A moving book that will effect some greatly will make you think when you have finished

Well written and what can be a difficult subject matter

This book deals with a very difficult subject and really makes you think about it. I enjoyed it overall and would recommend.

Great premise, slightly poor execution. I just couldn't connect with the characters which I feel is so important for a book like this,

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

I picked this up knowing nothing about it. It was on a recommended shelf at the library, had a striking cover (with gorgeous font) and from the vague two word reviews on the front - I thought I’d have a bash at it. There was no blurb.

I think it’s brave to tackle this subject matter, I’ve not read another that depicts the death of others quite like this.

Unfortunately, whilst the writing itself was beautifully written, the story lacked any sort of motion and came to several halts.

The opening got me but it quickly slipped away and I found myself skimming lines out of boredom. I was shocked how bored I became! I didn’t think I’d finish at all.

The cover described it as ‘blackly funny’, there was nothing funny about this book (not just referring to its primary subject, of course). I didn’t enjoy reading this.

If you’re someone who enjoys big questions in life such as those surrounding euthanasia, then this might be one for you. Overall though, I wouldn’t recommend

I struggled.
I thought the book was written well enough and I managed to get through it. I didn’t find it interesting enough to stay with it.
I kept picking up another book I’m reading in preference to this.

It might be for you, but it wasn’t for me I’m afraid. I just couldn’t connect.

Not for me.
I found it a really difficult subject to read about and I couldn’t get into it.
Some readers would enjoy it but I’m a bit sensitive to the subject.

Evan is a nurse who helps people to die. It’s obviously quite a controversial job and he keeps what he does from his family and friends. Obviously assisted suicide is a very difficult subject matter to write, read or talk about and I won’t cloud my review by mentioning my views on the matter. But I give the author his dues, he is very brave to write about this subject knowing the different kinds of reactions he will get from his readers.

Personally, I found the book very difficult to read. Not just because of the topic in question, but also because I didn’t feel I connected at all to any of the characters. It was a powerfully written book on a delicate subject, but it just wasn’t for me.

I’m not really sure what made me want to read The Easy Way Out by Steven Amsterdam as it’s a book that is so very different to my usual reading material. Whilst it took me several attempts to get into the book and it was by no means an easy book to read from an emotional perspective, I’m glad I persisted with it as it turned out to be a well written, interesting and thought-provoking read.

The Easy Way Out introduces us to Evan, a man whose father committed suicide when he was very young and whose mother is still alive but has a deteriorating health condition. As well as looking after his mother who he has moved back in with and being involved in a complicated relationship, Evan works in a hospital as a nurse. However, unlike most nurses who exist to save and prolong the lives of their patients, Evan works as part of a pilot project where he assists and supports terminally ill patients to end their lives.

Despite being a character who I didn’t have anything in common with, Evan was a character who I had a huge amount of admiration and respect for. After all the emotionally difficult times that he had been through in his life, he was someone who was dedicated to his job, to helping his patients at a time when they needed him most and someone who you knew just only ever wanted to do the right thing.

A book about assisted suicide would be a huge challenge for most authors to write about yet Steven Amsterdam has handled the subject in a wonderful way, something that is undoubtedly due to his own experiences of working as a palliative care nurse. From beginning to end this book was extremely powerful to the point where I couldn’t help but feel quite emotional and it also made me think a great deal about the idea of assisted suicide and whether or not I agree with it. Despite the subject matter it was not all doom and gloom as there was the perfect mixture of moments that made me laugh and moments that made me cry. The only thing I will say about this book is that it goes into a lot of detail and is quite graphic in a lot of places, something which I personally did struggle with. That said to give this book a fair chance, I think it’s important for readers to approach it with an open mind and not be swayed by other people's opinions of it.

The sort of book that would work very well in a book group setting thanks to the questions and debates that it poses, The Easy Way Out was a sometimes challenging yet insightful read that I don’t think I will be able to forget for a long time to come. This was the first book of Steven’s that I have ever read before and I have to say that I am full of admiration for his work on this occasion, discussing an issue that needs to be more widely talked and thought about.

Personally, I found this a really difficult book to read. I couldn’t connect with the characters or storyline. Not for everyone and wasn’t for me.

I'm sorry but I have to admit defeat on this book. I loved the synopsis and had such high hopes for it. I am a staunch supporter of dying with dignity and follow Dignitas and the fight for assisted dying to be legalised in the UK. With this in mind, I have read a lot of literature on this subject and was excited to have this book. However, on starting this book, I found myself feeling disappointed with the way that the author had handled the topic.

The book opens well but I feel there is a tongue-in-cheek aspect of the writing which didn't sit well with me.

I didn't feel I wanted to read any further but also didn't feel it was my place to review this book on a public platform.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I really appreciate it. :)

This was a really difficult book to read and the subject I felt was over simplified.
I could not connect with the characters.
Not for me.

A well-written book on a sensitive subject. Death is often considered a taboo topic and assisted suicide has both moral and legal ramifications.
Evan the main character is complex. He has seen death in both his personal and professional life and finds that his work life impinges on his own life. Full of poignant moments, some dark humour and full of informed facts and opinions on 'assisted suicide.' A fascinating book but not surprisingly I couldn't recommend it as an entertaining read.
I received a copy of this book from Quercus books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

This book tackles the controversial issue of euthanasia and does so with0ut shying away from any of the sensitivities that come with it. It will make you challenge your own believes and values, and have you considering what you would do in the situations faced by the characters.

It's easy to read and the characters are well-formed and likeable in the most part. Amsterdam's writing is beautiful and perfectly suited to exploring the complexities and polarised views of this subject matter.

The ending was a slight anti-climax but it didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Assisted dying.......
I have strong views on the way we treat the terminally sick and would definitely be in favour of some type of controlled euthanasia for those who are suffering. In many cases we are more humane to animals than people.
When I had the opportunity to review this book I was hoping for something that advocated my views, and while this novel does appear to support euthanasia, I found the book itself a bit slow and more of a list of people who chose to end their own lives than a thesis supporting the right to do so, albeit in novel form.

The author is a palliative care nurse in Melbourne, so he writes from a position of some experience. Whilst assisted dying isn't legal in Australia, he proposes a measure, which he calls Measure 961, allowing sick patients to be monitored while they sip a fatal dose of Nembutal. In the novel, Measure 961 is surrounded by the inevitable red tape and all procedures are carefully monitored and recorded on video. Evan finds that overseeing this process gives him satisfaction and he supports his patients' right to choose.

I wasn't quite sure why the author chose to make Evan homosexual, and the descriptions of his sex life with a gay couple were rather unnecessary in my view.
His mother is a wonderful feisty lady who pretty much left him to raise himself, but who is now living in a care home with all the frustrating realities that entails. She suffers from Parkinson's disease and is deteriorating. The question hovers as to whether Evan might eventually help her to end her life and the outcome to that question is interesting.

A brave subject for a novel. I hope others will follow suit and trigger more discussion on the topic.

Enjoyed this book it was in some parts a funny story it was based live life death I would recommend

A delicate subject dealt with perfectly. Steven Amsterdam certainly has a way with words that drags you in and keeps you hooked. Highly recommend and I look forward to the next.

The Easy Way out is the story of Evan, a nurse who joins a controversial project to help terminally ill people end their lives with dignity and control – a sort of Dignitas. And so begins his journey as usher to the other world. He has to contend with the project rules and protocols – always remain aloof, record the patient speaking the legally necessary wording, be practically invisible while the relatives and the dying person take centre stage. Inevitably, this is far more difficult than it looks.

Afterwards, as you'd expect, the emotional fallout jemmies open the faultlines in his personal life. His fiercely independent mother who is stricken helpless by Parkinson’s and then makes a remarkable recovery, determined to be independent of him. The couple he is having a three-way relationship with, who cannot understand why he has become so aloof and unreliable. And his own personal demons. The personal and the professional come nicely together - I won't say how, but they do.

I suspect the most compelling element for many will be the death scenes, which are drawn from actual experience - the author is also a palliative care nurse. Certainly I found them enthralling. But there's more to the enjoyment than just morbid curiosity. These sequences are elegantly handled, restrained and well judged, especially the descriptions of a person passing from life into death. Just as compelling are the ways that people behave.

No two deaths are alike, of course, and each of the book's deaths is surprising in ways you couldn’t imagine - sometimes shocking, always moving. You feel like you've been granted a privileged seat at a mysterious transformation, and at the same time the writer accomplishes this without any trace of sentiment or spiritual heavy-handedness. This is a human mystery, and it needs no other trappings. An example is the woman who tells him ‘after half an hour, come in and check that it’s all done’ (I paraphrase from memory – my copy was a Kindle version and I don’t know how to scroll back for the exact text).

Evan eventually finds peace for his problems in a way that is suitably unexpected but satisfying.

Sensitively written, beautifully judged - and haunting.

The Easy Way Out
#NG
#AssistedSuicide
So imagine this. You work in a hospital with terminally ill patients. Would you give them the option to die? Wold you offer them, and their families a way to choose their death now? By taking poison. Before they can no longer physically ask for this because of their illness.
How would you feel? A ministering angel? An angel of death? Or are you saving them from a lingering and painful death?
As a person who has a Living Will whereby I ask not to be resuscitated, I would like to be offered the poison before I am past the stage of no longer being capable of expressing my wishes. But this is clearly an issue on which people hold very strong views. Pro-life stories having the same effect.
As such, you would expect to be gripped by a book talking about this moral dilemma and how the nurse involved in this project felt. But I wasn’t. I tried twice and failed to care. It seemed that the author was more interested in exploring the nurse’s sexual life/habits than the emotional trauma potential of the story-line. This was a shame and left me disappointed.

I just couldn't get into this. The book starts slap bang in the middle of the main character who is an assisted death nurse helping a man to die. It was very sad at first but just seemed to drag on not really going anywhere as a book. It picked up a bit when it goes into the relationship he has with his mother but not a book I enjoyed or would recommend.
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley