Title: Overkill
Author: Sandra Brown
Series: n/a
Great characters, great conflict
I would like to thank Sandra Brown, Hachette Audio, Grand Central Publishing, and NetGalley for allowing me to read/listen to a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Loved this! The hero, Zack, wasn’t a total jackass, as some Brown heroes have been, and the heroine, Kate, was likable and down-to-earth. Both had the integrity to not give in to their baser instincts, which I appreciated and immediately earned my respect. Bing was also a favorite. I think Zack needed a dog, he seemed liked to the type to have one, but I understand that might have complicated his ability to leave at a moment’s notice and be away for days. I could have lived without Zack being a football star: I don’t like sports; I don’t have much respect for professional athletes; his football analogies went over my head; and professional athlete romances have their own dedicated genre—but I liked him, and the story, anyway.
The dilemma of whether or not to pull the plug on a human vegetable isn’t new, but I haven’t read one in a quite a while, so it felt fresh to me. Additionally, I never realized there’s a type of vegetative state in which the patient has wake and sleep cycles. Just like in Zack’s mind, that added a whole new layer of uncomfortable to the problem for me. It’s one thing for a person to be kept alive by machines; it feels more natural for them to be dead, and it’s just a matter of flipping a switch and letting the blood stop circulating. With the type of state Rebecca was in (same as a coma? No? Not sure, and I don’t recall the book addressing) she was breathing on her own and her eyes would open, there was just no brain activity. A more or less functional vessel, but no soul. To “pull the plug” on her, at least to my understanding, meant to stop feeding and hydrating her and let her systems shut down. Took three days. Why they couldn’t have euthanized her with Zack and Doug’s legal permission, I’m not sure. I don’t remember the book addressing that, either, but it did make very plain the ethical quagmire of the whole situation. I did not envy Zack is role in it all, not one bit.
There was plenty going on to keep my attention, plenty of suspense, a great balance between exposition and dialogue. I wouldn’t call this Brown’s grittiest book, but her signature bluntness was present. She could perhaps have taken us on a hike with Zack once before the end to foreshadow/better establish how it would end; it felt almost too easy or lazy. There was plenty of fog foreshadowing, though.
Overall, I had a great time reading Overkill and look forward to next year’s book!
