Wow, Stein really did NOT do her research on what happens in a hospital after a woman is sexually assaulted. When the doctor is telling Anna that she's been in the hospital for about ~24 hours after being raped and having her throat cut, he tells her, "'Because there was evidence of penetration, we had to run pregnancy tests. They were negative. However, there are other tests that will take longer to process. We'll screen for sexually transmitted diseases, hepatitis...' A brief hesitation. 'HIV.'"First of all, if you had sex 24 hours before, you can't be pregnant. It's not physiologically possible. It takes days for the sperm to reach the egg, fertilise it, and then for the egg to migrate to the uterus and implant. Pregnancy is defined as starting with implantation, which is what triggers a series of hormonal changes in the body that doctors can measure. Medical science doesn't generally weigh in on when life begins, but it does define when pregnancy begins, and it's not for at LEAST a week after sex.So if you go to the hospital after a sexual assault, the only reason they would give you a pregnancy test is to determine whether you were *already* pregnant prior to the assault, which may be important information for women trying to decide whether to have an abortion or carry the pregnancy to term. But it *wouldn't* be for the purpose of telling the woman whether the rape has left her pregnant. What an ER *would* do for a sexually assaulted woman is offer her emergency contraception (EC), which is essentially a higher dose of the same hormones found in regular oral contraceptive pills (levonorgestrel [+ sometimes ethinyl estradiol]), taken up to 5 days after sex to prevent pregnancy. That's PREVENT pregnancy, not terminate one. EC has no effect on an existing pregnancy. See Princeton's awesome Emergency Contraception website for more info about EC: http://ec.princeton.eduSecond of all, a decent ER wouldn't be taking a passive attitude towards the possibility of HIV infection, either. There's a treatment called post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) that can be started up to 3 days after sex (or exposure to blood, infected needle, etc) to significantly reduce the chance of ending up with an HIV infection. (Like EC, the sooner you start it, the more effective it is.) It's a course of antiretroviral drugs and rather than a one- or two-dose EC treatment, it takes up to 4 weeks and can have some nasty side effects, but it's thought to be fairly effective at reducing the risk of seroconversion. That's enough Reproduction 101 for today, kids. I'm getting back to the book now that I've got that off my chest. Update 4 July 2011: OK I've finished reading it, and maybe I shouldn't be so indignant over Dr Avery's failure to offer emergency contraception and PEP to a rape survivor, since there are a lot of ways that he goes off protocol when handling Anna. That's partly because Dr Avery recognises that she's been attacked by a vampire and is turning into one herself, and partly because (view spoiler)[Dr Avery is one hell of a creepy guy. (hide spoiler)]
Ok, some reviewers are aggravated because the heroine is raped just after a few pages and even liked it. That would be gross but for one fact: both participants are not human. There are female spiders who eat their male mates after the act. Gross if humans would do that. Normal, when spiders do that. It is always a bit weird to measure behaviour of people in a fantasy world by our standards, especially if they aren't even human.But this book has other flaws. The characters are flat. There are some "deus ex machina" plot turns, like her friend being conveniently involved not in any secret mission but one which is connected to her. Really. Out of all the secret missions in the world. The motivation for the villain to do his evil acts is also not plausible. He should have known with his huge experience that his plan was doomed to fail from the beginning. There are other annoyances which leaves the book in the lower mediocre field, for example the fact that the heroine is a bit on the sex-crazed side (allegedly even before she was turned). At least it is well written (grammar- and stylewise).
What do You think about The Becoming (2006)?
I thought this was an interesting take on vampires. Anna Strong is a bounty hunter and is attacked one night on the job by a vampire. She ends up in the hospital and eventually discovers what happens to her. Dr. Avery explains that he is also a vampire and he takes her under his wing to teach her all about her new "family".But meanwhile, the vampire who attacked her is still on the loose, Avery has explained that she must kill him and on top of all of that her partner David has gone missing.There were some differences in the definition of what vampires are. They can walk in sunlight, and they only have to feed off a person once every month. They are also telepathic.It was a short book, and I thought it moved fairly quickly through the storyline. I wasn't really sure what was going on (in terms of who the "bad guy" was), and then as I found out more details while reading I had some suspicions about certain characters. I wouldn't say the ending had a twist, but it wasn't what I originally thought. I look forward to reading the next book.
—Jess
*sigh* Another book that I had figured long before the main character. Note to authors, if you're going to have me living through your protagonists head then you had better make sure you tightly bind up the plot points so I can't see them coming from miles away. If you're going to be that loose, then make it 3rd person. Of course the ending was too easy, everything is sort of tied up too well...I was entertained enough to keep going with this book, but I won't go any further. Could care less what she is or meant to be, who "Casper" is, etc. Not one I would recommend.
—The Novel Strumpet
I gave this book two stars because it was not actually technically flawed, and if you suspect there is a 'but' coming up, you are correct!Anna, the protagonist, is made a vampire when she bites her rapist back. Then, she is possessed by some sort of vampiric rapturous lust, which Anna, the book, and Avery, the vampire who helps her cope with her new status all feel means that it was not rape. "It's frightening you because you realize you were a participant, not a victim."I'm sorry, I whited out with rage for a moment. I can't even.In addition to this, as if more were required, Anna is not a very likable protagonist. She mopes about her feelings for Avery, and compares them to her feelings for her boyfriend, Max. Frankly, as the reader, I saw no evidence of any feelings, unless lust is a feeling, and perhaps she should be more worried about the fact that she is having sex with Avery and the implications this has for her supposedly monogamous relationship with Max?
—Brownbetty
