The Doctor by Jennifer Bull

The Doctor
Synopsis:

After the attack at his father’s amusement park, Daniel cannot believe what he’s capable of. He tries to lock himself away and protect those he loves… until he finds out that the monster within did not get there by accident, and the one responsible didn’t stop with him.

Sarah remembers the stories her mother used to tell her; of a place where the sun shone brightly and bird songs filled the air; a place where home wasn’t a cramped cell; a place where your own mind didn’t try to torment you. She wants nothing more than to be free of this living hell… even if that means she won’t get out alive.

Jack is fed up of chasing the serial killer with no name, whose favourite game is creating monsters out of living people. He just wants to catch him before anyone else gets hurt… but reaching that goal becomes much more dangerous than anyone could have guessed.

When these three strangers find their lives colliding on an island from which there is no escape, they must work together if they want to survive; but how do they fight against a force that doesn't really exist?

Review:

This book started off pretty good. I have been looking for some "scary" stories to read to get into the Halloween spirit (I love scary stories, but it is hard to find good ones). I thought yes! This is going to be so good. I loved the first chapters of Daniel's story, turning into a wolf and having no control over that was great. I loved reading it as he was just locked in his head and couldn't really do anything about it, much different from most werewolf stories. I liked Sarah's first chapters and felt so bad for her. She is locked away on an island with the Doctor and he just uses her to play his games every day. I can't imagine trying to escape every day and every day getting caught and locked back up. What will you must have to live to keep doing that. It was a great second storyline. 

Then I got to Jack and...well I didn't like his storyline. Something about his story felt cheesy and just not as good as the other ones. I thought maybe it would get better as I went along. It didn't. If anything it got worse. 

*Note some spoilers will follow as I can't not talk about the things I really disliked about this story*

I was okay with everything until Jack and Daniel meet up for the first time and Jack told him the wolf was just in his head. The Doctor planted the thought in his head so well that his body actually turned into a wolf because of his mind. I hated that. It was so lame! I don't know why. I was talking to my husband about this and ranting about how lame it was and saying if this had been set in a different world than okay, but in our world now someone makes you think you are a wolf so you are a wolf? No. I can accept the telepaths, people moving things with their minds and reading minds, I can accept people who were bit by a werewolf get the werewolf whatever in them and then they turn into werewolves, or maybe it is a virus or something. All of that I can go along with so it seems silly that I dry the line at changing your physical appearance with your mind, but for some reason it was a major turn off for me. So the rest of the book was just...not good. If you like that whole mind over matter, the mind can trap you somewhere and whatnot then this story will probably work for you. For me it was just like really? That is the best you could do?

Then the end. Well Jack and Daniel and Sarah are all trapped on the island. Even though it is all from the Doctors mind. So why can't they get out of there like Daniel could get rid of the wolf in his head? If it is all mind controlling it why can't they do something about it? The Doctor is too strong...then the twist at the end...not good. By that point I just thought why am I even bothering to read this? Everything tied up so nice and quickly and was just too easy to get everyone straightened out. 

I had high hopes for this book based on the first few chapters. They were quickly dashed and just kept going downhill for me. Not the worst book I have ever read, but there was a lot of eye rolling and yelling at the book while reading it. 

Rating: ★ ★