Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
Year published: 2004
Tone of story: Suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
Time/era of story: Present (2000-2010)
Theme: Beware of making intelligence control you
Brief Synopsis:
Rachel Whitman regrets taking a drug when she was younger as she fears she has damaged her son’s brain. Although she knows that intelligence is not everything, she fears that her son will never grow up to appreciate the wonders of life. Like most parents, Rachel will do anything to improve her son's lifestyle and later, she gets obsessed with a medical procedure which she heard from her friend, Sheila. The procedure claims to make children turn into bright geniuses from slow children. After hearing this, Rachel desperately leaps at this hope. As Rachel uncovers information about the process, she becomes concerned about the procedure as something was wrong with the children who have had the procedure done. After noticing it, she starts to question how far she is willing to go for an ideal she is not even sure she believes in anymore. However, she feels that it was her fault that Dylan suffered learning disabilities. She faces the moral dilemma between intelligence vs. happiness. She later decides that Dylan should not go for the operation, but with Sheila, her husband, and the doctor persuading her to go for the operation, will she give in?
On a separate case, many bright people are being kidnapped from different rural areas across the world, their bodies recovered on a beach. The corpse however, had strange, identical drill marks, made by very high speed cranioblade drills on the brain. Officer Zakarian is convinced that this is no coincidence, and is determined to find out why no matter what happens. As Zakarian investigates the disappearances of several children, it eventually intersects with Rachel's path with an unusual connection.
What I like/ dislike about this story:
I like Gray Matter as I find that this story is a well developed novel with comprehensive details such as the way Gary Braver describes the procedure of the operation. It is an original and clever story line that centers on the matter of human intelligence. He makes it very real and it feels as if they were all true. It is also a thought provoking and controversial novel about human intelligence. It challenged my view about human intelligence and I find that there is really more than intelligence alone. It also gives scary insights of what might happen in the future. I also liked the way each chapter introduces a character or theme and in the end the reader finally sees how it all comes together. Besides that, it is an easy read and totally accessible even though it is 400 pages of thought provoking intelligent material.
Would I recommend the book? Why?
Yes, I definitely would. The book is fast paced and it also gives the emotional tension and anxiety of a middle class status person. Gary Braver is also skillful in his plotting, notching up the tension incrementally. He also has some powerful descriptive passages, making it a fantasy story brought about to life while criticising our view on human intelligence. A must read for anybody.
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