The Gnome King reviewed Seen and Unseen by Jack CJ Stark
Review of 'Seen and Unseen' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
The events in this book are shared with us through the eyes of “The Patient” directly after his failed suicide attempt, no details are shared, he was talked into voluntarily going into the mental health ward and is very disoriented and scared. My current theory about this book is that it follows after Stark’s book Creases, I was left with the feeling that it was the same voice.
The ward that The Patient finds himself in is far different from what you would expect, there is a real community feel to the whole place, everybody starts off at first as being strangers, you expect the staff to be uncaring or abusive and you expect the other people staying in the ward to be stuck in their own little worlds and oblivious to what is going on. The staff have been written with much respect for what they do, they get …
The events in this book are shared with us through the eyes of “The Patient” directly after his failed suicide attempt, no details are shared, he was talked into voluntarily going into the mental health ward and is very disoriented and scared. My current theory about this book is that it follows after Stark’s book Creases, I was left with the feeling that it was the same voice.
The ward that The Patient finds himself in is far different from what you would expect, there is a real community feel to the whole place, everybody starts off at first as being strangers, you expect the staff to be uncaring or abusive and you expect the other people staying in the ward to be stuck in their own little worlds and oblivious to what is going on. The staff have been written with much respect for what they do, they get abused and sometimes hit but still keep their cool under stressful situations, it felt really nice to see them written about in this way. The other patients, whilst having their problems still find time to care for others…well most of them…and when one of their circle suddenly leaves you can feel the whole they have left behind.
There is also an element of magic to the story, The Patient finds he has special abilities, how he got these powers is unknown, what actually happened during his attempted suicide? One of life’s many mysteries. What we do know is that The Patient puts these abilities to good use with his new found friends.
There is one thing that Stark is an expert at, he can take just a few pages and create a world that somehow leaves you emotionally connected to it. He writes with so much compassion for his characters, even the ones most authors would treat as the bad guy. For a book based in a mental health ward this was incredibly uplifting.
Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/11/02/seen-and-unseen-by-jack-cj-stark/