Wednesday, March 13, 2024

About the Book

Book: The Samaritan’s Patient

Author: Chevron Ross

Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Teen Christian Fiction

Release Date: January 25, 2024

Teenager Paige Abernathy awakens after a severe beating to find that she suffers from amnesia, and that everyone seems to hate her.

She has only flashes of memory until the night a grieving parent attacks her in her hospital room. Paige then remembers her role as creator of an online group where members talk about ways to commit suicide.

After recovering from the beating, Paige embarks on a journey of penance to atone for a disaster born of good intentions. Her odyssey launches her on a mission of mercy and into new danger.

The Samaritan’s Patient is a thought-provoking novel about navigating the treacherous waters of social media.

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Chevron Ross is a pseudonym for someone unimportant. He is not a writer, but God keeps putting ideas into his head that somehow turn into stories. If you like them, be sure to offer God a prayer of thanks.

More from Chevron

Behind the Scenes

This novel might never have been born had I not seen an interview on PBS with two New York Times writers, Megan Twohey and Gabriel Dance, on December 16, 2021.

These reporters did an extensive investigation into a website on which subscribers discussed committing suicide and shared methods for doing so. Most visitors to the site were thirty or younger. There were 1.2 million messages. At least forty-five suicides in multiple countries were linked to the site.

At the time of this broadcast, I had just completed my second novel, The Seven-Day Resurrection, and was wondering what to do next. The PBS interview was so shocking that I could not stop thinking about it. What motive could a person have for encouraging strangers to kill themselves? What could one possibly gain from such an endeavor? And what could provoke someone to throw away the gift of life at such a youthful age?

Each of my novels has been the result of an inspiration from God. Once He puts an idea into my head, it consumes my imagination until I cannot stop working. As you might imagine from the title, The Samaritan’s Patient is a blend of two stories: the famous parable of Jesus in the Bible, and a young person with good intentions who gets caught up in a social media nightmare.

God did all the work on this book. He created the character of Paige Abernathy and told me how to build the novel around the circumstances of her personal life—her parents, her friends, and most of all, her Christian faith. He also created the crisis that launches her on a journey of new experiences and personal growth.

I am amazed and grateful that God would choose someone so ordinary and unaccomplished as myself to do this work. Each novel God has written through me has been a great personal gift, and a reaffirmation that God has a plan for each of us. I pray that The Samaritan’s Patient will be as great a blessing to its readers as it has been to me.

MY REVIEW

The opening scene of this story was a little graphic to me and could be a trigger for anyone who has gone through an assault. The guys are pretty rude and use descriptive words I thought were inappropriate. I understand that we are witnessing an assault but I would hope that in a Christian fiction book the author could have found a different way to explain what was going on.

I did continue the book hoping for redemption, hope and healing for this young woman. As the young woman begins to wake up in the hospital she can’t remember anything. She has no idea what she has been through. Her body tells a story of beating an unwanted attack and left for dead. Someone stopped to help and brought her to the hospital. Whoever the man was he left in a hurry but he probably saved her life.

Something really strange is going on with this mysterious young girl at the hospital. People are calling her Paige but she has no memory of that name. She turns on the TV in her room and sees a reporter taking about a protest outside the hospital she is at. When someone sneaks in her room to harm her she suddenly remembers everything.

The story starts to make more sense when readers find out about a site where young people go who are contemplating suicide. Behind the screen answering these posts are Paige. She made the page for “people to go to for reassurance.” She had scriptures posted and names and numbers of counselors for those who were were looking for help. How sad that the site turned into something ugly from comments that pushed people to the edge.

Danger gets closer to Paige every day but what is most worrisome is her head injury. When she runs out of medication she starts to have blackouts or seizures. Thankfully the place she has found refuge is there to help her. I liked this part of the story because it talks about homelessness. There is an epidemic in our nation where people find themselves without a place to live. I appreciate the author highlighting this issue we all should help solve.

Suicide is a big topic in the story and Paige thought her website would help but unfortunately it had people coming to the site telling others how to end their lives. Paige is so overwhelmed with guilt and has no one to turn to. Her mother is a huge problem. She is overbearing and uses her authority in the community to threaten people to give her information about her daughter.

The story is an illustration of how someone reaches out to a hurting person. They don’t want any recognition but do it make amends for something. There is so many great lessons within the pages of this book. God is at the center and I loved how the author brought people together who were looking for help, a new beginning and to feel wanted.

“Sometimes we have to miss what’s most precious to us in order to appreciate it.”

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.