Beat the Reaper: A Novel (edit title)

• Rated 5 stars

“Excellent first novel by Josh Bazell. Entertaining, graphic, fun read...just the kind of book to help you through a boring day.
”

• Rated 4 stars

“wow! This book was recommended to me. It was weird, intriguing, graphic, and gory...but I couldn't help reading more. Highly recommend to anyone else!”

• Rated 4 stars

“a great fun quick read!”

• Rated 4 stars

“fast rousing change of pace, medical intern in witness protection tells of his life with the mob, black humor, final act gets a bit out of hand”

• Rated 4 stars

“very fast read, entertaining”

• Rated 4 stars

“I saw this book in the bookstore at the weekend with a blue cover, and again in yellow. My copy’s red. Very odd. And it’s a very odd book, besides being thoroughly entertaining, intriguing and absorbing.

The story’s set in a Manhattan hospital, where a doctor tries to “beat the reaper” in the medical sense, whilst also trying to escape his own personal reaping. His past—well, you’d have to read the story… The tale is told in first person present tense, which works perfectly. It feels like listening to a very strange, possibly deranged, but superbly intelligent person telling his life, and it draws you in completely. I learned the oddest of medical facts from the footnotes, including why bone grafts come from the leg. And the story took me from the world of Polish Jews to the Italian Mafia, to murder, mayhem and hospital.

There are scenes that are definitely not for the squeamish, told with a deft hand that lets this slightly squeamish reader safely off the hook—a very deft hand. And the whole is a curiously satisfying madcap adventure with just enough seriousness to haunt you when it’s done. Highly recommended. Outrageous fun.
”

• Rated 4 stars

“Definately recommend this one. Fast read and very different. ”

• Rated 0 stars

“I requested it at the library and when it came - I thought what the heck?
This did not look like my kind of book. But, it was. Funny, odd, entertaining - read it.”

• Rated 1 stars

“Anabsurd story - a complete waste of time.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Fast moving, plenty of action, but a bit guesome for my tastes. And that surprised me because I can handle some gore!”