Catholic Book Review: Death Panels by Michelle Buckman

Death Panels: A Novel of Life, Liberty and Faith
by Michelle Buckman
St. Benedict Press, 2010

Reviewed by Sarah Reinhard

Brace yourself before you pick this book up. It’s not light reading, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to already recommending it to everyone I know.

Death Panels builds a world that my children could live in, a world that’s not so far from possible. It takes the most dangerous and difficult issues of our time to a viable conclusion, one that’s painful and horrifying.

And yet, Death Panels cannot be compared to other apocryphal works, because it doesn’t give up on human life, but rather shows that, in the midst of the darkest hour I could imagine for my children’s future, there is hope.

Buckman’s story leaves the reader wounded and motivated, changed and even renewed. It causes us to look at ourselves and consider just what we’re doing to stop – or continue – the dangerous trends of our time.

Here’s a book that turns our times, our cultural ideals, our basic assumptions, on their collective head. Here’s a book that exposes politics for the wrangling it is and points to another way. Here’s a look at what religious suppression could look like…sooner rather than later.

Death Panels is a must-read and certain to be a classic. Instead of scaring us into action, it shows us that, despite human failure, Truth can triumph.

Order Death Panels: A Novel of Life, Liberty and Faith and support CatholicMom.com with your purchase