Final Report

Final Report is a hard-hitting and intense yarn from an author who is new to me. Reading like the best badass fiction, this book will keep you turning pages and wanting a glass of whiskey by the end.

Alec Wayland, a young doctor training to be a psychiatrist takes on Carmen Brown, a misfit young girl of 16 under his wing, who has clearly suffered trauma from within a dysfunctional relationship with her impoverished family.
The setting is a provincial mental hospital. Cara, as she prefers to be called, takes a yen to her carer, sleeping in his quarters and being cooperative only with him. She soon realised that her mentor himself has a troubled past, with the scars to prove it. However, the young doctor is warned not to get too close to Cara, not to breach professional boundaries.
So this is about a therapeutic relationship for both parties, as each learns to be close again, transcending even the doctor/patient contract. Cara is described as being as youthful as her sixteen years should imply, yet also possessing the wisdom of a woman who has maybe lived many times. Shades of Jung's anima.......
It is not clear whether the love between these two is consummated, this possibly exists in either one or the other's imagination.
There is a purity of intent on the part of the writer, but the lack of realism to the general context in which the story takes place, does raise questions. The main character from whom we see these events would surely have been prosecuted for abusing a minor in reality, and would have had much more than a warning for betraying the evident emotional involvement he has for Cara.
These factors do detract from the enjoyment of the story and is a fairly glaring weakness in my opinion, which is a shame, as otherwise the reality of these two damaged individuals is depicted in in satisfyingly gritty terms. There is no fairy-tale ending but ending brings its own closure.