Cover Image: I've Seen the End of You

I've Seen the End of You

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Member Reviews

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for this advanced readers copy. This book, however did not hold my attention and I found myself not wanting to pick it up to read it

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Warren, a Neurological Surgeon, brings together bits and pieces of stories regarding his patients, along with his own personal struggles.

Many of the patients in this book face a rare cancerous tumor which develops in the brain. Glioblastomas come with a hopeless prognosis. Yet, many people continue to have faith and turn to prayer.

Dr. Warren, who is also a Christian, believes strongly in prayer as well. But he faces some conflicting thoughts, since he deals with death and statistics daily. He knows God can heal, but when he realizes the outcome of cancer, especially glioblastoma, he struggles with the reality and faith.

While I’m a person who could never work in the health care industry, I’ve always been fascinated by it, and love the chance to learn. This book may not appeal to all, but I loved it. And honestly, I can’t imagine it not appealing to most.

Each patient’s story is told in quite a bit of detail, complete with lots of medical jargon. But I enjoyed the learning aspect. Yet, more important than medical information, were the stories of struggles. How each patient and the doctor deals with the possibility of death. Some are spared for a time, some taken.

The patient stories were very enlightening. As well as Warren’s faith and struggles. No doubt struggles most of us have faced. But there are also thoughts given by Warren that we may not have considered.

Warren includes many interesting things that have molded him into the physician he is. One being that he follows through with not only medical care of his patients, but emotional. He also involves his wife in his concerns and they pray together.

But he still deals with self-doubt and lack of understanding at times. There are prayers answered, but not in the way Warren had expected. I’m thinking of one family who experienced the death of a loved one during a very routine surgery (if there can ever be a surgery considered routine). Later the family met with him and shared some enlightening information.

This is an engaging memoir and the writing is captivating. According to Dr. Warren, he hopes the book will help people through their journey of prayer, faith, doubt, and loss.

I know it has me.

My thanks to #NetGalley and #Waterbrook for the ARC of #IveSeenTheEndOfYou This book review is only my opinion.

What Concerned Me
Fair warning to the squeamish (description of operations) or those who get depressed easily. The patient’s stories can be sad, of course, yet there is an uplifting quality that far outweighs the grief and sadness.

What I Liked Most
Faith and prayer can be extremely confusing. Through examples, Warren gives his thoughts regarding these issues.

Excellent lessons and thoughts to consider. It may not be for everyone but read other reviews. Then decide.

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I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Heartbreaking memoir about a physician, his military career, his subsequent practice, and the death of his beloved son. His story is inspirational, and his commitment to Christianity is admirable.

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** spoiler alert ** W. Lee Warren is a neurosurgeon, and a very good one. A man who has saved thousands of lives and one, who due to the nature of the work he does, routinely battles one of the most deadly brain cancers known to man, Glioblastoma Multiforme. 100 % fatal. GBM kills, all the time.

He is also a Christian who believes in the supreme power of God and of His faithfulness to His children. Dr. Warren arises early each day to pray and study scriptures, prays often with his wife and children, and always prays for and sometimes with his patients and their families.

In this memoir, open, raw, gritty, heartwarming and heartbreaking, we are privy to Dr. Warren's struggles with trying to reconcile what he believes through his faith and what he knows as a scientist. God is good all the time vs GBM kills all the time. We see his pain, his doubts, his longing to believe unquestionably, unwaveringly. His desire to give his patients hope when, scientifically, he knows there is none. What a tough, tough job!

In the course of the book, the reader comes to know several of Warren's GBM patients, and hears and sees the interactions Dr. Warren has with his patients and their families. We learn that patients who believe in a power greater than themselves tend to do better medically during the course of their disease than those who don't, even though the outcome might be the same. We see how different people and families deal with this horrible diagnosis and the disease; one which can give hope through brief respites at times, and then come back, bigger, bolder, deadlier than ever. We see how God can use this circumstance to change people, and how seeming coincidences uncovered the GBM, so that surgery could buy a patient and family a bit more time together.

I admire Dr. Warren, as a good and decent man, and as a neurologist. His job is not an easy one. He could easily wall himself off to protect himself from the pain that dealing with GBM on a routine basis must cause, but he doesn't. He is there for his patients with his skills, and with his human warmth. At times when things must be said and understood and plans made, at times when there are no words.

My older brother died of a GBM. I only wish, we had had someone like Dr. Warren with us during his fight against, and ultimate loss to this disease. It would have been such a comfort!

I highly recommend this book for several reasons - first, so people understand that God accepts doubt and pain; that God doesn't lie; that He is with us always in whatever the circumstance, comforting us, perhaps even helping us to grow. Second, because it shows the true impact on the doctors of dealing with not only with using their skills and knowledge against the diseases they fight, but with trying to provide to us all the other things we look to them for - hope, understanding, comfort, help.

Many thanks to Dr. Warren for writing this book, and to NetGalley and Waterbrook for allowing me to read an ARC of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

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Thank you to WaterBrook & Multnomah, and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very personal look at life - and the end of life - by a neurosurgeon. Many of the patients he deals with, and whose stories he tells, are afflicted with a particularly virulent type of brain cancer and the title refers to the almost foregone conclusion he reaches when he is confronted with evidence of the disease when setting his diagnosis.

The descriptions of testing, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease are fascinating. The author's struggle with faith, not so much. Although I can understand and accept that the author is grappling with questions that are existential for him, and his personal belief in God, I found the constant references to his faith too preachy. I also felt it could have done with a bit more stringent editing, in parts the author kept circling and repeating himself, rather than getting to the point.

However, regardless of where we stand spiritually, this book reminds us that no one is immortal, and that the end is sometimes much sooner than we would like.

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I'VE SEEN THE END OF YOU: A NEUROSURGEON'S LOOK AT FAITH,, DOUBT, AND THE THINMGS WE THINK WE KNOW.
BY W LEE WARREN

THIS NON FICTION ACCOUNT HAD SOME VERY INTERESTING INSIGHTS INTO HOW PEOPLE DIFFER IN THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS GOD, IF IN FACT THEY BELIEVE IN HIM, HOW SOME PEOPLE GRAPPLE WITH FAITH OR DOUBT WHEN FACING DEATH THEMSELVES OR THAT OF A LOVED ONE. W. LEE WARREN IS A NEUROSURGEON WHO FOR MOST OF THIS BOOK TALKS ABOUT DIFFERENT CASES HE HAS TREATED HIS PATIENTS WITH GLIOBLASTOMA MULTIFORME, WHICH IS A BRAIN TUMOR THAT HAS A FATALITY RATE OF ALMOST 100 PERCENT. HIM AND HIS SECOND WIFE HAD THEIR OWN MEDICAL PRACTICE , BUT MOST OF THE CASES HE WOULD OPERATE ON FROM THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT AND MOST OF THE CASE HISTORIES HE RECOUNTS IS GETTING CALLED IN EITHER BY A COLLEAGUE AND THE PATIENT WOULD HAVE A GLIOBLASTOMA MULTIFORME. THIS DOCTOR WHO IS TRAINED IN MEDICINE BY THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD SEEMED TO BELIEVE IN GOD BECAUSE HE WOULD PRAY WITH SOME OF HIS PATIENTS. HE WOULD ALSO OFTEN THINK TO HIMSELF THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK, "I'VE SEEN THE END OF YOU.

THIS DOCTOR WOULD LOOK AT HIS PATIENTS BRAIN SCANS FROM MRI'S AND VIEW THE GLIOBLASTOMA AND HE KNEW AFTER REMOVING IT THAT IT WOULD GROW BACK AND THAT IS WHEN HE WOULD SAY TO HIMSELF, I'VE SEEN THE END OF YOU. FOR MOST OF THE BOOK WHICH WAS WRITTEN IN SHORT CHAPTERS WITH QUOTES FROM FAMOUS PHILOSOPHERS OR BIBLICAL VERSES IT WAS FASCINATING BUT SAD TO READ ABOUT HIS PATIENTS DYING. WHEN THIS DOCTOR HAS A LIFE CHANGING EVENT---ONE THAT IS EVERY PARENTS WORSE NIGHTMARE HE STRUGGLES WITH HIS FAITH AND HE WRITES ABOUT HIS STRUGGLES HONESTLY.. IN THE END THIS BOOK WAS INSPIRING AND I AM GLAD THAT I READ IT. IT CAME DURING A GOOD TIME IN MY LIFE SO I AM DEFINITELY GOING TO READ IT AGAIN. THOSE WHO ARE AGNOSTIC OR DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD PROBABLY WOULDN'T LIKE IT. FOR THOSE WHO DO BELIEVE IN GOD OR UNSURE WOULD FIND THIS IS ACCESSIBLE READING AND INTERESTING.

Thank you to Net Galley, W Lee Warren and Waterbrook of Penguin Random House for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

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I've Seen the End of You is a very challenging read, as the author, a neurosurgeon, wrestles with his Christian faith as he diagnoses and treats patients, most of whom in the book face glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). GBMs are uniformly fatal, and fatal quickly. Reading about his patients was incredibly difficult. It's a good memoir, but be prepared for feeling both lucky and nervous.

ARC provided by NetGalley, opinions in my review are my own.

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Wow. This book is so wonderfully crafted. Dr. Warren takes you through his faith journey by way of a series of neurosurgeries in part one. It makes you want to laugh and cry. You get to know a variety of people that Dr. Warren worked with, and each mini-lesson has so much depth.
In Part 2 he experiences a family crisis that the reader (and he) didn’t see coming. It adds a crucial element and in the end he admits how much it really contributes to finally moving forward with the publishing process on this book.
In part 3 and the epilogue it wraps up all the struggles he experienced with faith, that other people experienced, and take away lessons.
The entire book is sprinkled with wisdom; from the Bible, other authors, and life lessons.
If you question faith sometimes, have an interest in neuroscience, or want a great non-fiction read I 100% recommend.

I would’ve read it in less than 24 hours had I not been getting headaches from reading on my phone. (Also don’t recommend headaches when reading about brain tumor/cancer)

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What a wonderful, thought provoking book! It's partly a memoir of a physician and the brain cancers he treats, partly a meditation on faith and how he reconciles his faith with his work. Uplifting and heartbreaking at the same time, it gave me lots to contemplate about what faith really is.

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I don't know why I requested an ARC copy of this book because there are two categories of books that I often avoid: nonfiction and religious genres. I love nonfiction books, but they usually take me a few months to read and I don't enjoy them the way I enjoy reading fiction.

This book took me less than 3 days. I couldn't sleep because I had to read more. And then once I finished reading it, I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it. This book goes over so many topics: outlook on life, faith, loss and grief, anger, and more. I read this book everywhere I had a spare minute so I was basically crying in public for three days. At the gym, at the checkout stand in line, in the parking lot of my son's preschool... this is a sad book, but it is so much more than that.

Dr. W. Lee Warren blends his experience as a combat surgeon, a neurosurgeon, a husband, a father, and a man of faith. As a neurosurgeon, he often has to deal with patients with incurable brain cancer. Much of the book is about his patients- his relationships with them, his sadness and frustration at seeing their brain scans and realizing that he sees their almost inevitable death, and his observations as his patients deal with the news that their time is very limited. Dr. Warren also delves into his own story of personal loss and grief that is heartbreaking and yet hopeful.

This book is suspenseful- in this sense, it was an easy read because I wanted to know what happened next. It was also very thought provoking- we can't know how we would react to the death of a close loved one or the news of terminal cancer unless it happens to us. Yet, this book makes the reader think about it.
Thank you for writing this, Dr. Warren. This is a much needed book and your story, along with the stories of your patients and your family are important.

Highly recommended to anyone, regardless of whether you are a Christian or not. One of the best, if not the best non-fiction book I've read. Thank you Netgalley and Waterbrook for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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This is a great book! It is thoughtful and dares to go beyond the current American culture to avoid facing death, for ourselves or another, at any cost.

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This book made me cry on an airplane! Repeatedly!

Warren’s life story, both personal and professional, and his push and pull between faith and science, was more complex and deep than I’d anticipated. His experiences as a neurosurgeon, in the war, with his divorce and his remarriage, his beloved blended family, and his unimaginable loss all inform his explorations of doubt, resilience, hope, and joy as related to his faith. Watching his up-and-down, sometimes wonderfully messy self-discovery take shape through this book was a beautiful thing. I wondered if his answers would be too easily reached or too pat, but Warren digs deeply into the realities of doubting his faith, God, his life’s work, and his vision of an afterlife.

Warren admits when he’s a mess, and instead of simply telling readers how to find their way out of tragedy and keep going, he shows us the zigzag of a route he himself took, admits that there are many opportunities to feel defeated, and bird that it’s easy to understand doubt and rage and disbelief in the face of enormous pain and tragedy.

There was just a little bit of repetition at times, but I read an ARC, so this has likely changed.

I can think of several people to give this book to immediately upon publication.

I received an advance copy of this book from WaterBrook and Multnomah and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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I had the privilege of reading an Advance copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Never had I read a book that helps our life into perspective. I've Seen the End of You by Dr. W. Lee Warren is a raw and honest look at life through the lens of grief, illness, and faith. This book depicts the battles and struggles that many of us face. Regardless of where we stand spiritually, this book helps us understand that we are more than one experience. Through this eloquently written piece, we are encouraged to zoom out and look at the whole picture of our pain to better understand who we are and what we may be facing.

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Thank you to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of I've Seen the End of You.

This was a wonderfully written memoir by Dr. Warren, a former combat surgeon, Christian, father and husband, and neurosurgeon who grapples with his demanding career and the high mortality rates and a God who would allow such tragedy and devastating illness to exist.

Dr. Warren's faith is tested when he and his family suffer an unimaginable loss, the worst a parent can imagine and struggles to find the light and humanity in his life once again.

I really enjoyed Dr. Warren's memoir; as much as a book about death, disease and war can be enjoyed. But it's also about second chances, miracles and love.

His life changing experiences with some of his patients were among my favorite but it was the compassion, warmth and sincerity in which he writes that really drew me in.

Dr. Warren's love for God shines through in his words; he is never preachy or condescending. He is a man of faith, no matter how much pain and suffering he has seen, and that is what has helped him through his darkest times.

His expertise as a medical professional is made stronger through his belief in God, and the integrity and humanity he brings to his work. He listens to his patients, he hears what they are not saying, and even if this was just a memoir about his experiences as a neurosurgeon, I would have enjoyed reading that as well.

As a spiritual person, I enjoyed Dr. Warren's honest look at how he struggles with his faith in the worst of times. There is nothing wrong with doubt, as he says. As long as you have faith. I agree completely.

Highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. You don't have to be religious to relate to and learn from Dr. Warren's empowering message of hope and faith in times of great suffering and sadness.

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A very sad book involving a terrible cancer and a doctor. Years ago in our area someone published a booklet about the way doctors affected by illness see them and the ways they they are in grade of coping with them. This one is absolutely immense.

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A well-written account of a neurologist's thought processes when dealing with glioblastoma, a type of tumor that has proven itself to be a guaranteed killer. The presentation of the testing, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease is fascinating. The struggle with faith, not so much. If you identify closely with belief in a god, you will most likely appreciate the almost constant references to faith and questioning. Those of us who are avowed atheists will most likely find it tiresome. I know I did. Then again, the book description includes mention of the physician's/author's grappling with his faith. . Just be forewarned that it can get a bit preachy.

No doubt an excellent doctor. An excellent writer as well.

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A wonderfully honest yet sometimes harrowing account from an eminent brain surgeon.
This is an often sad, yet inspirational book, and very well written.
It is impossible to read it without remembering that none of us are immortal.
A great read.

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The science, as utterly painful as it is, fascinates. Where the disease comes from, why it is so tough and implacable. How tough is the responsibility of the doctor in these horrible situations.

Like others, as sympathetic as anyone can be, it is only truly through the experience that a true concept can be understood. This doctor has to experience this.

The God stuff is heavy handed; and while I am thrilled that the doctor has found his way with his faith stuff, and it took away from the other aspects of the story.

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The journey I'm on involves my best friend of thirty-five years, Everyone truly has their own story and ours has involved oncology, cancer, neurology, pain, and loss. Then, there is the reality of trying to find our way. I look for something positive or helpful in all of it. I believe our energy can truly make a difference. It's a difficult journey at times and I appreciate the thoughtful comments and stories within this book.
The details in "I've seen the End of You" clearly awaken the reader to your journey as a army surgeon, a neurosurgeon, a father, and a partner. I appreciate the depth of your memoir, hesitate at times to even turn to the next chapter. Thank you for the energy and strength.

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I read through this book in just a couple of days. I have kind of been on a non-fiction kick and I have been flying through them all, but none like this one. It really resonated with me. It was refreshing to read a book both about someone who can believe in both science AND God and who admits that sometimes his faith waivers. Sometimes it is difficult when we go through hard times and feel like we have to still be this pillar of faith and it is refreshing to see someone say not only is it okay to waiver in those moments, but that it happens throughout the Bible too. It doesn't mean that we give up hope or our faith, it just means it is okay to not understand why something happens or even to not be happy about it, and I think in the end most times that I go through periods like this, in the end my faith in God ends up renewed and even stronger than before. I am thankful to Dr. Warren for such a vunerable look inside of his very difficult profession and personal life. I thought this was an excellent book. I recommend this book to anyone really.

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