Gray Matter

Rating:
Summary: Read this book
Review: Gray Matter is the best thriller I've read in a long time. Make that one of the best books. What makes it so good? Well, we can start with the basics: it thrills. (I finished it at six in the morning.) Gary Braver starts from our society's increasing trend toward messing with Mother Nature - just so long as it makes a profit, -- takes it just around the next corner, and shows us what could happen in gripping, profoundly human terms.

I cared about his characters. Braver has a real talent for taking us inside his people's heads, even when their minds have been tampered with. We believe in and care about these people.

And he is thoughtful. Gray Matter gives us its thrills, but it gives us much more. Plot, character, thought, social commentary: all work together effectively. There is, too, a sense of right and wrong, of simple human decency and concern for people at the core of this work that makes this book worth reading at any or all levels you care to. And it is written in a prose style that merits slowing down and savoring the words (one reason I was up to six).

I've read all of Braver's novels, including those written as Gary Goshgarian. Now I'm waiting for the next one.

Rating:
Summary: Hooked on this medical thriller!
Review: This well-paced novel by Gary Braver reflects shades of Robin Cook. "Gray Matter" will grab your attention immediately and hold you in suspense as the pages whirl past. The science and medicine are just on the edge of possibility and, therefore, the plot is believable. That's what makes this book so horrifyingly realistic. Character development is intricate and complete. You will conjure up emotions towards this cast of characters. Furthermore, the New England setting is pristine and creates a perfect complimentary environment for this thriller. Don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: A Truly Original Thriller for our Times
Review: As a parent of a gifted child, I found this book both terrifying and fascinating -- alltogether a great read.

Gary Braver has written a novel perfect for our times. Our children are required to pass high-stakes, do-or-die tests at a young age, and there are parents out there who will do anything to help their kids succeed.

Gray Matter fictionalizes the dilemma of a weathly couple who are parents of a son who is less than stellar academically. The plot involves child kidnap and diabolical brain-matter transplants. It is a fast-paced, can't-put-it-down book that I know you will enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended!!
Review: In a time when half the nations kids are on Ritalin and other behaviour altering drugs, this story makes you worry about what's next. To be honest, I picked up this book expecting it to be the usual checkout stand paperback medical melodrama with caricature characters and a predictable plot. But I was blown away when I started reading it. This is a taut, relentless thriller that takes off on the first page and doesn't stop until the final period. I ended up reading it in three days because I couldn't put it down. Braver writes with a visual flare that sets the scenes clearly in your head, sucking you into the story and pulling you deeper and deeper into a world that feels real, but you hope isn't. I highly recommend Gray Matter. And I'll certainly be checking out Braver's other books as well.

Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: GRAY MATTER is a thought-provoking thriller, much smarter and deeper than 95% of the thrillers you find on the bookstore shelves. While giving us a fast-paced page turner, Gary Braver also makes us think about the things our culture values and how far we'll go to get what we think we need -- or in this case, what our children need. He asks questions about science, sociology and psychology while making us look at these questions in relation to how we live our lives. This is exactly why I read novels -- to be challenged, to have my eyes opened and to have fun.

Gary Braver is often compared to Robin Cook, a medical thriller writer who is consistently on the best-seller lists and whose books fall far below the quality and content of GRAY MATTER. Why isn't GRAY MATTER getting the attention and acclaim it deserves? I will do the best I can to tell everyone I know about this book, and hope others will too.

Rating:
Summary: Good light reading - not a serious examination of the issue
Review: 74/75 positive reviews and counting, so I won't spend a lot of time on what's good about this book other than to say that the pacing was excellent. I was never bored - the book did a great job of killing a few hours on an airplane. But the book never made me think about the problems he was supposedly addressing. My biggest problem is that, although the advertising suggests that Braver was dealing with the very difficult questions that will arise when we have reliable ways to enhance intelligence, he actually created a situation where the characters had no real choice. Unfortunately, it's hard to explain without "spoiling" some aspects of the story which probably surprised many readers but just disappointed me.

(*Mild spoilers*)
Rachel has no problem enhancing Dylan's intelligence. The dilemma is the almost crippling effect the procedure had on the enhanced children's personalities (with which Braver keeps hitting us over the head in a variety of increasingly extreme ways). The reader is presented with no decision at all once we know how the procedure actually works. At that point, we see that what the doctor is doing is just criminal and abhorrent by the standards of just about any society that has ever existed. The cost was much too high for an intelligence boost -- indeed, it would be too high even if the result was to save the lives of child cancer victims.
(*End of spoilers*)

This is not any profound examination of the costs of intelligence enhancement. I suspect that such a book would have to be a lot more like Nancy Kress' Sleepless series, since the effects at the individual level would be generally positive, but the more difficult implications would be felt at the societal level. So this is no slam on Braver, he wrote a decent little thriller that reads like a screenplay and is great for killing a few hours. If that's what you're looking for, then I can definitely recommend "Gray Matter."

Rating:
Summary: Provocative look at modern science and ethics
Review: Gray Matter was a fantastic read, weaving together ethics, medicine, scientific discovery and learning disabilities in an engaging and page-turning manner. Braver kept me on the edge on my seat in a roller-coaster like ride of emotions. The characters are real, honest and believable in their struggles raising a learning-disabled child. This book forces you to hink, it is much deeper than most other thriller/sci-fi novels. There is a moral strain in this story that tugged at my own feelings towards such scientific progress. Gray Matter is a compelling commentary on the progress of modern medicine and genetic engineering.

Rating:
Summary: Gray Matter
Review: I just read GRAY MATTER and immediately wanted to share my observations. This is an awesome science fiction book! The plot is tremendous. Gary Braver's ability to develop his characters is great. The novel is full of suspense. The author takes you on a thriller roller coaster covering greed, corruption and much more. I highly recommend purchasing this book. If you have not read any of Gary Braver's books, then you are depriving yourself!

Rating:
Summary: This could happen
Review: That's what's so scary about this book. With the state of technology today and with parents who push their children intellectually before they are even born, this story is not so far-fetched. What is even better is that this book makes you think while you are turning the pages. It is well researched and well written. Gary Braver should be right up there with Robin Cook, Stephen King and John Baldacci. I've also read Elixer and the books that he has written under his real name: Gary Goshgarian. I've never been disappointed. His books grab you on the first page and don't let go even after you've finished reading.

Rating:
Summary: Review by author Joy Lee Rutter
Review: The book is fast paced thriller, a real page turner. As a parent of average kids with mild attention deficits, I too admit to envying my peers with gifted offspring. I could identify with Rachel as she looked at her son, and pictured a dim future for him. I even felt her enlivened hope when she was offered a way to alter his intelligence. What parent wouldn't? Gary Braver wrote a wonderful thought provoking book that I could not put down. As the story unfolds, and the horrors emerge, take a new look at your average kid and thank God you were not offered an option to alter his imperfections. Love them unconditionally, and accept them no matter what.