Kingdom of Needle and Bone
by Mira Grant
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Dec 31 2018 | Archive Date Jan 01 2019
Talking about this book? Use #KingdomOfNeedleAndBone #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
We live in an age of wonders.
Modern medicine has conquered or contained many of the diseases that used to carry children away before their time, reducing mortality and improving health. Vaccination and treatment are widely available, not held in reserve for the chosen few. There are still monsters left to fight, but the old ones, the simple ones, trouble us no more.
Or so we thought. For with the reduction in danger comes the erosion of memory, as pandemics fade from memory into story into fairy tale. Those old diseases can’t have been so bad, people say, or we wouldn’t be here to talk about them. They don’t matter. They’re never coming back.
How wrong we could be.
It begins with a fever. By the time the spots appear, it’s too late: Morris’s disease is loose on the world, and the bodies of the dead begin to pile high in the streets. When its terrible side consequences for the survivors become clear, something must be done, or the dying will never stop. For Dr. Isabella Gauley, whose niece was the first confirmed victim, the route forward is neither clear nor strictly ethical, but it may be the only way to save a world already in crisis. It may be the only way to atone for her part in everything that’s happened.
She will never be forgiven, not by herself, and not by anyone else. But she can, perhaps, do the right thing.
We live in an age of monsters.
Advance Praise
Booklist (Starred Review):
“Thrilling and chilling, this all too plausible novella is less science fiction and more a nightmarish extrapolation of current medical trends.”
Publishers Weekly:
“[Grant] brings an infectious new horror to life in this terse novella… Terrifyingly foreboding, peppered with news releases and sections of testimonies, this scathing critique of the anti-vaccination movement hints at a dark future ahead. Readers will be pulled along even as they try to look away.”
Kirkus Reviews:
“The pseudonymous Grant (Feedback, 2016, etc.) writes with a lean urgency, taking barbed aim at the anti-vaxxer movement and its surrounding ethics while bolstering her potent cautionary tale with enough scientific factoids to make the whole rolling disaster terrifyingly plausible. Readers will be simultaneously relieved and disappointed when the novella ends, but as Grant makes perfectly clear, this is a fight that is never truly over. A thoughtful nightmare for uncertain times.”
Locus:
“It’s a strong story, well told… The story is dark, and there’s a very strong undertone of examining the true nature of the Hippocratic Oath (‘First, do no harm’) in a world with eight billion people in it. Is letting some people die doing harm?”
Library Journal:
“This briskly plotted novella takes a hard and horror-filled look at the vaccination debate, letting readers see a path to the future. Grant (“Newsflesh” series) dives into science and ethics, creating a story that lingers long after the last page is turned.”
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781596068711 |
| PRICE | $40.00 (USD) |
Links
Featured Reviews
Lena L, Reviewer
“That’s the thing about monsters, Angie,” said Izzy, lowering the gun. “It takes one to know one.”
Oh My God Mira Grant!
You gave me chills and they’re multiplying. But I’m smiling through my palpitations because this story was an outstanding medical doomsday drama with a hopeful ending.
And a twist the black heart of me enjoyed!
Thanks again Karen, there’s a reason I have shelf named after you!
Alysa H, Reviewer
A chilling indictment of the antivax movement, built on a fairly realistic sci-fi tale of what could happen if antivaxxers are allowed to continue their ignorant proselytizing. The writing is impactful, and the length is just about right for the story being told, although the ending feels rushed and a few extra pages of character work would have helped give a better understanding of certain characters' actions and motivations. 4.5 stars, rounding up. It's a great novella.
Miranda F, Reviewer
I absolutely adore everything Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire writes, but this...THIS, was amazing! I think it may be my favorite of her Mira Grant titles. In Kingdom of Needle and Bone, she takes on the anti-vax community and boy, how does she take them down!
This novella, much like Final Girls and Rolling in the Deep before it (go check those out!), packs a huge emotional punch in a small package. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll just say, Kingdom of Needle and Bone is definitely one to preorder - and fast, since according to SubPress, there are not many left.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
