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Summary: Keep them Coming
Review: Great follow up to Elixir. Overall story is intriging, and quite scarry when you think about it. In today's society, everyone wants it all.The only complaint I have about the book: it is sometimes segmented, and spends a great deal of time up front developing the characters, to throw them together at the end in a hurried finish. The sherriff is predictably set up, and is left for dead until he is brought up again. Dragging out the story to match the front end would only benefit this Author, but I'm sure that has something to do with the Publisher.
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Summary: GRAY MATTER
Review: "Gray Matter" is the latest of five superior books by Gary Braver. If you read for the fun of it then this is the author for you. His stories move logically and without chaff or filler, carrying the reader smoothly and seamlessly with his perfect use of the English language. The characters in Braver's books show his remarkable insight into human behavior. Whereas some authors create characters from cookie cutters fashioned of themselves, the people in Braver's books are individuals apart. The premise and situations that Braver dreams up, regardless how bizarre, become completely believable through his skillful use of words. One always knows where they are in a Braver story, and where they have been, but they never know where they are going. Every time the reader thinks they have it all figured out, and know what will happen next, the story takes a twist far more interesting and imaginative than they expected or dreamed. Braver's previous book, "Elixir," shares this review, as do the three books he wrote as Gary Goshgarian, titled "Rough Beast," "The Stone Circle," and "Atlantis Fire." Comparisons of this author to various other writers abound, and should be ignored. This author is unique, and destined to be a standard for comparing others.
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Summary: Gray Matter
Review: Gray Matter is a page-turner. If you like Robin Cook, if you like Michael Palmer, you will LOVE Gary Braver. Braver's style and pace keep you moving, thinking, and trying frantically to guess the outcome. Coming from an academic work environment, I found his descriptions of the competitive academic mindset right on the money. It is obvious that Braver did the research needed to make the reader question whether Gray Matter could really happen. Gray Matter was my first Gary Braver novel but will certainly not be my last. I will go back and read everything this author has written to date and hope he is at work on his next novel.
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Summary: SPELLBINDING
Review: Move over Stephen King - Gary Braver has arrived! Gray Matter is a real thriller - fast paced and extremely thought provoking. It forces the reader to think about some very serious medical, ethical, moral and social issues. The characters are very real and utterly believable. The plot takes some unexpected twists and turns, ending in an action packed climax. Anyone who likes a real thriller will certainly not be disappointed with Gray Matter. It would be surprising if Gray Matter does not make it into the theaters.
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Summary: A Student's review of Gray Matter
Review: Gary Braver's latest covers all the aspects of a fantastic read. It's written in a manner easy to follow while still managing to maintain a wonderful level of intellectualism. The character depth in this work was enough to make me not want to put it down, but the plot (and its amazing exploration of ethics from different points of view) tops off the experience. Braver keeps with his superb realism in subject matter, as he did in Elixir. Anyone interested in being entertained while, at the same time, being educated need not look any further. Easily the best book I've read in a year.
Rating:
Summary: A first-rate page-turner!
Review: A first-rate page-turner that has something to say and that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it. As suggested by the title, the book is more than a medical thriller involving the brain. The story raises important moral and ethical issues regarding parents who would do anything to raise perfect child and medical practitioners who would oblige them for the right price. GRAY MATTER is also a terrific cop novel that will hold you in suspense to the last paragraph. The characters are engaging and complex and so well depicted.
What a pleasure to read. What a pleasure to see a thriller with thought and soul and smart, stylish writing. This is an all around winner.
Rating: 
Summary: A Real Page Turner
Review: Sometimes I turned five or six pages at once. Seriously, though, this book isn't the least bit interesting. Anyone who hasn't figured out the ending early on in the novel just isn't paying attention, or needs a brain enhancement. Character development is very flawed, as if all of them have gone through the surgical procedure. I just didn't know, or care, about any of the many people populating this book. And some things didn't make much sense. Why is Greg kept off the case through most of the book when he has such clear evidence linking several murders? Not only that, why didn't another jurisdiction's police department pick up Greg's research and take it forward to solve their own crimes? And why, when he heard of the Nova Children's Center, didn't he tell other police departments, who had kidnapped children they were looking for, about it so they could look for the children there? As for this book being an examination of smart versus human, and parents' willingness to do anything to give their children a head start in life, these parents are pretty much kept in the dark as to the present and future costs. They are never given the facts as to how their children will turn out and relate socially. So how can it be a true examination of these issues? At least in The Stepford Wives, the husbands were happy with their wives. If no one is happy with the results, how are we supposed to believe no one would talk, no matter the cost? Think lawsuits.
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Summary: Hmmm - as I write this review,
Review: Gary Braver, talented author of the prior "Elixer" has scored 49 reviews of 5 stars. It's pretty evident that he's brought something fresh and enjoyable to the table with his thriller, "Gray Matter". Braver's outstanding in tone, characterization, and dialogue in his novels, but he has a way with the language that also makes you stand back and take note as he makes the setting and the Massachutsetts surroundings come to life. With these skills, he writes, much more successfully than Crichton, of a cutting edge topic of medical science, with the attendant moral and ethical dilemmas raised. The result is a heart-stopping tale that you will find difficult to put down and difficult to forget. I'm the parent of learning disabled children. How many times have I wished I had a magic wand to "make it all go away" and give them the power to learn and feel good about learning and future in the way that most people have. What would I do to make that happen? I think I would be torn, as heroine Rachel is, at the possibility that I could change my child's life for the positive; and if I pass up my chance to do so, will I regret it? Rachel's son Dylan simply has a low IQ. He's a charming and talented child, but growing up in an upper income area, with the endless pressure that children have to succeed (from upwardly mobile parents); he's at a disadvantage. It's important for parents to NOT get caught up in the academic merry-go-round and the accompanying "enrichment activities" that
high incomes seem to make "de rigueur" for our small children. No one seems to let kids be kids these days.
"Enhancement" surgery - performed by a doctor whose murky past in the Soviet Union makes his specialty almost "believable", is available. But as Rachel begins going down that road, signs that other children who've probably had the surgery are suffering from horrible side-effects, compel her to stop. But you won't want to stop...at least not until you reach the end of this compelling novel. Bravo, Braver!!
Rating:
Summary: Page Turner
Review: As someone else said in their rating, "could this be possible?". It probably could, and that is one of the reasons you can't stop reading and wondering during this novel. The author of this novel was compared to Stephen King (who I do not care for) but was so glad I picked this one up to read. I work in the medical profession; and there is very little medical terminology in this book, and can still be easily read and understood by those in the non-medical profession. I think this would make a great movie, or at least, a great cable movie/mini series. I thouroughly enjoyed this book; there are some that you read and then you don't talk about it, but this is one to talk about.
Rating:
Summary: Another winning thriller from Gary Braver
Review: Gray Matter is a great thriller! An engaging cast of characters, a fast-paced and exciting plot, wonderful medical and scientific details and a couple of (yikes!) shocks for good measure. The moral dilemma was thought-provoking even while the story was going full throttle. I liked this book as much as I liked Elixir, and that's saying a lot. I can't wait for Gary Braver's next novel!
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