Emily's review

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/636199.Being?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Being" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176571851m/636199.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/636199.Being?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Being</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/114266.Kevin_m_Brooks">Kevin m. Brooks</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8440220?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 2 of 5 stars Being, by Kevin Brooks, has an excellent beginning. Robert Smith is just an ordinary kid. He has been orphaned. He lives with a nice foster family. He is having some gastric issues. He goes to see a doctor…who sends him to a specialist…who does an endoscopy…and finds something requiring surgery. 
 While he is supposed to be heavily sedated, he comes back to consciousness. Though he is awake, no one else operating on him has noticed. He can hear everything going on around them. He is in a room with a guy holding a pretty serious weapon and they are discussing the “thing” on the table. The “thing” that doesn’t have internal organs, or blood…who is made, instead, of wires and oils and odd colored liquids. 
 Robert has to escape before he becomes a government guinea pig. He manages to escape the room, leaving everyone unharmed. However, when he reads about the even in the paper the next day, it turns out he killed someone…AND the guy who drove the get-away car and talked with Robert, his car went off the road and he conveniently died. Robert, anxious to know if what he heard was real, watches the video tape of his endoscopy. When that fails to convince him, he rents a hotel room, gets sauced on vodka, and does his own surgery. He finds out – it’s all real.
 From that point on, Robert is on the run. He strikes an alliance with Eddi, an acquaintance through an old friend. Eddi makes fake-ids and is willing (at gun point) to help Robert out. 
 When she is implicated in his escape plans, it is clear that she has to run with him or die at the hands of this unknown government agency. 
 The two flee England and head for Spain where life is able to settle into normalcy. Eddi gives up crime and starts work as a waitress. Robert forgets about what is inside of him (he never tells Eddi), and starts work in construction. Their lives seem pretty even keeled. On the evening of a big town festival, however, the secret agents catch up to Robert, kill Eddi (it seems that Brooks was hinting that she might be pregnant), and try to “Take him in”. 
 The novel is great right up until the last fifty pages. With such potential throughout, it is as if Brooks’ creative energies were zapped and he just slapped a haphazard ending on there…which completely ruined the momentum he had going for him.
 No questions are answered. The reader is left to wonder what was the point. 
 Perhaps he is going to make a series out of it, but the finality with which Robert faded out just seemed very, well…final. 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/395486?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Emily's review
rating:

recommended for: YA
status: Read in September, 2007

Being, by Kevin Brooks, has an excellent beginning. Robert Smith is just an ordinary kid. He has been orphaned. He lives with a nice foster family. He is having some gastric issues. He goes to see a doctor…who sends him to a specialist…who does an endoscopy…and finds something requiring surgery.
While he is supposed to be heavily sedated, he comes back to consciousness. Though he is awake, no one else operating on him has noticed. He can hear everything going on around them. He is in a room with a guy holding a pretty serious weapon and they are discussing the “thing” on the table. The “thing” that doesn’t have internal organs, or blood…who is made, instead, of wires and oils and odd colored liquids.
Robert has to escape before he becomes a government guinea pig. He manages to escape the room, leaving everyone unharmed. However, when he reads about the even in the paper the next day, it turns out he killed someone…AND the guy who drove the get-away car and talke...more Being, by Kevin Brooks, has an excellent beginning. Robert Smith is just an ordinary kid. He has been orphaned. He lives with a nice foster family. He is having some gastric issues. He goes to see a doctor…who sends him to a specialist…who does an endoscopy…and finds something requiring surgery.
While he is supposed to be heavily sedated, he comes back to consciousness. Though he is awake, no one else operating on him has noticed. He can hear everything going on around them. He is in a room with a guy holding a pretty serious weapon and they are discussing the “thing” on the table. The “thing” that doesn’t have internal organs, or blood…who is made, instead, of wires and oils and odd colored liquids.
Robert has to escape before he becomes a government guinea pig. He manages to escape the room, leaving everyone unharmed. However, when he reads about the even in the paper the next day, it turns out he killed someone…AND the guy who drove the get-away car and talked with Robert, his car went off the road and he conveniently died. Robert, anxious to know if what he heard was real, watches the video tape of his endoscopy. When that fails to convince him, he rents a hotel room, gets sauced on vodka, and does his own surgery. He finds out – it’s all real.
From that point on, Robert is on the run. He strikes an alliance with Eddi, an acquaintance through an old friend. Eddi makes fake-ids and is willing (at gun point) to help Robert out.
When she is implicated in his escape plans, it is clear that she has to run with him or die at the hands of this unknown government agency.
The two flee England and head for Spain where life is able to settle into normalcy. Eddi gives up crime and starts work as a waitress. Robert forgets about what is inside of him (he never tells Eddi), and starts work in construction. Their lives seem pretty even keeled. On the evening of a big town festival, however, the secret agents catch up to Robert, kill Eddi (it seems that Brooks was hinting that she might be pregnant), and try to “Take him in”.
The novel is great right up until the last fifty pages. With such potential throughout, it is as if Brooks’ creative energies were zapped and he just slapped a haphazard ending on there…which completely ruined the momentum he had going for him.
No questions are answered. The reader is left to wonder what was the point.
Perhaps he is going to make a series out of it, but the finality with which Robert faded out just seemed very, well…final.
...less

Like this review? yes flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Emily's books »