Review of Saving Max

Saving Max
Antoinette van Heugten
Mira
375 pages

Antoinette van Heugten may be a debut author, but her novel sings like a beautiful classic song. Saving Max is your next must read. It will be out in October 2010.

Danielle Parkman is a single mother with a troubled son Max, diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome among other psychological afflictions. In an effort to give him the best help available, Danielle takes him to a renowned institution where her life and Max’s takes an abrupt and downward spiral and now the only thing that’s important to Danielle is “Saving Max”. But the real question is can he be saved or should he.

In Ms. van Heugten’s brilliant debut novel we see evidence of greatness as she weaves her complicated plot for her audience. A plot where the incredible family drama will hook you and the imaginatively amazing mystery/thriller will reel you in and then culminates with a riveting court room scene of epic proportions that are award worthy. Her dialogue is intense in it’s contents while her prose like narrative will pull extreme emotions from her readers as she describes dramatically and descriptively a parents worst nightmare and the process in which to rectify it. Her characters are beyond capable and near perfection as each of them play their roles with clarity and excellence and each of them is as necessary a component as the next for the telling of the story. And you, her readers will expel every emotion you have before the end of the novel as we pull for the good and cringe at the evil. And let me be clear, this is not a romance, but it is a love story, a love of a mother, a love of a friend and yes the love between a man and a woman. And to that point there are love scenes, but they’re done with exceptional class and imagination. But the essence is the strength of one woman, a mother who wants nothing but the best for her child and would go to the ends of the earth even to hell and back to accomplish it.

Saving Max is a rare find in literary fiction. It’s a realistic look at mental health and the facilities that treat it. A heart wrenching drama of the frailties and strengths of our species. So if you’re looking for your next Must Read that will take you through a whole specturm of feelings from horror to joy to edge of your seat, nail biting suspense, run don’t walk to your nearest bookseller for “Saving Max”. You won’t be sorry!
And to you Ms. van Heugten, I can’t wait to read your next adventure.
Kudos!!!

Now I have to stop and say a word about Mira, yes it's a division of Harlequin, a publisher that's been around for 60 years. But this is not a publisher to be snubbed by so called book snobs, the last few novels I've read by this publisher have been excellent and not romance at all but great literary fiction, great pieces of women's fiction that would be very appealing to our male readers also. So you book snobs out there get your head out of the sand or where ever else it's hiding and I promise you won't be sorry if you give this novel and other's published by Mira a try.