I am a huge, self-confessed Tess Gerritsen fan. I love and adore her Rizzoli & Isles books (and the TV series which is totally different from the books, but the character interactions are great. The mysteries...not so much). So, I assumed that I would like Bloodstream. I assumed that I would LOVE Bloodstream after I finished the prologue. It (the prologue, I mean) was nail-bitingly creepy. I was seriously holding my breath while frantically clicking on the Kindle. I thought that the prologue would set the tone for the book. Ehhh, it didn't really happen that way.Again, this book starts off with a BANG!!! I think it may be one of the creepiest prologues from a mystery book that I've ever read. The chapters following the prologue were still plenty creepy and more than a little intriguing. In fact, the beginning chapters of Bloodstream reminded me heavily of a UK movie called The Children (totally recommended, by the way. It's creepy, underrated, and due to what happened in the movie, it will never be remade and subsequently ruined by American filmmakers). So much that I thought it was sort of going to go that way (which I really would've preferred). But it didn't.There were just too many things going on in this book. It's a parasite. No, it's evil. No, it's an actual person. No, it's the evil corporations. No, it's the parents' influece causing the kids to go violently crazy and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Seriously, everything was packed in here. Every single excuse was packed in here. I understand that the point of mysteries is to keep you guessing, but it was just too much. And the resolution was very anti-climactic and the ending a bit abrupt. So much that I kept clicking the Kindle thinking "It can't really be over..."However, my main issue with Bloodstream was that I thought every single character in it was an idiot. That makes it REALLY hard to root for them. I understood why the teenagers were bratty (they were teenagers, therefore, are supposed to be bratty and then if you add in what's actually happening then it's sort of understandable), but all of the adults were pissing me off, too. They were acting worse than the children. So, I didn't feel a huge sense of remorse when they started getting picked off.I did give Bloodstream two stars instead of one because the premise was very intriguing and so promising (which was why the execution was so disappointing). Plus, it's Tess Gerritsen so you know the book was a huge page-turner. All I could think about in my 8AM college math class was how to get back to this book, so that's something. In the end, I thought that Bloodstream was just okay and I definitely liked all of the books in the Rizzoli and Isles series more than I liked this one.
As a matter of extension, rather than simply reading scifi, fantasy and horror, I decided to pick up Tess Gerritsen's Bloodstream. I am NOT a thriller reader, but sometimes a fair amount of eclectic reading, or at least a small amount, really solidifies a unique platform to other genres I can appreciate. That's always a reason I'm glad to pick up books that aren't within my general groups of selection. The awesome thing about that is sometimes I end up reading something I was quite happy with.This book picks up with a doctor (a mother)and her son in Tranquility Maine-Newcomers. With a name like that, how could this town be anything but perfect. It's quiet, it gets cold, but every place has it's cons and it's got a small population. This place is a perfect place for a mother to raise a son... And keep him out of trouble. The problem with that is she moved just in time to see local crime spike, murder among young people shooting off the chart and a violent streak between girls and boys alike. As a doctor, our main character is driven to find an explanation. Instead, she might be forced to take the blame. Whatever happens, it's sure to get rocky.The interesting thing about this read is that it spends much time running in the opposite direction of itself. I was so set on actually reading about what I thought was happening in the book, that I finished it in just a few short hours. When I was finished reading it, I was surprised at where the story actually took me. That surprise in itself is worth the read. I remember feeling quite happy that I wasn't reading four hundred sixty-four pages of something I already suspected would happen. Sure, sometimes there are dead giveaways, but the overall book paints the big picture across time. I enjoyed it a lot and I would definitely give Tess Garretson's work another read.An Indie Drew Review http://abakes98.blogspot.com/2013/10/...
What do You think about Bloodstream (1999)?
This started off very good then turned into the usual thrillerish stuff, because it's a thriller. Don't thriller fans get bored of these boring familiar twists and turns? Oh look - he wasn't a this, he was a that. Who'da thought. And the missing hand was in the dog's mouth! And the laptop had had an affair with the coffee cup with the DNA on it! No, that can't be right. But the forensic experts were twins! And there was a misunderstanding on page 31 which has a repercussion on page 228. And the motive was that the guy in the wheelchair had filmed the dog molesting his ex-wife and was threatening to put the whole thing on facebook, and not the other way around! That's why he had to get these people to do those things. But I saw the whole thing coming by chapter 19. When Lorna gave a lift to the armadillo with the eyepatch, it was a giveaway - they obviously already knew each other. You just wouldn't pick up any old hitchhiking armadillo. Thrillers. They're thrilling. Every ten years I read one.
—Paul Bryant
I am reviewing the medical thriller Bloodstream by Tess Gerritsen which is a very good novel which I bought at a car boot sale. The plot is a young doctor and single mother with a son moves to a small sleepy town from the big city in the hope it will lead to a more peaceful life away from things like crime and drug addiction. The previous 2 doctors left prematurely mainly due to the cold winters and the local are a bit reluctant to accept them. There are strange blue mushrooms growing due to global warming and nobody knows what they are and the local kids have been eating them as they are in an area the children frequent. An old lady scratches the doctor's car and some children going past the next day with bikes almost get the blame. The strange mushrooms are psychogenic and result in the children causing a crime spree which dwarfs anything they might have found in the city. One of the child criminals displays a very high amount of a toxic chemical in his blood and the doctor knows she is onto something but has to prove it. Meanwhile her son is in danger. Someone smashes all the windows to her GP's practice and the cold and damp to damage her records and computers and she doesn't know if its worth the hassle of starting again. Another child with a gun also holds some of the children and teachers hostage and is unstable due to the blue fungi. Another child savagely stabs a frog repeatedly during a biology class. I think it is a little bit allegorical and thought provoking in that it is trying to point out the dangers of taking hard drugs. It is one of Tess's better books & I did really enjoy it. Tess practically invented the medical thriller genre although she has written a lot of very good romantic thrillers and is a very consistent writer.
—David Roberts
I overall enjoyed this book because of the characters, but the medical jargon kept my wondering how much of it was authentic and how much was made up for the book. Also, the love subplot felt a little forced. I can't imagine still being in mourning for a spouse who died suddenly two years ago and becoming attracted to someone else I had just met 9 months ago. It seems too much too fast. Then the part at the end of why the romance would die left me wondering if I was supposed to root for them or not. It was almost more interesting to read as a slice of life than a medical thriller for me.
—Chisa Puckett
