Most of the apocalyptic fiction that I have read leans towards the zombie genre or struggling with the day-to-day survival. This book focuses on a nebulous time period between the initial outbreak and looking at the world and how it has changed.
The book follows a doctor who is struggling with the death of her niece who ended up being patient zero in a rabid new virus. The characters are well built, and the story approaches an outbreak in a way I haven't read before.
I really enjoyed this book for the frank discussions of how these things spread and why herd immunity is necessary. The book does not try to hide its politics and was clearly inspired by the recent outbreaks of a number of diseases thought to be controlled in North America. It could come off as a little bit heavy handed at times, but the story and the way everything unfolds was still incredibly enjoyable.

<img src="https://www.npr.org/assets/img/2014/01/24/outbreaksvaccineLoop.gif"/>
thanks, assholes!

for some reason, the synopsis for this one didn’t excite me - no zombies, no sentient tapeworms, no killer mermaids, just a faceless, familiar threat: regular old <i>disease</i>. i didn’t grab the novella right away on netgalley, but when i finally did commit to it, i realized how stupid i had been, and i was like YOU DUMMY, THIS IS MIRA GRANT!!!!

because one of the best things <i>about</i> her books has always been the amount of medical detail, and how convincing, how chillingly <i>plausible</i> those facts have made her stories seem.

so horrific, so credible.

so, yeah, this is “just” about disease. it is “just” about what could happen if the anti-vaxxers keep pushing medical information into the world that is much less convincing than what supports mira grant’s “this is how we could have zombies” speculation. and in this case, “just” becomes so much more pants-shittingly terrifying than any creature-based horror tale could. because the truth is, with enough misinformed douchebags out there, we could be totally wiped out.

and misinformed douchebags with the power to wipe us all out is something i have already learned to fear way more than killer mermaids.

i would love to see this developed into a longer series, the way her novella [book:Rolling in the Deep|23634011] eventually led to more more more. dr. gauley is wonderfully flawed in that way very specific to mira grant, particularly her dr./mad scientist characters, and she could easily carry a series, with brooke and sandy and mark rounding out her quirky and meticulously diverse team of pals and colleagues.

i’m glad i was able to read this, and i’m glad mira grant is such a powerhouse of productivity, because knowing her, if she wanted to, she could have a trilogy set in this world written in 2-3 months, tops. and it would be magnificent.

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thank you, netgalley! review TK.

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another $40 novella from subterranean that i am too poor to justify buying.

https://subterraneanpress.com/slider-tabs/just-announced/kingdom-of-needle-and-bone

someone buy it and read it to me over the phone!

Lisa Morris, age 8, is Patient Zero in this novella's unflinching look into a new pandemic of a mutated strain of measles, afterward known as Morris's disease. She feels unwell but doesn't want to miss a day at the amusement park by telling her parents she feels ill. After her day at the park, she travels back from Florida with her parents, spreading infection like wildfire. Shortly after arriving home, Lisa dies. The virus, however, doesn't die with Lisa.

As with any unchecked infectious disease, Morris's disease, or measles encephalitis, spread quickly in the days that followed. Even more terrifying is what came after: "the strange forgetfulness of the human immune system following exposure". If the death toll from the initial wave of Morris's disease wasn't high enough, then came Whooping cough, and then an outbreak of Mumps, and it continued.

"A person who survived measles who lose some measure of their preexisting immunity to other diseases, whether that immunity has been aquired through natural or manmade means.By waltzing across the world, Morris had, effectively, rendered the entire population unvaccinated, and now the terrible consequences of that reality were being revealed."

Now you would think that the remainder of the novella might concentrate on a brave scientist finding the cure or of the doctors and nurses resulting struggle against the disease, or even a post-apocalyptic survivors tale. But this story takes a different turn. The rest of the narrative belongs to pediatrician and former virologist, Dr. Isabella Gauley, Lisa's aunt. There's no hero bringing light to the darkness here. Just a woman who is willing to do whatever it takes, good or bad, to save even a fraction of humanity. A woman who may have dark secrets of her own.

Kingdom of Needle and Bone takes an uncompromising stance against the anti-vaccination movement and the concrete need for herd immunity. It also touches on bodily autonomy and it's legal ramifications.

The terrifying reality is this: Kingdom of Needle and Bone's scenario is one that could truly happen. In fact, it has. We only need to look into our past to find the existence of other such instances. The bubonic plague wiped out 75-200 million people in the 1300's. Cholera, 1 million people in the 1850's. Asian flu, 2 million, in the 1950's. AIDS/HIV, 36 million.

Sometimes the scariest fiction is the one that isn't so far off the truth.

This excellent novella, about a pandemic of a particularly nasty mutated strain of measles, highlights the dangers of the anti-vaccination ideology and the loss of herd immunity. Various characters' responses to this scenario feel depressingly realistic. It's a novella about survival and what people are willing to give up--or refuse to give up--in order to ensure that survival. As such, it brings up fascinating questions of where bodily autonomy begins and ends.

I do wish this had been a full-length novel, in order to flesh out certain aspects of the plot. Even so, this novella was exactly as interesting and thoughtful as I would expect of this author.

Kingdom of Needle and Bone
Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant
Kingdom of Needle and Bone
by Mira Grant

M 50x66
Lou Jacobs's review
Aug 06, 2018 · edit

really liked it

A harrowing glimpse into the possible world of consequences of expansion of the anti-vaccination movement that plagues are society. The memory and consequences of the multiple childhood diseases has faded from our collective mind. The end result will be loss of herd immunity in our society.
This tale starts with the feverish child LisaMorris not wanting to miss her last day for a chance to ride the roller coaster. Events quickly spiral out of control as she unknowingly infects hundreds of unsuspecting adults and children with her virus particles. Without herd immunity being strong enough an epidemic ravages the US and then the world ... giving rise to the Morris Disease ... an apparent mutation from the common childhood disease measles. Unfortunately the disease also renders the individual virtually immunosuppressed. The fate and success of future generations is left in the hands of Lisa's aunt, Dr Isabella Gauley ... noted pediatrician and previous virology researcher.
Thanks to Netgalley and SubTerranean Press for providing this wonderful novella in exchange for an honest review. @SubPress

3.5/5 stars.

This isn't the story of the virologists searching for a cure as their time runs out. This isn't the story of a brave hero in a post-apocalyptic society. This is the story of one very flawed woman and the things she'll do--good and bad--to help save part of humanity, and it's also the story of three sisters and their family.

Morris’s disease is a variant of the measles and it kills 1 out of every 3 it strikes, including pediatrician Dr. Isabella Gauley's niece Lisa Morris. When Isabella's mother Brooke brings an important discovery about Morris's to Isabella they hatch a plan to isolate and protect people haven't been exposed to Morris's and also those who can't be vaccinated. They keep this plan secret from their activist sister Angela who campaigns for mandatory vaccinations, a campaign that's been twisted to anti-abortion lobbyists to dispense with legal notions of bodily autonomy.

1/2 star off my rating because this novella had a lot going on and not enough space to show it all. There are moments, especially near the end, when I would have felt far more strongly about events if I knew these characters better. I really liked the details, especially what I mentioned above about the political landscape post-Morris's, but I didn't have enough time to enjoy them.