This one was surprising to me. It was compelling and funny in places. I finished this in 2018 but forgot to post the review, and two years later, I still think about this book and mention it in conversations with others about books as well.

An intriguing tale that mostly held my attention.... felt there was “something” missing maybe? Not “have to read again”, more of a “ok, & that was about....?” Will watch out for this author though & keep an open mind. But thanks to netgalley for the opportunity to read

The Nevermind of Brian Hildebrand, along with the rest of him, is run down by his own car. He is in a coma and cannot move. But he can think.

One day a 12-year-old girl, Millie, appears in his head. She is from Sedona, Arizona. She disappears as quickly as she arrived. Brian next sees a window washer who portends some connection between Brian and Millie. Brian can see illness in the people around him but has no way to warn them, of course. When a lobotomized fellow patient can hear his thoughts, Brian decides to use him to communicate to the outside world. Unfortunately, the other patient dies first of the illness Brian diagnosed.

Told entirely in the first person voice of a man in a persistent vegetative state, the Nevermind of Brian Hildebrand is completely original. If you read as much as I do (about a book a day), it is easy to get jaded and feel that there are no more original plots. How many different lies can husbands tell in romantic suspense? How many ways are there to resolve a locked room mystery? Have all the best plots already been written? This book is a powerful antidote for that feeling. Stunningly original but built on the real feelings of all with loved ones in comas (i.e., maybe they can use their blinks to send yes or no answers to questions, can they hear what we are saying). It’s a great read. However, it would have been even better with some editing of Brian’s seemingly random stream of consciousness ramblings. Still for plot alone, 4 stars!

Thanks to the publisher, Crowsnest Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

What do you think happens to you when you are in a coma? Are you asleep or? In this novel Brian is awake even though he appears to be in a coma. He is aware of what is going on around him. He hears their conversations but can’t move or let them know in any way that he has not “asleep.” He fears that he will go crazy if no one talks to him. Fortunately, he is “saved” in that when someone who takes care of him talks to him as if he were awake. Will Brian find someone else that he can listen to? Will he be able to find someone hecan converse with? Will he wake up from his coma? If not, what will happen to him?

A fascinating novel that gives us a possible insight to a person in a coma. Itmade me wonder what I would do if I were in Brian’s position? What would you do?

I feel like I saw this on an episode of House.

It was a really interesting read to a bizarre scenario. I liked the writing and the characters were complex.

Witty, smart, funny and entertaining.
Love the writing style of this author.
The ramblings of a comatose patient that is aware of his surroundings, and as he puts it: locked-in.
The narrative is engaging and filled with humor.
What makes this story great, is the attempts to "un-lock" Brian. Unconventional, weird and imaginative methods are used to bring him back, but the most important is the willingness and support of the staff and family.

Brian Hildebrand becomes conscious a few days after a bizarre car accident involving him and his car after he stepped out of it. However, this conscious state does not equate to him awaking from a coma. Though psychic, his mother cannot reach him, but her mother’s intuition tells her that he’s in there, aware and listening. An unreliable narrator, he enlightens the reader upon his favorite caregiver, a mysterious stranger, ghosts, psychic connections, and the various new and unorthodox treatments to unlock him.

Myers creates a colorful character, haphazard in his sharing, building tension as a man locked in with his constant thoughts, seeking aid everywhere, even psychically and through spirits of the recently and not-so-recently deceased. His supporting cast comes through his tunnel vision—well-developed characters as seen through the lens (literally, as his eyes are open, doubtful in real life) of his limited vision: mom, mysterious stranger, amaaaazing caregiver, and various possible saviors. Having invested oneself in the possibility of recovery for this locked in protagonist, and slogged through the frustrated attempts and helplessness of him and his cheerleaders, the morphing of this story into metafiction disappoints. I was fortunate to receive this fantastic story turned metafiction from the publisher through NetGalley. Maybe it was all a dream after all.

I posted this review on my blog, and shared it on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads, and will share it on B&N on launch date.

I found the premise to be intriguing. Brian is in a coma in a vegetative state and narrates this book. The writing was good and I enjoyed it. I'm not sure I loved this book, but I would read it again.

Brian is in a coma, unable to communicate with the outside world, most likely brain dead – at least that is what the medical establishment has decided. Thanks to his mother’s continued belief that he is still in there somewhere, his life support has not yet been turned off. This is Brian’s story – related in the first person, to whomever will take the leap of faith to truly listen: “All that matters is that I’m fully conscious, fully cognitive, fully aware, but fully locked in, fully trapped in my own inert body. But my brain, the organ that reference books so blithely describe as “the control centre of the nervous system in vertebrates,” though no longer in control in this vertebrate, is nonetheless, not only fully employed, but over-employed, hyper-employed and frantically working away twenty-four seven, three sixty-five. And ranting”.
Sometimes Brain rants, sometimes he muses, occasionally he converses – but his mind never gives up thinking. “Thinking has become my all, the awl with which I tediously struggle to stitch my torn and troubled being back together. In my singularly strained and straitened circumstances, this is easier said than done.”
Words are Brian’s passion, and he wields them like an artist: “in no way, am I in control of my circumstances. Ever since my accident, if I am able to control anything at all, it’s the ideas, the words, the phrases, the sentences, buzzing around in my brain as I talk to myself.”
The language is amazing – an English teacher’s dream. You have to savour his glorious alliteration (which he claims to have inherited from his mother). There are too many to quote here, but this really caught my eye (ear): “to dredge up the dreary dregs of times past, the detritus of a squandered youth”. There is poetry throughout – sometimes poetic “Sound bite, sound bit, sound bitten, sound awful, sound off, sound mind. Never mind”, at other times doggerel: “In days gone by, I was a hunk. Today, I’m a clunk. And a monk” – or is it rap? But metaphors are to be avoided. Brian does not like metaphors (“Metaphors muck up meaning. I’ve never trusted metaphors.”), though he is quite happy to chat to Metaphor when he drops by.
Brian is a philosopher: “when you’re nowhere, somewhere is anywhere you want to go but can’t get to. That’s either profound or obscure. Or maybe, it’s profoundly obscure”; and an “acquired savant” able to diagnose medical conditions at a glance. While he is keen to communicate his philosophy, he is less sure that his diagnoses will be welcome or beneficial.
The book gets increasingly fantastical and weird as the story progresses. The number of characters grows and grows – some alive, some dead, some clearly figments of Brian’s overactive imagination, such as the Jacques in a box, and still others where you are not certain at all. Psychics come and go – enabling Brian to communicate indirectly with the outside world – and his middle fingers take on a life of their own “Hallelujah. Brother!”.
For anyone who loves the English language, this book is a real gem. I loved the way the author painted Brian’s world with words. However, even the supreme artistry was not enough after a while. Brian is in a coma, not going anywhere, and gradually it appears, neither is the story – though always a new hint of hope, and a new character or two.
I needed to know what happened, so read to the end. The ending was not entirely unexpected - well crafted, though could have come a lot earlier. Still, this book deserves to be read for the wonderful, and unique, first half. A clear four stars.

What a mind-boggling premise; a tale told with mesmerizing characters bent on creating havoc. I started reading this book after dinner, and I just finished at 12:30am. I'm so disappointed that it's over! Would love to have had it go on and on, as I felt I knew the characters personally. Will definitely read more from this author! Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed this book. The NeverMind of Brian Hildebrand is a clever telling of what it is like to be in the mind of a person in a vegetative state. Through Brian's mind and eyes we meet a cast of characters all with unique and interesting stories of their own.

Wow! What a great read! Honestly, at first I had my doubts, but as the story continued I fell in love with the characters and really laughed at some of the sequences. With Brian on the road, run over by his own car, the novel begins. Taken to 5 years later and flashbacks to the earlier days, Brian is charming, humorous and even sad. But entertaining, he is! He is in a locked-in coma and has full consciousness of those around him. He reminisces of the "3 hateful days in May" at the start. Brian ruminates about his 12 year old friend who "telepaths" to him, messages from the window washer, his wacky specialists and quite a few others. He even has telepathy with the dead. His mom, Bessie, is a well-celebrated clairvoyant who is his constant support. However, they cannot communicate with each other. So, they try various mediums: clergy, faith healers, dodgy doctors. He finds his father. All along he is sure that the 12 year old girl is the key to "unlocking" him. So as not to lead into spoilers, let me say that this book is a delightful blend of sarcasm and humor. Madcap and wacky at times, there are also serious thought processes that Brian undergoes. Characters are well developed. What a great read! Strongly recommend! Thank you to Martin Myers, Crowsnest Books and NetGallery for providing me with this gem.

An entertaing and fun to read novel. I liked the way it's written with the changes of register and tone, the description of the characters and how the plot was developed.
Really interesting and recommended.
Many thanks to Crowsnest Books and Netgalley for the ARC

I wanted to like this one so much, but it turned out a little Vonnegut-esque for me, and that's a style I struggle with time and again... It's a great and creative concept - man trapped in coma but fully aware - with tremendous potential for originality. That is on tap here - in spades. And that's pretty much where I lost the thread with this one. I don't tend to appreciate non-traditional narrative - it's just not a style that resonates with me. And this is pretty non-traditional... It is also a little overly conceptual for my taste. I enjoyed the snarky word play and random free-association brain-games - at first. I liked the idea that this is how a locked-in brain might well function. (My brain functions like that a lot, and I'm not locked into it.) After a while though, it just felt like too much - too random, too conceptual, too all over the place - and that's when I had to admit that it just wasn't the book for me...

If you like your stories off the beaten path and in a more free-form style than I do, this is probably a great choice for you though!

I received an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) from Crowsnest books and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thanks!

What an interesting read this was! It is the story of a man, Brian, who has been in a coma for five years. Most medical experts believe he is in a vegetative state, but his mother believes he is still aware, with something known as “locked in syndrome,” which means he is fully aware of everything happening to him, but is unable to communicate. The story is told in Brian’s voice; as he says, he has nothing to do but think about things, and the reader is reading these inner monologues.

Despite the grim situation, this novel is an enjoyable and mostly upbeat read. The writing includes alliteration, puns, wordplay and other jokes, and the entirety of the book includes Brian and his family exploring various options that allow him, with various degrees of success, to communicate with others.

I struggled with the tone at the beginning of the book—it felt overloaded with wordplay at the beginning. But in retrospect, that seems just right—as if Brian was taking this, his first opportunity to communicate with others, and throwing all of his best jokes out immediately. After a while (about 75 pages in, maybe) it felt like things settled down a bit, and I began enjoying the book more.

The book does require a strong suspension of disbelief on the reader’s part. There are a number of coincidences that occur, and a major element in Brian’s story is his eventual ability to communicate via psychics. Some readers may find this uncomfortable.

Hopefully this isn’t a spoiler for anyone, but I will say the book’s ending was a little too meta for me. I was disappointed by it when I first read it, but in the hours since I finished it, I keep thinking about the book, and how the ending sheds a different perspective on everything I read before. Anytime a book keeps me thinking about it for hours after I have finished reading, I deem that a success. I would definitely recommend this novel.

Wow! What did I just read? This started out repetitive, but good....intriguing. Then it got a little confusing. Then it got weird. At the point that I was getting frustrated/disappointed, it took yet another turn....into a gut-punch finish. Humor and wordplay throughout, along with the uniqueness of the tale, warrant the high rating for this very unusual story.

A fun, thoughtful novel about a guy who is locked in, unable to move or speak for 5 years. Does he exist? Are the conversations he has in his head with himself or actually with other people? Such an interesting, great read. The premise was interesting and the book surpassed my expectations.

I had no idea what to expect based on the description of this book. The idea that someone trapped inside their bodies with full consciousness and no way to get it out sounds miserable. Similar to the people in the '20s with the sleeping sickness, most doctors write them off as in a coma or irretrievable. Sometimes, that doesn't turn out to be the case, so how is this guy getting to us?
Initially the banter, the noise and the alliterative talk is pretty engaging- that part is very well done. It kinds of falters a bit when it gets too metaphysical, but since I have never been in that situation, it may be unfair of me to judge. However, upons suspension of disbelief, it is a fun and engaging tale. The facility with the language is the best part of this story and offsets to sense of hopelessness that is a bit too close for comfort.
I am not sure how I feel about the ending, I may have to go back and consider it again.
For an inventive and original novel, to me it was certainly worth the time.
I suspect some of the things I read will come up again in my mind, what more could an author hope for?
Glad I took the chance on this story.

While it is entertaining, if you want something deeper than that, I am not sure if The NeverMind of Brian Hildebrand would be a satisfying read. Sure, there are a lot of thoughts and dreams put into this, then again it goes nowhere. If you know what I mean, the journey that Brian Hildebrand took is to nowhere, which in itself is a problem to me. 

But if you like books like this, it is quite okay.

Interesting story of a man in a comma that knows of everything going on around him. 3.5 star rating in my opinion. Check out my full review on https://booksensationlife.wordpress.com/2018/04/07/the-nevermind-of-brian-hildebrand/