Gerritsen, Tess: Gravity
Gravity: A Novel of Medical Suspense
Writer: Tess Gerritsen
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 400
Once upon a time, when I was a middle-schooler, I discovered this amazing movie called Jurassic Park. It so captured my imagination that I had to read the book the movie was based on, and Crichton's work so captured my imagination that I started reading his books in droves. I think I read Congo, Sphere, Andromeda Strain, and Terminal Man. When they were released, I also read (at a later age, obviously) The Lost World and Timeline. The latter was the last Crichton title I've read, though I've been interested in others.
So why am I rambling about Crichton when this is a book by Gerritsen? Well, for starters, the reviews printed in Gerritsen's book boast that THIS is far better than Crichton. Even with that kind of stamp, I would have never picked this up had I not had to read it for my graduate school program at Seton Hill. This was what we call the "Residency Read". Everyone in the program, regardless of genre, has to read this book. We discuss its strengths and flaws and how it represents its genre. In a way, though, Gravity isn't a genre: the theme this time was "bestsellers". So you can imagine what our discussions entailed.
I don't know if it's because I read so much Crichton at an impressionable age, or because I read so much teen-horror at an impressionable age, or if it's because I make a point to critically examine my reading. Did I find this novel suspenseful? No. I didn't even think Gerritsen's book beats Crichton, though I freely admit that since it's been years since I read Crichton, I may be biased.
Still, I remember this about Crichton's books: they are focused. They might have amazing, large concepts with a large cast, but the cast was never so large I could never keep track of it. Gerritsen utilizes every single character in the book, whether we need that character's point of view or not. In fact, character-wise, the people are cardboard, melodramatic, and considering the circumstances, not professional in the slightest. Not only that, but elements of the plot that were painfully obvious to the reader were completely ignored by the characters who SHOULD have caught the connections.
This made it impossible for me to connect to the characters, which made it impossible for me care about what happened to them, which made the suspense quotient non-existent.
The plot, granted, was structured well at least. Events that happen earlier in the novel come back later in the novel, providing a nice cyclical structure. However, there's nothing to new the plot itself, especially to those of us familiar with science fiction, horror, and those movies and television series that combine the two. Readers of Gravity will be reminded of the Alien movies. So that's another element to the lack of suspense: I'm already familiar with the tropes, so it's harder for me to be surprised.
Still, I'll give Gerritsen credit for her research. This book is teaming with the results of her research, and while I don't know how accurate all of it is, I was convinced.
It's actually hard to sit down and review this book. I finished it January 4th, discussed it extensively on January 5th, and now's the first time I've had the chance to put all my thoughts "on paper," so to speak. Ultimately, I wasn't a fan of this book. It makes me want to re-read one of my Crichton books so I can compare with a critical eye, but right now isn't the time, so I'll say that if you want medical/scientific thrillers, Crichton is the way to go. His characters are more believable and fleshed out, and the books I read were far more thrilling. In my discussion group, I think only a couple people actually enjoyed this book, whereas most of us had problems with it. So any recommendation is based solely on your reading background: if you mostly read bestsellers, you may be engaged. If you're familiar with the science-fictional/horror tropes, you'll want to keep away. If you're already a fan of Gerritsen, you may want to give this a shot: I've heard from some readers this is just a weak book of hers, and I've heard from others this is similar. So I can't say. I can say that for my tastes, the book didn't engage me.