“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” – Leonard Cohen

We meet Dr. Zoe Goldman, a Yale graduate and psychiatric resident at a large hospital in Buffalo, New York. She is in her last year of residency, and is on probation (due to circumstances that occurred in the first book?). Like all residents, she is often tired due to the long hours they work, and to the fact that they are often ‘on call’ even when not working. Zoe, who is working her child-psych rotation, is a ‘Type A’ personality and is also ADHD, so is trying to find a good balance of meds for herself. Ironically, though Zoe is training to be a psychiatrist herself, she also has regular appointments with one.

On a personal level, Zoe has a serious boyfriend, Mike, who is also a doctor, though he is in a medical field and not a psychiatric one like she is. Zoe also has a close relationship with her brother, Scotty who works at a coffee bar. Zoe and Scotty have recently lost their mother so their bond is strengthening. Zoe also has a very mischievous labradoodle named Arthur who adds some levity to the novel.

Though in a solid relationship, Zoe is attracted to the new attending psychiatrist on her floor, as are all the nurses. Dr. Tad Berringer is tall (taller than Zoe who is six feet), smart, charming, handsome, and married.

They have a new patient. Jane (because she doesn’t know her name) was found by police wandering the streets of Buffalo. Mute and dazed, Jane is an African American teenager whom they guess to be around 13-14 years of age. She is catatonic. Eventually, after weeks of treatment, Jane ‘wakes up’ and tells them her name is Candy, but she can’t remember much else except that she was chasing after a limousine. Then, a few weeks later, she seems to have a completely different personality and calls herself Daneesha. Who IS this girl and what trauma has she suffered to have succumbed to this disorder?

MY THOUGHTS

This novel has been on my TBR for some time now. As it is the second novel in the Zoe Goldman series, I was waiting for the opportunity to read the first novel in the series first. Well folks, with review commitments that never happened. SO, I decided to bite the bullet and dive in the series at number two. The experience was rewarding. I don’t think that the read was in any way diminished by not reading the series in order.

Zoe Goldman was an engaging character whom I liked immediately. I enjoyed her rapport with the hospital staff, her boyfriend, her brother and the police detective, Frank Adams.

Although I did guess who the ‘bad guy’ was somewhere around 2/3 of the way in the book, this did not ruin the story for me. I was still compelled to read more and find out his ‘backstory’ and how Zoe would learn the truth.

The medical setting was different from what I’ve been reading lately, so that too was a nice change. I think the author captured the frustrations and the fatigue of medical residents and accurately showcased some of the more dominant mental illness varieties suffered by young people.

The ending had a very satisfactory resolution, though perhaps it is not what some readers might expect. All in all, I enjoyed this novel very much and would recommend it to others.

It has a great read. Very suspenseful! Once I got into it, it kept my attention and I was able to finish it no problem.

A full review of this book will be forthcoming on my blog. However, the brief synopsis of my opinion is this: The Girl Without a Name is a decent read, but there are things that caused me pause and detracted from my ability to enjoy the narrative. Based on bits of the story and sections of the writing, I think this book could have been much better with some increased editing. It just needed a bit more sharpness.

My initial issue was admittedly something silly, I found I had a problem with the name of the character of Dr. Berringer. I was bothered by this because of the link between a major wine label and the fact that the character is an alcoholic. It may or may not have been accidental on the part of the author, but it definitely sat oddly with me. I recognize that this is a terribly minor issue and would likely not affect a very large portion of readers, but somehow it just put me on a path of feeling mildly irked by some of the smaller plot points.

The narrative had a good base, but it was weakened by minor plot lines that didn't really seem to add anything to the story. There were things that I felt could easily have been left out. The character's discussion of being adopted and her story of a birth mother did not substantially add to the plot and felt overly unnecessary. The story of the bonds, while eventually influential in the plot, didn't come off as well structured as it could have and really just felt a bit monotonous. The increased development of the character of Zoe's brother, Scotty could have helped with this.

The changes of scenery occasionally felt forced, with the hospital scenes being very obviously the strongest for the movement of the plot. It was clear in the reading that this is where the author felt most comfortable with her writing and these pieces drove the book much more strongly, holding everything together.

Block very easily translates her profession into the novel, with medical expertise showing through her writing. This is definitely a strength as it makes the book much more believable. However, the primary character of Zoe Goldman is so incredibly lax with her adherence (or rather lack there of) to basic patient privacy rules for the medical profession, that I found myself inherently disliking her. Being a physician herself, Block should have been able to clean this up to be less offensive while still enabling events to take place that would properly move her plot in the correct direction. This was probably the largest issue I had with the novel and absolutely resulted in a large amount of the influence over my final rating.

Overall, the story has good bones and the ending is well structured. I was pleasantly surprised with it's originality. The writing has moments of being relaxed but intriguing, showing that the author definitely has a literary touch. Ultimately, I just felt that some pruning and fine tuning was necessary to make the book a more enjoyable read. The Girl Without a Name has a decent premise, but needed a bit more realism in character development and streamlining of plot. I didn't dislike it, but didn't wow me.

This is book #2 with Zoe Goldman and I think I enjoyed this one a bit better than the first one; at least Zoe’s ADHD wasn’t shoved down our throats every other paragraph, yes it is mentioned but not as much as in the first book. Also since this is the second book the characters are much more developed and I liked Zoe better in this book and I look forward to reading more in this series.

I enjoyed the story in this one it kept me guessing all the way through and I like the way the author writes. Jane Doe’s story was very interesting.

3 ½ Stars

I loved this 2nd Zoe Goldman book! In this one, Zoe is trying to solve the mystery of an unknown girl brought to the psych ward who is in a catatonic state.

This one has plenty of mystery, action, and a great character in Zoe.