The Patient Routine, a suggestive title that opens our minds to many questions. IS it about patience, or is it about disease? Is it about the patience of a patient, or the lack of it? Is it about the routine itself? Hm…. And with these questions, we go ahead, curious about what we will find, and we are not disappointed, at all, because that curiosity is spiced up when we notice that the chapter titles are hour marks. Hour marks, yes, that follow a certain order as if they were written in a single day, and each chapter was written within that time. Wow, how many books have you read like that?
Have you ever read a book that made you, in the first few paragraphs, doubt of the quality of what was written, and then think: “You know what? let’s read just a bit more”, and after you read further, you tell yourself: “wow, I’m glad that I didn’t quit on this” ? Yeah, this is one of those books.
The first poem, is weird, to say the least, but it traps you when you get to the middle and then makes you more and more curious and by the last paragraphs, or verses, you realize that the piece is amazing!
The narrator/MC talks about self-awareness to the point of feelings everything, like hyperawareness of his entire body due to insomnia, and it’s fascinating to read, although it’s in verse and there are barely any rhymes, but at the end, there’s a surprise that will make you laugh and clap. Wow this is nice!
There is a challenging vocabulary, there are many words that will make you think a deeply on their meaning, and how their ideas connect to the rest of the “poem”, but nothing that you will decide to stop reading.
The meaning and the tone, the imagery, are dark-ish, and touch a lot on the self fears, and anxiety, yet, it’s fascinating because it feels like a novel where each poem is a chapter, a continuation of the previous, and that makes this book very unique.
You read each poem asking what is going to happen next, what is he going to think next, how is he dealing with his thoughts and fears? And it sucks you to the book with full force. Impressive!
Ok, this is kind of a patients diary, or routine, and his experiences, told in verse style, and with a cool design. Sometimes the letters fly on the pages and you ask yourself why, and you notice, as you read, that t it it’s an attempt to show how his mind works, many times dissociating from objective reality. It’s a design perk of the book. Nice!
It’s funny, although serious, how an anxious person mind works, or in this case, the patient’s mind. There is a dialogue with his inner voice that at times helps, and other times, joins the party of anxiety and pushes him in his thoughts, confirming them, questioning them and affirming them. It’s fascinating to see this complex dynamic happening and it keeps getting better.
The author, through the character himself showcases the skill she possesses. It’s incredible how the character is so aware and so into detail with things that he does not notice what he does to himself, or is able to see reality itself. Fascinating.
A tone of death surrounds this book. Death in the sense of paranoia and over-obsession upon the possibility of dying and how we are fragile as humans and how life is so unpredictable that it can end at any moment, for whatever reason, most of which we cannot control whatsoever. It makes you think.
Then the author adds layers of dark suspense, tension and thriller to the point that comes grazing on horror, in some parts of the book where the narrator tells what he is seeing, perceiving, and at times hallucinating, due to his anxiety and fear of the unknown combine with a wild imagination. Yet, intriguingly so, it feels real to him. As we read, we also get caught in this reality vs perception setup and get lost in it, becoming at the mercy of the fears of the narrator.
There is a correlation, by the end, between the unacceptance (or refusal of reality), the refusal of being who one is born as, and the mental condition of the patient in hand – our main character and narrator – that makes you think and analyse from a different perspective. The influence of culture as well of a certain society, and the coddling of such delusions also help perpetuate the condition by affirming people’s delusions, which is dangerous. But it’s always a point to think about.
The Patient’s routine by Luna Rey Hall is one of a kind. It offers many perspectives that open our minds to anxiety and stress-induced hallucinations, and how certain people may feel inside themselves, their doubts and perspectives, and also how delicate they are and must be handled with care, because their mental conditions can easily lead them to hurt themselves, although, we must help them realize that they cannot abdicate control of themselves and the consequences of their actions, and that they have power over how they feel and what they choose to think.
This book is one that once you read through, you realize that you will never be the same again, and that you would never, by yourself have picked it up, but you are glad you read it, even though it will feel odd at first.
Pros:
- Unique narrative style
- Unique atmosphere created by the layout of words
- Unique story with many perspectives
- A new point of view in anxiety and stress
- An incredibly twisted perspective on life and death, especially death and the human condition
Cons:
- The use of the pronouns “them” and related, does get confusing at times and at first.
Lesson of the book: Root your notions into reality, not feelings.
Scribble's Worth 
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