Gemini: A Novel Author: Carol Cassella | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DPM809I | Format: PDF
Gemini: A Novel Description
A stranger’s life hangs in the balance. What if you had the power to decide if she lives or dies? Dr. Charlotte Reese works in the intensive care unit of Seattle’s Beacon Hospital, tending to patients with the most life-threatening illnesses and injuries. Her job is to battle death—to monitor erratic heartbeats, worry over low oxygen levels, defend against infection and demise.
One night a Jane Doe is transferred to her care from a rural hospital on the Olympic Peninsula. This unidentified patient remains unconscious, the victim of a hit and run. As Charlotte and her team struggle to stabilize her, the police search for the driver who fled the scene.
Days pass, Jane’s condition worsens, and her identity remains a mystery. As Charlotte finds herself making increasingly complicated medical decisions that will tie her forever to Jane’s fate, her usual professional distance evaporates. She’s plagued by questions: Who is Jane Doe? Why will no one claim her? Who should decide her fate if she doesn’t regain consciousness—and when?
Perhaps most troubling, Charlotte wonders if a life locked in a coma is a life worth living.
Enlisting the help of her boyfriend, Eric, a science journalist, Charlotte impulsively sets out to uncover Jane Doe’s past. But the closer they get to the truth, the more their relationship is put to the test. It is only when they open their hearts to their own feelings toward each other—and toward life itself—that Charlotte and Eric will unlock Jane Doe’s shocking secret, and prepare themselves for a miracle.
Filled with intricate medical detail and set in the breathtaking Pacific Northwest,
Gemini is a riveting and heartbreaking novel of moral complexity and emotional depth.
- File Size: 2776 KB
- Print Length: 353 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1451627939
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 4, 2014)
- Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DPM809I
- Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,504 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #5
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Medical - #5
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Medical - #6
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Genetic Engineering
- #5
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Medical - #5
in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Medical - #6
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Genetic Engineering
Carol Cassella's "Gemini" explores how our health, biological and genetic history, personalities, prosperity, and social standing all may contribute to our happiness or misery. Are we destined to be contented and well-adjusted or unhappy and dysfunctional? Most of us are somewhere in between, experiencing highs and lows at different stages of our lives. Dr. Charlotte Reese frequently ponders mortality and other weighty issues, since she deals with gravely ill patients in the Intensive Care Unit of Beacon Hospital. She sometimes wonders "if her entire medical career was an interminable battle against the will of the universe." Yet, she is an excellent doctor who fights for her patients, even when it appears unlikely that they will survive.
A case in point is Jane Doe, an unidentified female in her late thirties who is transported by helicopter to Charlotte's hospital from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. Jane, the victim of a hit-and-run driver, has multiple injuries. Her blood pressure is plummeting, her lungs are filling with fluid, and her kidneys are about to shut down. As time passes and Jane remains in a coma, no one comes forward to claim her as either as a relative or friend. Dr. Reese grows attached to this solitary patient with whom she has never exchanged a single word.
In addition to its fascinating depiction of the work of intensive care physicians, "Gemini" is a coming of age story about a young girl, Raney, who is being raised on a farm by her doting but no-nonsense grandfather. Grandpa Remington is a widower and survivalist who has built a well-equipped underground bunker, preparing for "the end of the world as we know it." Meanwhile, Raney strikes up a friendship with a visiting city boy, Bo, whose wealthy parents are divorcing.
I really liked Cassella's first novel, introducing a heroine who was an anesthesiologist. She took readers behind the scenes of the operating room and added a solid mystery.
Cassella seems to challenge herself more with Gemini. In today's literary world multiple viewpoints are considered advanced, modern and representative of an author's skill. I actually like the contrasting stories. Raney is an unpolished, rural girl, growing up isolated even from her own community, brought up by a gruff but ultimately compassionate grandfather. With limited horizons, she doesn't dare to dream or even bring her dreams to fruition when she gets the chance.
In the early scenes Raney meets a boy who comes to visit the island. She resents his apparent wealth and his privileged life in Queen Anne (actually, it's Lower Queen Anne and not Queen Anne Hill that are near the Space Needle, but Raney wouldn't know). Yet as she challenges this boy "Rob" he toughens up and they develop a sort of friendship.
At the same time Charlotte works in intensive care in Becaon hospital that might be Harborview in real life. She's competent and dedicated - almost too dedicated - and she finds herself caught up in a Jane Doe patient - severely injured, unidentified, a challenge both medically and socially. Charlotte doesn't want the hospital to give up on Jane too quickly. Charlotte's life in Seattle, with her career and her current boyfriend, contrast with the limits of Raney's world.
As readers with access to both stories, we know they'll come together. As the story moves along, the ending becomes more and more obvious. There's not so much a mystery as an unveiling.
As some reviewers suggest, the end is more of a whimper than a bang. It's not especially surprising.
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