Sociopathic Surgeon, by Mitchell D. Miller, is a dark and suspenseful read that consists of a series of unsettling vignettes, each a jumbled stream of consciousness that I found similarly exhausting and exciting. Our narrator, Sonny, meets a hurricane of a woman named Sara and marries her. Yes, she’s the “sociopathic surgeon.” Throughout much of the story, we witness many events where Sara matter-of-factly screams orders at people and makes questionable decisions with seemingly little to no consequences. Sonny himself is lost in the bottom of the bottle, and the whole thing is rather delightful in a slow-moving train wreck sort of way.

The novel’s tone is fluid as each vignette tells a different piece of the story. For example, when mentioning his own mother, Sonny states, “She was an unmedicated schizophrenic because Dad liked her that way.” It’s tough to tell if we’re to see that as a dark, dry joke or if we’re to pity her as a hopelessly lost soul struggling with her own mental illness. There are lines like this throughout the entire novel, where the reader is left wondering if we should feel sorry for the characters or if we should simply experience them the way they experience the ridiculously hard and absurd life around them.

Each of the strange situations seems to stem from Sara’s recklessness, as the main characters move from one place to another, dealing with alcoholics, racists, and drug dealers. Much of what happens seems to take place in a dream, as the author uses simple sentences to express some pretty heavy events that should elicit intense emotions. There’s a synchronicity in some of the narration that adds to the feeling of being swept away with the story. It’s hard to find your bearings, and I feel this was precisely the author’s intention.

Sociopathic Surgeon is a medical suspense thriller that leaves readers guessing from one page to the next. This is one novel you must keep reading to see where the characters end up. Can they break the cycle of abuse, or are they destined to repeat the past with their own lives.

Pages: 204 | ASIN : B006T0ZMVC