What Doesn't Kill You: A Novel (Catherine Ling) download epub

Once I got used to the characters in this one I couldn't put the book down. What took me a while was that the main characters - Catherine Ling and Hu Chang - both had sort of strange reactions. I almost had a feeling that they were autistic because of the lack of emotion. Catherine had been on her own in Hong Kong since she was a young child. Her mother was a prostitute who died when Catherine was only four. Another prostitute took her in but there didn't seem to be any emotional attachment. Catherine learned to survive on the shady side of Hong Kong by selling information to anyone who would pay her.

When she is fourteen she meets Hu Chang who is an apothecary and doctor of Chinese medicine who is clearly a genius but who also has an odd way of thinking. He determines that the two of them will be friends and he guides her to work with the CIA. He has some interesting morals as he creates and sells poisons among other sorts of potions.

Years pass, Catherine joins the CIA, marries, has a child who is kidnapped by a monster when he is two, and has now recovered her eleven year old son. Her son Luke is another character who is extremely bright but has no concept of emotions or attachment. Catherine is determined to protect him and is gradually forging a relationship with him. She gets a call from her CIA boss to tell her that he needs her in Hong Kong again because Hu Chang has created a potion that has made him the target of an extreme villain named Nardik who will do anything to get the potion from Hu Chang.

Catherine goes to protect her friend and asks her CIA boss to find someone who knows Mardik. Enter Gallo. Gallo and Catherine have met before and both been attracted to each other. Catherine isn't going to let any possible emotion sidetrack her from her quest and Gallo has his work cut out for him to try to find a place to fit into her life.

The most intriguing character in this one is Hu Chang. He is the one who precipitates the actions through his various manipulations. Catherine is often torn between wanting to kill him herself and wanting to protect him. One thing is certain though, Hu Chang always has what he sees as Catherine's best interests in mind as he manipulates those around him. While she loves him, Catherine doesn't agree with many of his choices.

There was lots of tension in this one and lots of suspense as Catherine, Gallo, and Hu Chang have to find out who Mardik's intended victim is and to save him. There are chase scenes, kidnapping, fires and other exciting events in this one.

I found this one a satisfying way to spend a few hours. It does make me want to look for the other books in which Catherine appears and see her again now that I know her better.

I'm a big IJ fan. Have been for many years. I'm very inclined to like her books even when a lot of people don't like it. Recently, it has become harder to read her books than I once found it to be, however I still kept reading, and hoping it would get back to like the old days. But this one was just...not great. It took me a good 3 months to read this book. I couldn't get myself interested long enough to be "unable to put it down". The dialogue between Catherine and Hu Chang rubs me way the wrong way. I cringed when they had a scene together. Most of it is just plain unbelievable. Hu Chang was much more annoying and egotistical than I ever expected him to be, and I find it difficult to see him and Catherine as such great friends as it's tried to make them seem. They seem cruel towards one a nother a lot of the time. I've grown so very tired of how hard and cold she tries to make all of her characters out to be. The worst of all is the children. All children in her story are played out to be little adults who don't need anyone but themselves in the world and are little know it alls. Catherine's son Luke, and Kelly, sound like they are 45, not 11 and 15 and it's just NOT believable and tears me out of the storyline with how much it irritates me. And I realized while reading that every child in every story she writes is the same. Far wiser than their years, and jaded. While a child here and there being that way is believable, this isn't. I feel the storyline between Catherine and Gallo has promise, but she did not use it to her advantage in this book. It came out feeling flat and forced. I really wanted to like this book, but I just didn't like it at all. I already purchased her next book before finishing this one, had it on auto-purchase, and I have the next couple on auto-purchase as well. I will be rethinking those purchases if the next book is equally bad. Iris is losing her touch it seems, or maybe she's just losing the joy she once got out of writing these stories...

Moral of the story, as a huge IJ fan and someone who has read nearly everything she's written, I'm telling you this book is not worth the money. Catch it at the library if you must read it. Just don't waste your hard earned money on it. I am at a loss as to how it's sitting here with 4 stars. And I'm usually biased in favor of IJ.