Amy Brenner is a second-year medical student whose ultimate goals in terms of specialization are not clear, except that she knows that she does not want to be a psychiatrist. Eight years ago, when she was 16, her best friend Jade Carpenter had been confined to a mental hospital, and Amy visited her. It was an experience that left a lasting scar on her memory.
However, Pauline Walter, Administrative Assistant to the Chief of Psychiatry has assigned Amy to an overnight rotation in Ward D, a locked and secure psychiatric unit at the hospital. Amy dreads the assignment, but knows that she must complete it to maintain her standing in her class.
In “Ward D” (2023, 337 pages in soft-cover format), Ms. McFadden takes us, step-by-step through Amy’s evening of anxiety, fear, and bone-chilling horror. The anxiety is evident when Amy enters the ward and the steel door with a coded electronic lock closes behind her. She’s there until morning, with no way out. To make things worse, her ex-boyfriend Cameron who dropped her because he had to study for a board exam, is on the same rotation because he swapped shifts with another student.
Nurse Ramona meets them and introduces them to Dr. Beck, the attending physician for the night. Amy attempts to send a message to her roommate Gabby, but finds that there is no cell reception on the ward. Dr Beck shows Amy and Cameron the Seclusion One room, a place where a violent patient named Damon Sawyer is locked away. Patients on the ward are convinced that Damon will kill every person on the ward before the night is over.
As the two students receive instructions from Dr. Beck, Amy is aware that they are being watched by the patient in Room 905. Before long, Amy comes to realize that the person in Room 905 is her old friend Jade. But Jade has reason to be not so friendly toward Amy. In fact, she believes that Amy abandoned her years ago, with Amy even skipping her mother’s funeral.
Dr. Beck encourages Amy and Cameron to interview some of the patients in order to get a feel for the practice of psychiatry. Amy chooses Will Schoenfield, a schizophrenic, and their session begins amicably when they discover that their favorite author is John Irving, and Will is currently rereading Irving’s Owen Meany book, his all-time best seller which is also Amy’s favorite book. But as the night wears on, strange and frightening things begin to happen, culminating in Jade and Cameron’s confession that they plan to burn the place down, fake their own deaths, and escape. And, of course, they’ll have to murder Amy.
This is a tightly-written novel, with a lot of suspense, not the least on which involves Amy, who is having hallucinations and worries that she may be seriously mentally ill. And of course, patients start dying, Cameron disappears, and the lights go out.
Scary, but I loved it. Enjoy.
...Jim Glynn
Antonio Jacobs
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