The Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron Ross

The Samaritan’s Patient by Chevron Ross
Series: A Standalone
Publisher: AIA Publishing (January 25, 2024)

REVIEW BY PRISCILLA BETTIS

Chevron Ross is a brave Christian fiction author who deals with disturbing, contemporary issues even while fostering themes of atonement and forgiveness.

Seventeen-year-old Paige creates a website to help young people who have suicidal feelings. But social media trolls take over, and things get out of hand, resulting in tragedy. The story takes place in the fictional small city of Alverna, Texas.

Paige is only seventeen (and then eighteen) in the book, but this is not a Young Adult novel. Paige’s priorities, worries, and thought patterns speak to an adult audience, and Ross’s prose is more reflective (rather than immediate in nature as in most YA books). Having said that, a contemplative, older teen would also enjoy this story.

Besides Paige, other key characters include her parents, Kyle and Lydia, Paige’s doctor, Dr. Wingate, and Paige’s employer, Omer.

Omer is a neurodivergent, Jewish, brilliant man. He’s a literal thinker and has trouble understanding idioms and metaphors. He was also my favorite character, and his thinking issues can be summed up in one of his passages when he gets a new job at a restaurant:

“I’ll have the angel hair pasta,” a lady ordered at his next job. Omer wandered off in search of holy spaghetti. Diners pummeled him with requests for pulled pork, grasshopper pie, bloody marys, black Russians, screwdrivers. His head whirled with fantastic visions. Suddenly his new boss was chewing him out in the kitchen. He could almost feel the teeth marks.

-Chevron Ross, The Samaritan’s Patient

Paige’s mother is a handful. By a quarter way into the book, I was hoping Lydia would show character growth by the end. (I mean, along with Paige because everybody expects the protagonist to have character growth.) Whether or not Lydia changes over the course of the book, I won’t say (spoilers), but she certainly steals the scene when she’s on the page.

Ross includes chapters with text from Paige’s website. These chapters are disturbing, but not graphic, and they feel realistic. I suspect Ross did a lot of research about sites like Paige’s.

I enjoyed the read, but there were a few things that bothered me about the story.

I had trouble with the point of view. Sometimes it’s distant omniscient, like a view from a drone. Sometimes it’s limited omniscient. We have access to Paige’s thoughts and brief thoughts of a few other characters. Finally, some scenes are strictly from one character’s deep point of view. Having a mosaic of points of view may add to the thrilleresque vibe, but it jarred my poor reading brain.

I also had trouble with long summary passages, especially if we didn’t need to know the information, like how Kyle and Lydia met.

There is a seizure myth supported in this story by the doctor character. I was disappointed to see that.

However, the ending is excellent. Every character’s decisions, even minor characters’ actions, tie into the final outcome. There are no loose threads left dangling in Ross’s complex (but still easy-to-follow) plot. Impressive! Makes for a very satisfying read.

Although this wasn’t a perfect read for me, it was still engaging, and I give it 3.5 fish. I encourage others to check out Ross’s book. The Samaritan’s Patient is up for preorder now!

I received an advanced copy of The Samaritan’s Patient from the author.