It took me a while to read this because I ended up putting it down for some time--at first because of the news about Hurricane Harvey, and then because I was myself preparing for (and then evacuating) because of Irma; obviously, my timing of picking this up couldn't have been better or worse, depending on how you look at it.

In the end, I've got mixed feelings about it. It's a fascinating account in a lot of ways, and an inside look into a very specific and dangerous aftermath that could only be told by someone who was so directly involved as the author. On the other hand, I agree with the reviewers who've said that it felt like the melodrama was amped up to make it read, in many ways, more like an action/adventure than a memoir--I would have preferred it move more slowly, and offered more clarity and detail. Essentially, as powerful as it was, I think it would have been all the more powerful if it had gone a bit more slowly.

I also admit that I was frustrated with the fast wrap-up, and with some loose ends left undone. The author went to pains to talk about the dogs/pets who belonged to his colleagues, but though he'd mentioned that civilians weren't leaving the jail without the pets at a couple of points, he never came back to them. Perhaps he didn't want to write that people were abandoned (though we got the impression everyone was evacuated) or that pets were abandoned, but even if that's the heartbreaking case, I'm incredibly annoyed that that was a loose end which got left behind. Maybe this wouldn't bother a non-pet-owner or non-animal-person so much, but it's left a real black mark on the book for me, I have to be honest.

So, in the end, I have mixed feelings about this. I'm glad I read it, but at the same time... I don't know. It feels almost like the editors or the second author attempted to make this into a Hollywood-ized version of what really happened, thinking that the real story wasn't fast or dramatic enough as it might have been told with more detail, and with that added to a few loose ends, I'm left less impressed than I was as I read the first half of it or so, now that I've finished. ( )

Surviving Katrina at a prison, facing rioting prisoners, yet unarmed. A doctor fighting to survive and save lives at the same time. ( )