Ambiguous, sexualized, irrational (the nurse), wandering mind of a coma patient-these are the words I would say describe Room 11 by Mari Reiza. First three chapters I enjoyed the book. It has potential, it drew me in. Then, the nurse goes all stalker over the singing husband and the comatose wife has sexual dreams about Greek Gods and I grow weary of the whole story. The ending comes and I enjoy it again. I admire the writing of Ms. Reiza in many places it was brave, brilliant and beautiful, however there were so many places that didn’t need the sex, the dream of sex, or the dread of sex between the nurse and her doctor. It just took away from the story. The only interesting part of the story was the husband, his undying love and the inevitability of months worth of emotional stress where he looses hope over his wife becoming whole again. That part of Room 11 felt real. The other characters felt exaggerated and fake. For example the nurse: what woman is so desperate that she automatically assumes a grieving man would whisk her away from her misery within a few weeks of his visitations of his comatose wife?

Of course the Comatose patient - the wife, we will never know what she would be exactly thinking or how she feels, but a lot of her dreams just didn’t feel right. Her family anger, her heartache of an empty womb, those things felt real. The rest, not so much. The emotional toll on patient and husband was brilliant. They were the bright sections. The nurse, her background story in Ghana could’ve been built upon more and it would’ve made her feel less desperate, less fake, less like a filler.

I’m sorry I just didn’t really dig this book. Thanks to Maria Reiza for the chance to read her book in lieu of my honest opinion. ( )