Title: Against Medical Advice
Author: Ruth Anna Evans
Year Published: 2024
Link to Buy: Amazon
Genre: Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Horror, Medical Horror, Mental Illness, Novella
Summary:
Frank's six-year-old daughter Maddie is sick. Very sick. Her mother is out of town and he's on his own to handle the emergency. But the doctors can't find anything wrong and money is quickly running out. Frank is desperate, and he begins to consider the unthinkable. Shelly is a social worker with a pill problem. When a case spins out of control, she finds herself out of pills and at the end of her rope. Then she gets a call to check into a tip from an A father who may be making his own daughter ill. Will Shelly intervene in time, or will she fail to save a child...again? From the author of OH FUCK OH FUCK IT HURTS comes this gripping, fast-paced novella of medical horror that will make you How far would you go when the only thing you can do is Against Medical Advice?
Ten-Sentence Review
The desperation and poorly processed childhood trauma of both main characters, Shelly and Frank, are what makes this too-short novel really special. Shelly allows her dependence on Xanax to get in the way of her social worker job, and Frank allows his paranoia over his daughter’s illness and their lack of money to push him to do something completely irrational. They both make poor decisions that may or may not be totally their own fault.
When you have PTSD you aren’t always in your right mind when you get triggered, and Evans captures that perfectly in both people’s fractured thoughts and frazzled actions. I can’t say that I would have jumped straight to home surgery as quickly as Frank does, but he watched his mother waste away in the hospital when he was a teenager and has no trust left for the medical profession.
The descriptions of abused and neglected children are so heartbreakingly accurate, and I appreciate how good Shelly is at her job even as she’s wrestling with her own demons. It was refreshing to see a horror novel where the characters have consciences and good intentions, but everything still goes terribly wrong.
Solid plot, beautiful writing, realistic characters, and a strong resolution. My only complaint is that it was too short! I’d love to see a sequel about what happens to Frank in prison, his daughter and wife’s life without him as Maddie gets older, and Shelly checking in on them as her habits and PTSD either get better or much, much worse.
5/5
