improbable, especially given the series of events that bring them together and eventually apart (not a spoiler, you know upfront he's not with anyone before dwelving into his past with the girl).

You can forgive this because it's a first person POV novel and you can assume one or all of the following:
1. The girl's not perfect but that's how he sees her so that's what we get.
2. They may have had a more complex relationship but he's romanticizing it.
3. He's dealing with life or death and doesn't have time to serve up flowers and candy with his past.

Fine.

A movie's in the works although you'll wonder how they'll translate some scenes and I wouldn't recommend reading on a full stomach unless you're good with gore, but you definitely have to read it cuz everybody's going to be talking about it and you don't want to get left behind. Trust me.