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hokiegal2k's review against another edition
4.0
The Red Lotus is a good thriller/mystery/medical-ish drama. I have other Chris Bohjalian books on my To Be Read list, but this is the first one I've been able to read. I enjoyed the science of the mystery and that Alexis was a strong female lead. I also thought to have her relationship with Austin be only 6 months old helped to move the story along. Much longer and I think it would have been more of a stretch for Alexis to distance herself from him in order to get the answers she was seeking. I think this was a solid book and look forward to getting to the other Bohjalian novels.
Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
liakeller's review against another edition
3.0
Exciting read about an ER doc, biking in Vietnam, rats, and darts.
lavins's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a 2.5 for me. Could have been a 3 if the ending was not as predictable.
The story is not bad, but there are far too many details about rats and it's simply gross. There are also some unrealistic aspects to it. Like the obsession of someone that was in a relationship for 6 months.
The story is not bad, but there are far too many details about rats and it's simply gross. There are also some unrealistic aspects to it. Like the obsession of someone that was in a relationship for 6 months.
sumsunalli's review against another edition
2.0
The biggest problem I had with this book was the absolute unnecessary additions of details and background provided. It completely overshadowed the story line for me and made it hard to stay interested.
velmaslibrary's review against another edition
4.0
I found this book so interesting! It’s a very slow start with the mystery picking up very close to the end, but the story was engaging and well written that I didn’t get bored and want to “skip to the good parts”.
It’s about a pandemic, so if you’ve got trauma from that maybe refrain from this one. Again, it really just picks up at the end so it’s more about the potential of chemical warfare and dangerous pathogens
It’s about a pandemic, so if you’ve got trauma from that maybe refrain from this one. Again, it really just picks up at the end so it’s more about the potential of chemical warfare and dangerous pathogens
katycat341's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
thewrittenadventure's review against another edition
3.0
So, not the best book to read during a quarantine, that's for sure.
Alexis and Austin go to a bike trip in Vietnam, but Austin goes missing, leaving only some energy gels behind. Alexis soon falls down the rabbit hole as things that Austin was telling her weren't making sense. She hires a PI to try to figure out why he went missing and why the people who knew Austin best, are lying to her.
Chris Bohjalian really does an excellent job describing the ins and outs of his character's minds. A master of inner thoughts. This global thriller really shows how easy it might be to spread a pandemic, which is a little scary to think about.
Alexis and Austin go to a bike trip in Vietnam, but Austin goes missing, leaving only some energy gels behind. Alexis soon falls down the rabbit hole as things that Austin was telling her weren't making sense. She hires a PI to try to figure out why he went missing and why the people who knew Austin best, are lying to her.
Chris Bohjalian really does an excellent job describing the ins and outs of his character's minds. A master of inner thoughts. This global thriller really shows how easy it might be to spread a pandemic, which is a little scary to think about.
nypeapod's review against another edition
5.0
Great listen. Very exciting book. Maybe I should have not listened though in the midst of a pandemic.
emilybutynski's review against another edition
3.0
To me this book was, as they say, a slow burn. Perhaps it was because I read it via my phone and iPad - I know I have a hard time focusing when I read books through devices. But I had a hard time getting into the book, despite the extremely interesting premise, and it just didn’t pull me along the way I had anticipated, after enjoying other books by this author. Regardless, it was interesting and I will go on to read more of his.
Boyfriend and girlfriend Austin and Alexis have gone on a bike tour in Vietnam. On one of their last days in country, Austin is determined to ride a long route that will take him through the area where his uncle was killed in action and where his father was injured during the war. He makes this trip alone, but it shouldn’t take him more than a morning and into the afternoon. Only, Austin doesn’t return to the hotel when he says he will. He’s unreachable on his cell phone, and Alexis worries. Austin officially goes missing, and the folks from the bike tour, nor the police, can find any sign of him, except for a dropped few packets of energy gel.
The bike tour contacts the American consulate in Vietnam, and Alexis quickly hears from an FBI agent stationed in Cambodia and Vietnam. She quickly finds out that Austin has lied about his family’s service record: Austin’s uncle was killed in action, but far from where they are staying on the bike tour. His father was “wounded” in Vietnam, but not by the opposing forces. He was on base and tipped over a go-kart, breaking his leg in the process. But why would Austin lie? Alexis and Austin have only been together for about six months.
Stop here for spoilers ***
Austin’s body is found the next day, and Alexis identifies him. According to the police, Austin was hit by a vehicle while on his bike after dark, and then thrown over the guardrail onto some rocks. He also, however, has an injury to his hand that doesn’t seem to line up.
Alexis returns to the United States but has a lot of questions. Why did Austin lie? Why was he out on his bike after dark when he knew better? Why did he have that strange injury to his hand? She begins to investigate on her own, and then Austin’s boss, Sally Gleason, suggests she hire a private investigator she knows. Sally Gleason contacts private investigator Ken and warns him not to take the case of the deranged girlfriend, but Ken is drawn into the story and understands Alexis’s confusion, so he takes on the case.
Both Alexis and Ken realize something nefarious could be going on, and they remain careful and reveal nothing to outsiders. Alexis speaks with some of Austin’s friends and colleagues, as well as his parents. Austin lied about his family’s service record, but he knew the truth. Austin’s colleague, Oscar, lied to Alexis and she is wary of him. Ken goes to the bar where Austin was grazed by a bullet earlier in the year, and then finds his friend Douglas, who plays a larger role in Austin’s life than anyone is letting on.
Rats seem to be following Alexis since she returned home - not literally, but the idea of rats and performing research with them. She contacts a researcher in the labs at her hospital, the one where she and Austin both work, and asks her some questions. She asks the researcher, Sara, if she might arrange a tour of the rat labs. After their meeting, Sara stops contacting Alexis.
After Alexis meets with Oscar, she receives a message from one of the lead scientists at the labs. He is willing to give her a tour that very day. By now Alexis is very nervous, and so she contacts Ken, who comes with her. Both the scientist and Douglas are waiting for them when they step off the elevator at the hospital. Douglas had been planning to kill Alexis, but his plan has been thwarted slightly because of Ken’s presence. Douglas shoots Ken in the arm and then tells the scientist to go get the rats. Then there is a struggle, and Alexis kills Douglas with a scalpel. However, Alexis has ingested what she thought was an energy gel, and she is getting sicker. While Ken runs after the scientist, Alexis puts the pieces together and calls 911.
Alexis had a new version of the plague, developed in the labs with the rats. The pathogen had been in the energy gel packets. She had exposed Ken also. The plague was very fast acting and quickly killing her. She calls her mom to say goodbye.
Ken, unfortunately, died while on the phone with his wife. Alexis, however, will likely live because of how quickly help found her, and because the pathogen’s strength had been depleted while stored in the energy gel. The scientist was shot by Ken, and will live, and was arrested.
As it turned out, Austin’s trip to Vietnam had in fact been a ruse. Somehow he had stored the pathogen in the energy gels and brought it to sell to a client, who was then going to sell the plague to North Korea. Douglas killed the female client and her associates, so it never made it that far. But unbeknownst to them, Sally Gleason and Douglas were actually competitors who had had the same idea: the pathogen was marketable. So Sally, Oscar, and Sara the researcher were all arrested. Douglas had killed Austin because he thought he was selling the pathogen behind his back, which he was trying to do.
Sometimes when I read certain books by certain authors, I feel like I will never be smart enough to understand their prose, despite being an avid reader. This is one of those books/authors who is right on that line. I could never write this intelligently.
I enjoyed the story, but I thought I would enjoy it more than I did. I thought it would be full of twists and turns and revaluations. The characters were interesting and had full stories/backgrounds. I guess somehow I just expected something more, or something different.
Boyfriend and girlfriend Austin and Alexis have gone on a bike tour in Vietnam. On one of their last days in country, Austin is determined to ride a long route that will take him through the area where his uncle was killed in action and where his father was injured during the war. He makes this trip alone, but it shouldn’t take him more than a morning and into the afternoon. Only, Austin doesn’t return to the hotel when he says he will. He’s unreachable on his cell phone, and Alexis worries. Austin officially goes missing, and the folks from the bike tour, nor the police, can find any sign of him, except for a dropped few packets of energy gel.
The bike tour contacts the American consulate in Vietnam, and Alexis quickly hears from an FBI agent stationed in Cambodia and Vietnam. She quickly finds out that Austin has lied about his family’s service record: Austin’s uncle was killed in action, but far from where they are staying on the bike tour. His father was “wounded” in Vietnam, but not by the opposing forces. He was on base and tipped over a go-kart, breaking his leg in the process. But why would Austin lie? Alexis and Austin have only been together for about six months.
Stop here for spoilers ***
Austin’s body is found the next day, and Alexis identifies him. According to the police, Austin was hit by a vehicle while on his bike after dark, and then thrown over the guardrail onto some rocks. He also, however, has an injury to his hand that doesn’t seem to line up.
Alexis returns to the United States but has a lot of questions. Why did Austin lie? Why was he out on his bike after dark when he knew better? Why did he have that strange injury to his hand? She begins to investigate on her own, and then Austin’s boss, Sally Gleason, suggests she hire a private investigator she knows. Sally Gleason contacts private investigator Ken and warns him not to take the case of the deranged girlfriend, but Ken is drawn into the story and understands Alexis’s confusion, so he takes on the case.
Both Alexis and Ken realize something nefarious could be going on, and they remain careful and reveal nothing to outsiders. Alexis speaks with some of Austin’s friends and colleagues, as well as his parents. Austin lied about his family’s service record, but he knew the truth. Austin’s colleague, Oscar, lied to Alexis and she is wary of him. Ken goes to the bar where Austin was grazed by a bullet earlier in the year, and then finds his friend Douglas, who plays a larger role in Austin’s life than anyone is letting on.
Rats seem to be following Alexis since she returned home - not literally, but the idea of rats and performing research with them. She contacts a researcher in the labs at her hospital, the one where she and Austin both work, and asks her some questions. She asks the researcher, Sara, if she might arrange a tour of the rat labs. After their meeting, Sara stops contacting Alexis.
After Alexis meets with Oscar, she receives a message from one of the lead scientists at the labs. He is willing to give her a tour that very day. By now Alexis is very nervous, and so she contacts Ken, who comes with her. Both the scientist and Douglas are waiting for them when they step off the elevator at the hospital. Douglas had been planning to kill Alexis, but his plan has been thwarted slightly because of Ken’s presence. Douglas shoots Ken in the arm and then tells the scientist to go get the rats. Then there is a struggle, and Alexis kills Douglas with a scalpel. However, Alexis has ingested what she thought was an energy gel, and she is getting sicker. While Ken runs after the scientist, Alexis puts the pieces together and calls 911.
Alexis had a new version of the plague, developed in the labs with the rats. The pathogen had been in the energy gel packets. She had exposed Ken also. The plague was very fast acting and quickly killing her. She calls her mom to say goodbye.
Ken, unfortunately, died while on the phone with his wife. Alexis, however, will likely live because of how quickly help found her, and because the pathogen’s strength had been depleted while stored in the energy gel. The scientist was shot by Ken, and will live, and was arrested.
As it turned out, Austin’s trip to Vietnam had in fact been a ruse. Somehow he had stored the pathogen in the energy gels and brought it to sell to a client, who was then going to sell the plague to North Korea. Douglas killed the female client and her associates, so it never made it that far. But unbeknownst to them, Sally Gleason and Douglas were actually competitors who had had the same idea: the pathogen was marketable. So Sally, Oscar, and Sara the researcher were all arrested. Douglas had killed Austin because he thought he was selling the pathogen behind his back, which he was trying to do.
Sometimes when I read certain books by certain authors, I feel like I will never be smart enough to understand their prose, despite being an avid reader. This is one of those books/authors who is right on that line. I could never write this intelligently.
I enjoyed the story, but I thought I would enjoy it more than I did. I thought it would be full of twists and turns and revaluations. The characters were interesting and had full stories/backgrounds. I guess somehow I just expected something more, or something different.
meaghandesigns's review against another edition
4.0
girls boyfriend goes missing on their bike tour of Vietnam and a mystery follows. I really liked the other book I read by this author but I don’t think this one was for me.