Beat the Reaper

the book everyone's talking about!

don't be the last on your block to read this high-octane and hilarious thriller which will have you breathing hard through the whole 5 hours you'll be holding the damp covers in your clammy hands.
hard to imagine a book that is educational AND sensational but here it is. you'll be lost in a uniquely entertaining world and ready for the next installment from this young author! (and also primed, it seems, to see the Leo DiCaprio movie they're planning to make from this hot little number.....)

UNLEASH THE HOUNDS!

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

Page turner

The footnotes in this book are great. Page turner that will have you finishing this book in short order. Great premise.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Beat The Reaper Beats ALL

This book was recommended to be by a friend who always gives a great recommendation, But this time he out-did himself! this book is so awesomely written i am going to read it again. I recently heard this is being adapted into a movie and i cant wait! this book has everything. it has gun fights, nazi history, mafia, sex, extremely sarcastic doctor humor, outrageous characters and originality(hard to come by)! i say pick this up and read over and over again! Kudos to Josh Bazell

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Outrageous and oddly haunting

I saw this book in the bookstore at the weekend with a blue cover, and again in yellow. My copy's red. Very odd. And it's a very odd book, besides being thoroughly entertaining, intriguing and absorbing.

The story's set in a Manhattan hospital, where a doctor tries to "beat the reaper" in the medical sense, whilst also trying to escape his own personal reaping. His past-well, you'd have to read the story. The tale is told in first person present tense, which works perfectly. It feels like listening to a very strange, possibly deranged, but superbly intelligent person telling his life, and it draws you in completely. I learned the oddest of medical facts from the footnotes, including why bone grafts come from the leg. And the story took me from the world of Polish Jews to the Italian Mafia, to murder, mayhem and hospital.

There are scenes that are definitely not for the squeamish, told with a deft hand that lets this slightly squeamish reader safely off the hook-a very deft hand. And the whole is a curiously satisfying madcap adventure with just enough seriousness to haunt you when it's done. Highly recommended. Outrageous fun.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not For Everyone

I'd give this another 1/2 star if I could. I had seen some mixed reviews on this book, but decided to read it anyway and form my own opinion. I enjoyed this book a lot. Yes, it's violent and vulgar at times, but I expected that from the outset and didn't mind it a bit. I've read books containing much worse. If you are expecting the next great piece of literature, this book is not for you. If you want a quick read that's a wild ride with outlandish action and are willing to forgive the believability for awhile, you definitely need to read this book. Pretty much an action movie in print. I enjoyed the cast of characters, laughed out loud many times, and am looking forward to the next installment in Peter's saga. Oh...and I also hope I never have to spend another minute as a hospital patient after reading this book!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Two Thumbs Up!

This is by far the most entertaining book I have read in the last year. I could not put it down. The pace and storyline are intense. Highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to escape for a few hours.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book will rip your face off

An amazingly absorbing, face-paced, and confident first novel with testosterone blazing off the pages. Genre-bending, hilarious, violent, historical, and with enough bitterness about medicine, hypocrisy, and love to scorch the earth.

Can't recommend highly enough!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wow

This is an amazing book. Certainly one of the most entertaining I've read in several years, but also informative and moving.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Will keep you entertained.

The story moves along and holds your interest.

not funny

it's called a hilarious read ... but it's not. just potty mouth language. check that. fourteen year old boys will probably love it.

Good

It was very entertaining and even well written. The problem is there was not a lot to it, I'd compare it to a short story just with more pages. I've just finished it about an hour ago and wish there was more to it so I could connect more emotionally with the protagonist. Having said that I will probably buy the sequel when it gets released in paperback.

Sick and twisted-a good read

I alternated between cringing, laughing, and frantically turning the page to see what happens next. Part Pulp Fiction,part "House", this is an original story by an original voice.

A good, easy read.

An intense and enjoyable ride. Plenty of laugh-out-loud moments keep the pages turning while your thirst for the truth is maintained through various twists and surprises. A good read a long as you dont mind vulgarity and violence.

Awesome!!!!

Get Ready to Have Your Mind Blown

One of the best books I have ever read. I read it over a year ago and I can still remember racing through the pages and finishing the book in one sitting. Gory? Yes. Sex? Yes. Overall gratuitous? Probably but totally worth it. Definitely along the veins of Stephen King but faster-paced and with a mafia twist. A great quick read!

Wow! Great stuff!

Virtually impossible to put down...gritty, surprising, vulgar, funny, & shocking. I could not get enough of this book! It was a great ride & I was deeply saddened when it ended, like a rollercoaster you just don't want to get off of! Great stuff but definitely not for those with weak stomachs.

black comedy, much more

There's a lot going on in this hugely enjoyable, hugely intelligent crime/medical comedy/thriller, with targets including organized crime, the practice of medicine and education of physicians in th US, and the long reach of the Third Reich (not to mention love and drugs), The satire is deft and the details and characterizations compelling, balanced finely between absurdity and wicked insight. For something that is essentially light reading., this is great, and I highly recommed it.

Awesome

This was a great read

Gasp!

Beat the Reaper will have you gasping in shock throughout this strange, but compulsive read. Bazell combines the weird and tender with James Bond-style traps, but the outcomes are all unique to this author. This is a whole new genre for Dexter fans, Godfather aficionados, Valley of the Dolls experimentation with drugs and sex, all with organ-by-organ, medical settings with more blood than both of the above. Truly, a one-of-a-kind novel, fast read, unbelievable, but unable to put it down. Can't wait for the Bazell's next book.

Hialrious

This is a well-crafted mob/medical action/thriller, as well as being a hilarious send-up of the same genres. I chuckled my way through this, reading passages aloud to my wife an d anyone else who would listen, but when the chips were down and the last chapter was afoot, I still stayed up way too late, unable to put the damn thing down. The narrator's voice is so authoritative that you'd swear you're learning new facts about everything from abdominal surgery to Auschwitz, until you remember that you're reading a contemporary pulp whodunit. The ending is so profoundly original that there's pretty much no reason for anyone to ever write such a book again. All while it parodies itself with a (hilarious) vengeance. I would also be remiss in not mentioning the footnotes, which rival those of Kurt Vonnegut and David Foster Wallace in comedic effect. I highly recommend this book.