Review by rhendel -- Days of the Giants by RJ Petrella

[rhendel]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Days of the Giants" by RJ Petrella.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Days of the Giants by RJ Petrella is the story of a young medical student named Slater Barnes who is learning to navigate the intense medical world in Boston in the early 1990s. Slater chooses to intern at Boston City Hospital, the underfunded public hospital that mainly helps drug addicts and the homeless, much to the disappointment of his step-father who is an executive at the fancier Boston Academy hospital. After Slater is diagnosed with his own life-threatening condition, he continues to learn the ins and outs of the medical profession while struggling to accept the corruption and politics that infest the medical world.

I enjoyed most of this book, but found the beginning slow and had a hard time becoming invested in the story. The book is categorized as a medical or murder thriller but for the first few chapters I was confused as to why. However, about a third of the way through the storyline picked up and more of the traditional thriller elements started appearing. From that point on, I really enjoyed how suspenseful it was and thought the twists and turns were unpredictable.

Slater Barnes, the main character, is easy to bond with and root for. While there is good character development from the first chapter, Slater is faced with a few challenges early on that make him easy to relate to and help establish a strong connection between the reader and character. One thing I didn’t like about Slater was how dismissive he was of his feelings. There are several instances throughout the book where Slater blatantly says he doesn’t care about feelings, which is contradictory to some of his actions with patients and in personal relationships. To me, it seemed Slater was trying to inhabit the stereotypical notion of masculinity.

I didn’t like several things about the book. The thing I disliked most was that it was written in alternating perspectives of Slater and his deceased father. There’s very little information provided about Slater’s father, which made it difficult for me to understand why he was involved in the book at all. Additionally, in the chapters from Slater’s perspective the phrase “don’t get me wrong” was used so frequently it became annoying. Lastly, most of the secondary characters don’t have much development and are harder to connect with. Because of this, I found it hard to invest in some storylines and found them less impactful, which hindered my enjoyment of the book.

Overall, I rate Days of the Giants by RJ Petrella 3 out of 4 stars. The overall storyline was engaging and suspenseful, and the twists towards the end were hard to see coming. However, I found some of the writing to be repetitive and frustrating to read, and the secondary characters weren’t well enough developed for me to invest in their storylines. The book had a few typographical errors but not enough to hinder my ability to read or enjoy the book. I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy thrillers, murder mysteries, or medical books. There are a lot of instances of drug and alcohol abuse, so readers who are sensitive to those situations may not enjoy the book.

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Days of the Giants
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[Erin Painter Baker]

I think it would be really hard to read a thriller/mystery that does not start out as a thriller/mystery. I think those things should show up right away in this genre.