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Right Side Talking

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 16 ratings · 10 reviews

“Imagine that you are a young girl with intractable epilepsy. As a last resort you submit to an operation to sever the connection between the two sides of your brain. Though the operation successfully reduces your seizures, you are left forever with two separate minds: left and right, each unaware of the other.

Imagine further that while recovering in the hospital, you witn...more

ebook, 275 pages

Published (first published September 27th 2010)

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Sep 16, 2011 Mary Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I saw the blurb of Right Side talking, I was intrigued right away. The story is about Anna who at age 15 is experiencing intractable epilepsy which makes her life somewhat a living hell. Her family then decides that she must undergo operation since every medication given to her seems not to be working. She undergoes surgery and the connection of the halves of her brain is taken out making her right side brain unaware of the left side. After her surgery, Anna's brain seems to be dominating e...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Maggie Desmond-O'Brien rated it 3 of 5 stars

On my In My Mailbox post a few months back, when I first blogged about having received this book, it got a lot more attention than I was expecting. Sure, the premise was awesome and was why I'd said yes to the review request in the first place. But, and heaven help me for a snob, I couldn't quite get past the fact that it was a $2.99 Kindle book - a category that, in my mind, had been inextricably linked with the Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure fiasco - and as lovely as the author was in...more On my In My Mailbox post a few months back, when I first blogged about having received this book, it got a lot more attention than I was expecting. Sure, the premise was awesome and was why I'd said yes to the review request in the first place. But, and heaven help me for a snob, I couldn't quite get past the fact that it was a $2.99 Kindle book - a category that, in my mind, had been inextricably linked with the Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure fiasco - and as lovely as the author was in all of her correspondence with me, I was still dreading what I had convinced myself would be a cliched, poorly copyedited, and generally awful first page.

And of course - thankfully - I shouldn't have worried. Right Side Talking is a smart and fast-paced thriller that, while not earth-shattering, is certainly equal to a great deal of traditionally published thrillers out there. Sure, it was still full of cliches - an ice queen, man-hating female boss for one, a crazy and disgruntled foreign villain for another - and is an occasional victim of a rambling, hard-to-follow narrative voice. Sections, too, also read like psychology textbooks. But last time I checked, the point of 95% of the thriller genre was to get the reader to feel, well, thrilled, and not to write a literary masterpiece.

While knowing the identity of the killer from the start diminished some of those thrills, Rozanski's obviously extensive and fascinating research on epilepsy kept me turning the pages. Ditto the very creepy hospital setting. I don't know about anyone else, but I am unreasonably terrified of hospitals considering how little time I've actually spent in them, and the idea of some orderly running around killing patients was enough to make me leave the light on late.

In the end, I still do have a lot of issues with it. It was choppy, and while the copyediting and format were flawless, it still could have used a good editor to sort out narrative issues. And the characters were simply too flat for me to care an awful lot about what happened to them. But I also have a more active inner critic than most, and am not exactly enamored with the genre, and you probably should be taking my opinions with a grain of salt, anyway. A $2.99 Kindle e-book is way cheaper than that psychology textbook, and is definitely way more fun.(less)

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Aug 08, 2011 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

A wonderfully written and surprisingly suspenseful book. The description provided to me by the author really intrigued me:

“Imagine that you are a young girl with intractable epilepsy. As a last resort you submit to an operation to sever the connection between the two sides of your brain. Though the operation successfully reduces your seizures, you are left forever with two separate minds: left and right, each unaware of the other.

Imagine further that while recovering in the hospital, you witness...more A wonderfully written and surprisingly suspenseful book. The description provided to me by the author really intrigued me:

“Imagine that you are a young girl with intractable epilepsy. As a last resort you submit to an operation to sever the connection between the two sides of your brain. Though the operation successfully reduces your seizures, you are left forever with two separate minds: left and right, each unaware of the other.

Imagine further that while recovering in the hospital, you witness a murder. Your dominant left brain cannot recognize unfamiliar faces, and is, therefore, unable to identify the killer. Your right brain can, but is unable to speak. Gradually, painstakingly, the right learns to spell out its thoughts in scrabble letters. At long last, on a table in a hospital lab, you describe the person who committed the crime. Too bad the killer is reading that very same message.….

Right Side Talking is a thriller that will grip the reader from its opening surgery scene to its dramatic courtroom climax. Its cast of characters: a 15-year-old epileptic; a brilliant surgeon; an unlicensed, resentful doctor from abroad who must work as an orderly; a grumpy, relentless detective, and a feisty psychologist Finally, most fascinating of all, there is the human mind itself.”

Can you honestly tell me that that doesn’t grab you? It was well worth the read! I love a great mystery – and even though we knew who did it all along – it was great how the author took us through this maze of Anna’s brain and how it could and couldn’t help with the trial. It was a fabulous read!

Yes you could call me biased – I love to read novels by Canadian authors and novels that are set in the Canadian environment. Right Side Talking is set in Canada and Bonnie Rozanski does a wonderful job brining a very difficult topic to light. The whole concept of coming to Canada from Kiev to live the better life is a real one and I think a tough one to deal with. It was really tough to watch Mischa take matters in his own hands while firmly believing that he was owed something. A great job!!!

So… you’ve already read what this story is about – all I can add to this is that I really did enjoy the book and yes I would recommend that you give it a shot!

I also have to say a BIG sorry for taking SO… long to read and review this book! Once I started though I couldn’t put it down!(less)

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Feb 17, 2013 Whitney rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: epilepsy, own, fiction, 2013

I should probably prefix this review by saying I had brain surgery when I was a teenager due to uncontrolled epilepsy so when going into a book about a teen girl who had epilepsy having the two hemispheres severed because of said condition, I knew I was bound to critique and be realistically critical. And I was.

Basically, the plot is Anna having brain surgery with her left and right hemispheres unable to communicate to each other making her mind act like a magic eight ball. This is unfortunate,...more I should probably prefix this review by saying I had brain surgery when I was a teenager due to uncontrolled epilepsy so when going into a book about a teen girl who had epilepsy having the two hemispheres severed because of said condition, I knew I was bound to critique and be realistically critical. And I was.

Basically, the plot is Anna having brain surgery with her left and right hemispheres unable to communicate to each other making her mind act like a magic eight ball. This is unfortunate, as she is the only witness to a murder but is unable to pick him out of a line. The hospital killing spree is eventually brought to an end after a dramatic court scene

The reader knows from page one who the killer is, so really the reader is learning what happened first hand, while a hospital patient tries to unfog herself while several other members of the hospital staff are targeted.

Now for my rant...
The beginning started out well with an accurate description of an epileptic convolution, but once we got to the surgery itself I became annoyed. First, the parents seemed completely ignorant of what was going on. I understand stress could prove a factor in this but Anna's parents literally had no clue what type of brain surgery she was having, for all they knew the surgeon could have been preforming a double lobotomy and would not have been the wiser. Second was her recovery time. Besides her hemispheres being separated and having difficulty communicating with each other (okay I'll give her slack there). Yes, she was having appropriate therapy lessons for the recent disturbance of her brain; but she is fifteen and walking the hallways by herself and boarding the bus alone (isn't she suppose to have memory problems? Whose to say she won't get lost along the way?) Plus, she was a minor, it just seemed inappropriate.

As I said before, this novel was very accurate on the topic of epilepsy but having gone through similar experiences I was overly critical. Although, as far as thrillers go it definitely had me riveted with a twist at the end over the disgruntled, hospital killer. Overall, it was a good read and a huge chunk of the time didn't necessarily focus on her condition but always loomed in the background. Despite my complaints I still had a hard time tearing my eyes away from my Kindle making it a reasonable good read.
(less)

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Feb 08, 2011 Jenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

This was a fantastic read. I have always loved psychology and the function of the brain - I studied it extensively in high school and college - but I never got a first hand look into a surgery testing the sections of the brain like I did with this book. You might think, "Ooh surgery," but unlike those graphic documentary style shows that show you just a little (or a lot) too much, Ms. Rozanski leaves enough to the imagination and explores the more important aspect of it - what happens when you s...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Kim (Wistfulskimmies Book Reviews) rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a book about Anna, a young girl with severe epilepsy. Her only chance to stop the seizures is to cut the link between the two halves of her brain. The left side has no recollection of unfamiliar faces but the right side does but cannot speak. What happens therefore when she witnesses a murder?

I was lucky enough to receive a complimentary copy of this book in order to review it. It was a very well thought out and intriguing thriller. The pace didnt let up for a second and from the beginni...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Missy (Missy's Reads & Reviews) rated it 4 of 5 stars

The first thing that hooked me to this story was the premise. It's not something that you come across a lot of these days. Being a psychology nut in high school, it intrigued me to no end - to the point where I had to squeeze this review in earlier than scheduled because it wouldn't leave me alone. I was not disappointed.

Told in third person narrative, you follow the main character Anna mostly through the story - though there is a slew of secondary characters attached as well. Anna's journey thr...more

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Jan 16, 2011 Skye rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review is also posted on my blog, In The Good Books.

Imagine that you are a young girl with intractable epilepsy. As a last resort you submit to an operation to sever the connection between the two sides of your brain. Though the operation successfully reduces your seizures, you are left forever with two separate minds: left and right, each unaware of the other.

Imagine further that while recovering in the hospital, you witness a murder. Your dominant left brain cannot recognize unfamiliar f...more This review is also posted on my blog, In The Good Books.

Imagine that you are a young girl with intractable epilepsy. As a last resort you submit to an operation to sever the connection between the two sides of your brain. Though the operation successfully reduces your seizures, you are left forever with two separate minds: left and right, each unaware of the other.

Imagine further that while recovering in the hospital, you witness a murder. Your dominant left brain cannot recognize unfamiliar faces, and is, therefore, unable to identify the killer. Your right brain can, but is unable to speak. Gradually, painstakingly, the right learns to spell out its thoughts in scrabble letters. At long last, on a table in a hospital lab, you describe the person who committed the crime. Too bad the killer is reading that very same message…

Right Side Talking falls outside of the genre I usually read in. It felt geared more towards adults, and was a crime/mystery/medical thriller. I found it compelling, nonetheless, and may venture into more books of that theme in the future.

Right Side Talking featured third person narration, with the story majorly following Anna, but also a whole cast of secondary characters - her surgeon, her psychologist, the man who attempted to murder her. Though because of this you don't get to know any character in depth, you get a better understanding of the story from all perspectives.

I'm not sure how accurate the medical aspects of this book are, but there were interesting. If it was accurate, then it was well researched; and if it was fictional, then it was well devised. Either way, the procedure Anna underwent was completely new to me and intriguing. Her recovery was slow and stressful, and the reader was set up to feel sympathetic.

Seeing the side of the investigation that goes on in the courtroom - rather than just arresting the perp and being done with it - gave the situation a realistic feel and tied up all the loose ends for the ending.

However, all the while knowing who committed the murders and why took away some of the suspense, and the rest was taken away by the trial that dragged out.

I give Right Side Talking a 3 (leaning towards a 3.5) out of 5. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes crime and mystery novels and is looking for a new twist on the genre.(less)

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Jul 14, 2011 Paula Humphrey rated it 3 of 5 stars

I got a free copy of this book on my kindle thru Bookroosters to review and I have to say the very first thing about it was that the only place the title of the book shows is on the cover/title page. It pulls up as the author's name in my list of books.

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Aug 07, 2012 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I think I got this one free or fairly cheap for my kindle. It was a fascinating read, even though I could totally imagine it as a script for an episode of Law and Order the whole time

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About Bonnie Rozanski

Bonnie is an author and prize-winning playwright currently living in New Jersey. Born in Queens, New York, she has lived in Hong Kong, Canada, and all over the US. With degrees in Psychology and Artificial Intelligence, always fascinated by the human mind, Bonnie writes on matters touching on consciousness and the human condition.

BANANA KISS, Bonnie's debut novel, told from the point of view of a...more

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