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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/457310.The_Children_s_Hospital?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Children's Hospital" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51iBoz57ExL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/457310.The_Children_s_Hospital?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Children's Hospital</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12177.Chris_Adrian">Chris Adrian</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15913066?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>The only reason I picked this up, and the only reason I stuck it out for all 615 pages, was because I was captivated by the initial premise of the story -- people marooned in a children's hospital post-apocalypse -- and I wanted to see how it would resolve itself. Maybe it was because of my attachment to the premise that I found myself bogged down by the huge amount of (very well-written) detail about the characters' interior lives and the activities of a children's hospital. These things by themselves simply weren't that interesting: okay, Jemma and her life are pretty messed up, there are many varieties of sick kids to tend to, but...where the hell are they going?!
<br/>
<br/>After a while (around page 200) I found myself wanting something apocalypse-related to actually happen, and thankfully it did about 40 pages later (no spoiler). Things of an apocalyptic nature actually do happen in the last third of the book but you have to wade through a LOT of (again, very well-written) prose to experience it; detours into the protagonists' childhood were annoying enough such that I ended up skimming/skipping through them. I saw the ending coming from about 150 pages away but I held hope that I might be surprised...I wasn't.
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<br/>Great themes there are a-plenty, great writing too...but did it really have to be 615 pages long?
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/133293?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Kecia's review
rating:
bookshelves: fiction

The only reason I picked this up, and the only reason I stuck it out for all 615 pages, was because I was captivated by the initial premise of the story -- people marooned in a children's hospital post-apocalypse -- and I wanted to see how it would resolve itself. Maybe it was because of my attachment to the premise that I found myself bogged down by the huge amount of (very well-written) detail about the characters' interior lives and the activities of a children's hospital. These things by themselves simply weren't that interesting: okay, Jemma and her life are pretty messed up, there are many varieties of sick kids to tend to, but...where the hell are they going?!

After a while (around page 200) I found myself wanting something apocalypse-related to actually happen, and thankfully it did about 40 pages later (no spoiler). Things of an apocalyptic nature actually do happen in the last third of the book but you have to wade through a LOT of (again, very well-written) prose to exper...more

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message 1: by Katie

02/21/2008 09:08AM

I've been interested in this one, but decided it's too long... Let me know what you think!