The Select by F. Paul Wilson

[gilda_elise]

Quinn Cleary has always wanted to be a doctor. Yet the only way she can afford it is to win acceptance to The Ingraham, an exclusive, privately funded medical school and research center reputed to be the nation's finest. The few selected students chosen by The Ingraham receive a completely free medical education: tuition, room. board, and lab fees all paid by the school.

Once accepted to the school of her dreams, Quinn dives into her studies and into a steady relationship with a classmate. At last, her life seems perfect.

Or is it? Quinn begins to notice subtle changes in her classmates: the way they act, the way they think -- all seem to be falling eerily into line with the messianic vision of the school's director. She confides her concerns to her boyfriend, who laughs them off -- until he finds a suspicious electronic monitoring device in his room.

Then he disappears.

I normally really like Wilson’s work, but it’s mostly his horror that I like, and this book is more a medical mystery. Not an insurmountable obstacle, but add to that characters who are mostly stereotypes: a brilliant and beautiful young woman who doesn’t think she’s brilliant or beautiful, a great looking jokester who turns out to have a sensitive side, an evil scientist, with his brutish henchmen, and you end up with a book that’s mildly entertaining, but not absorbing. Plus, a lot of the surprises, weren’t. You know almost from the beginning that the young woman and man are going to become romantically involved, that there’s something sinister going on at the school and that the intrepid couple will be the ones investigate it.

So, readable, but rather predictable.



Mount TBR 2016 Book Links

Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. Alexander's Lovers
2. The Border
3. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
4. Green Darkness
5. The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone
6. Rise to Rebellion
7. Return to Sodom and Gomorrah
8. Through a Glass Darkly
9. Lisey's Story
10. The Man He Became
11. The Handmaid's Tale
12. The Great Warming
13. Sacrament
14. The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country
15. The Front Runner
16. The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III’s Lost Burial Place and the Clues It Holds
17. Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire
18. Under an English Heaven
19. A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There
20. Washington Square
21. The Passing Bells
22. The Touch
23. Changeling
24. The Select

Comments

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

That's a shame. It sounds like it could have had promise. Boo hiss.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Lol, it really could have. I was so surprised at the level of writing, considering how much I've liked some of his other books. I guess no one bats a thousand.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

It's true. Even Michener had a dog or two and I adore his writing.