Panic Attack [Hardcover]

This is one of those books that once you start reading you can't put down. Although it may not be the world's greatest work of literature it is completely engaging and will have you on the edge of your seat. It is interesting to see how one random act can snowball and affect the lives of many. I agree with other reviewers who say that the characters aren't likeable...and that is this book's one downfall. It was hard to care whether the characters were killed or spared. The only one who had any sense at all is the Grandmother, but unfortunately she appears too late, near the end of the book. But even with those flaws I found PANIC ATTACK to be a fast-paced thrill ride that kept me reading until the wee hours of the morning.

Jason Starr's "Panic Attack" opens with psychologist Adam Bloom awakening from a recurring nightmare in which he is being chased by a large black rat. He gets up with a start in the middle of the night when his twenty-two year old daughter, Marissa, yanks his arm in fear. She whispers to her father and mother that an intruder has entered their home. While Adam's wife, Dana, calls 911, Adams impulsively decides to take out his gun and confront the criminal. This unwise decision is the first in a long line of mistakes made by Adam and his family.

The Blooms have more than their share of troubles: After twenty-three years of marriage, Adam and Dana are no longer emotionally or physically close. Dana, who is a bored housewife, believes that her husband is too self-absorbed to care about her feelings and that that he is more interested in his practice than he is in her. She also detests Adam's condescension and frequent use of psychobabble to put her in her place. Although Adam loves Marissa, he is fed up with her. After completing her studies at Vassar in art history, she returns to her parents' home, acquires tattoos, puts pink streaks in her hair, and spends most of her time hanging out with friends. She has made no realistic plans to find a job that would enable her to live independently. Her father constantly squabbles with Marissa, ordering her to get her act together.

Starr has written an electrifying and well-constructed novel with a sociopathic villain who is all the more sinister because he is so handsome and charming. He finds a way to insinuate himself into the lives of this troubled family with disastrous consequences. However, "Panic Attack" is more than an excruciatingly suspenseful and fast-paced thriller. It is also a distressing portrait of a father, mother, and daughter who can no longer speak to one another without rancor. Bloom may have some talent as a clinician, but he is a deeply flawed husband and father with a hair-trigger temper. Dana makes serious errors in judgment that come back to haunt her, and to round out this dysfunctional trio, Marissa's selfishness and irresponsibility complete her family's descent into free fall. As imperfect as they are, however, these three people do not deserve to have a vicious and sadistic killer manipulate them and use their vulnerabilities against them. Reading the exciting and unpredictable "Panic Attack" is like watching a terrible car crash. We know that we should not stare, but it is difficult to look away.

Starr writes in a kind of urban noir, his novel seemingly predictable; meanwhile, he slyly twists and turns both characters and plot to deliver a tale of human nature run awry in the modern world. When psychologist Adam Bloom's daughter wakes him one night, whispering that there is someone downstairs, Adam grabs his gun against his wife's advice, shooting and killing a burglar. In full panic mode, Adam unloads his weapon on the intruder while the man's accomplice escapes. When the family housekeeper is murdered the next morning, the repercussions endure long after that violent night.

The Bloom's are a contemporary family caught up in the usual distractions, self-absorption and too little time to pay attention to one another. Adam's wife, Dana, is chronically unhappy, now furious with her husband for not listening to her warnings and resorting to his gun, the marriage showing visible cracks. And twenty-two year old Marissa, a recent college graduate, has yet to find a path in life, resenting her father's suggestions that she get a life, hiding from responsibility by spending her nights drinking and partying with friends. Marissa reflects her parents' disharmony, in full rebellion as she pours her feelings into a blog, acting out as only the young and disenchanted can do. The shooting incident shakes this family from their already weak foundations, their lack of communication exacerbated by isolation.

Starr writes of a family floundering in the wake of notoriety, the news media hounding Adam with endless questions. Nearing fifty, Adam has created no niche for himself professionally, his fifteen minutes of fame turning from opportunity to nightmare as he is labeled the next Bernie Goetz. As the pressures mount and a new danger threatens the family, instead of pulling together, the Bloom's nurture private grievances in a society beset with technological distractions and the availability of too much information, making them the perfect target for a particular predator. In this ragged journey from one impulsive moment of violence to a final confrontation, events are set in motion that have shocking consequences.

In spite of advanced technology, the beleaguered Bloom family cannot relate to one another, each finding solutions elsewhere, setting the stage for a diabolical plan for revenge, as unexpected as it is clever plotting. Starr writes with a bite, his characters defined by their circumstances and limited expectations, products of an environment where consequences are ignored for the sake of a news cycle, a mosh pit of self-interest and rage, where action trumps thought, guns are ubiquitous and the Golden Rule but a memory. Luan Gaines/2009.

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