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The Lake Boy, by Adam Roberts. NewCon Press, 2018

This is an odd bit of storytelling. It’s part ghost story, part alien abduction, and part depiction of the perils of same sex relationships in the past.

Cynthia lives with her minister brother, who keeps a wary eye on her, as she was recently caught in a same sex relationship, which is considered a mental illness as well as a moral failure. She spends her time translating old religious texts from the Latin and forming a relationship with one of the neighboring women. There is also the distraction of strange lights in the sky, which attracts a number of astronomers, one of which disappears for several days. Oh, and the ghost, of course.

When Cynthia is caught with her lover, the lover throws her under the bus and claims Cynthia assaulted her, which leads to Cynthia being sent to a mental hospital- which is when more strange things occur. Because this story is told with Cynthia as the narrator, we can only know what she knows- and she is regarded as delusional. Is her tale true, or the work of an unhinged mind? There are a lot of things happening in the story, and they don’t all really connect with each other. I have the feeling that I missed something along the way, because in the end the whole thing just left me baffled. Three stars.

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The Patient in Room 9 Says He’s God, by Dr. Louis Profeta. O-Books, 2010

Dr. Profeta is an emergency room doctor. He sees life at its most frantic. But he has managed, through the years, to see the spiritual and moral issues in medicine. The short chapters tell us about his patients, his co-workers, his friends and family. He can come across as arrogant, but he admits when he’s wrong. I got this book thinking it would be a series of patient cases, a la Oliver Sacks. It’s not- or, at least, that’s not *quite* what it is. The cases aren’t as odd as ones a neuro doctor gets, so there aren’t as many medical details. Profeta leans toward the ethical and spiritual issues in the cases, and includes a lot of personal history and spiritual ponderings. Four stars.