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gaporter wrote:

L_Therese wrote:I found the relationship with the patient much more disturbing than the passing of drugs to an addict. Both are bad behaviors, but the former seems like more of a violation of trust than the latter. Plotwise, I was not all that bothered by the lack of immediate and obvious punishment. The doctor appeared to be avoiding paperwork, which is an understandable motive, and our psychiatrist was punished in a more karmic sense later in life when he realized that he was only a tool. I can't admire these characters, but I think I understand them.

I agree that the relationship seems worse than passing the drugs. A patient in a mental hospital cannot legally consent, I believe. It also didn't seem to be too much reciprocated. He appeared in her room with flowers and there wasn't much she could really do about the situation. He kind of imposed himself on her, though she did have her wits collected enough to make use of the situation.

I agree with this too.

Rhoe_Marrow wrote:

Vermont Reviews wrote:I think it is a great thing the author has the power to do whatever they want to the characters. And all we can do is read it. Although we can dislike it. This is why I love books so very much. Power to the author.

However if the author abuses his power it can make the story appear unrealistic and not sway the reader. I've read a couple of books that I have written off as 'cheesy' because the author decided to add everything but the kitchen sink in their books. Or how about when young authors make their characters 'invincible'?

I completely agree! Sometimes things in book just go too far for me to enjoy the book and keep in the reality they are trying to create.

lmoses wrote:

Rhoe_Marrow wrote:

Vermont Reviews wrote:I think it is a great thing the author has the power to do whatever they want to the characters. And all we can do is read it. Although we can dislike it. This is why I love books so very much. Power to the author.

However if the author abuses his power it can make the story appear unrealistic and not sway the reader. I've read a couple of books that I have written off as 'cheesy' because the author decided to add everything but the kitchen sink in their books. Or how about when young authors make their characters 'invincible'?

I completely agree! Sometimes things in book just go too far for me to enjoy the book and keep in the reality they are trying to create.

I have also experienced this. It bugs me when an author overloads with side plots, adds a lot of soap opera-style drama, or makes the characters too flawless and invulnerable. An author should balance strengths, resources, challenges, and obstacles. Does anyone feel that this author succeeded in this endeavor, or did the author overdo things in this book?

L_Therese wrote:

lmoses wrote:

Rhoe_Marrow wrote: However if the author abuses his power it can make the story appear unrealistic and not sway the reader. I've read a couple of books that I have written off as 'cheesy' because the author decided to add everything but the kitchen sink in their books. Or how about when young authors make their characters 'invincible'?

I completely agree! Sometimes things in book just go too far for me to enjoy the book and keep in the reality they are trying to create.

I have also experienced this. It bugs me when an author overloads with side plots, adds a lot of soap opera-style drama, or makes the characters too flawless and invulnerable. An author should balance strengths, resources, challenges, and obstacles. Does anyone feel that this author succeeded in this endeavor, or did the author overdo things in this book?

The author succeeded.

Vermont Reviews

I disagree. I think the author went a little overboard and I found myself rolling my eyes at certain parts.

Although my immediate thoughts would be that it was a total injustice, we also have to take into account that the institutions back then are nowhere near the same as now. Standards then were a little lax and the treatments were the stuff of nightmares. It's not surprising that he got away with it when in reality, many psychiatrists back then have gotten away with far worse deeds. It was a violation of the trust between doctor and patient and in the end, even though he wasn't punished as a psychiatrist, he did receive his just desserts. More or less.

I don't know who I hated more, Maria or the psychiatrist. Maria for playing around his feelings or the psychiatrist for losing his mind over her. But then again, their story was part of what made the book interesting.

gaporter wrote:

Rhoe_Marrow wrote:I thought it was a little funny that he got played. The horrible part about it was that people were hurt through out the process. I blame the head psychiatrist in all this. He went on about all his years of experience, knew full well what this guy was going and then responded so mildly. it was odd.

I think that some of it could be attributed to the time period as mental hospitals were not exactly known to be the most safe and pleasant places to be back then. By today's standards, if a supervisor knew about an inappropriate relationship between a nurse and a patient, that nurse would be out of there so fast and the supervisor may even be liable as well. There didn't appear to be much oversight of the nurses or the psychiatrists in this hospital.

I let a lot of the disassociation from reality slide because I wrote it off as a result of the time period and the subject matter of the book. We are seriously debating the inappropriate behavior of a med student/ nurse to an attractive patient in a book about aliens and alternative history?

I understand that Maria was supposed to be beautiful but it does seem odd that she affected him so much more than others. He may have been young but the character didn't come across as that naive.

If no one had been killed then I would be more inclined to believe that the head psychiatrist had given a slightly leniant punishment, however this man's actions lead to the escaping of a murderer.

tortoise keeper wrote:I agree. Psychiatric hospitals were pretty scary during the time period in the story especially since there were few medications and effective treatments. I doubt there was as much attention paid to appropriate staff/patient relationships either. Having worked in several mental health facilities over the last 20 years that kind of behavior would not be tolerated today.

Most of the mental health facilities in Vermont have been closed for a few years not.

Vermont Reviews

I must say that I did not find this part as disturbing as many other commenters did. Perhaps because I did not find it as unbelievable as others? I mean, much much much scarier and darker things were taking place behind closed doors of hospital and mental asylums than those described in the books. Only thing I can say is that thank god that period is over!

I don't condone the behavior of the psychiatrist or the people at the hospital, but I sort of skipped over that because what I took from it was just that the psychiatrist wanted to find out about the aliens and did what he had to do to get his information.

I also found it interesting that he was not punished for his part in her escape. Given the time period, I could see that he was not punished for the inappropriate relationship that he had with her. But the fact that his actions led to the death of two people and serious injury of another. One would think that he would have been punished for it. But a part of me was glad that she had manipulated him and she left him- I had just hoped that professionally he would also be punished.

gaporter wrote:I didn't particularly care for the fact that the psychiatrist had no punishment for his part in the Maria's escape or, even prior to that, his relationship with her as his patient. Maybe given the time in history it would have been harder to trace his part in the addicts death and the drug smuggling, but it still seems strange to me that he would be allowed to continue to pursue a career in medicine after the fiasco.

I felt the same way. I know that it's just a work of fiction, but it kind of bothered me that he was able to become a therapist after all of this.

I thought the relationship was interesting. I kind of predicted that she would leave him in the end. It showed that she was "vulnerable," but I felt like it was fake when I was reading it. It turned out that I was right. I felt bad for him after she left. As for him giving pills to the addict, it just added to how innocent he was. Multiple people were able to use him to get what they wanted. As for the protagonist not being punished, I really didn't think twice about it. The author is free to do whatever they want with their characters. I honestly prefer that plots do not follow the traditional structure that is expected of them.