Emily Edwards (2)

The Herd is a fiction book on the difficult subject of childhood vaccinations. This is a decision every parent has to make for their child, particularly the MMR vaccine which is the main highlight of this book.
So what if your best friend knows your child needed to be kept safe as they could not have the vaccines due to poor health and then decided to tell a lie about their child’s vaccine status so her child could attend the other child’s party? How would you react? Especially when show more things take a turn for the worse.
This was an interesting and enlightening read. I see and hear about it frequently in real life, especially having three children, should you vaccinate or not, do these vaccines cause problems down the line? It’s all thoughts that go through our minds. I can also understand why people choose not to have them. It is a very personal choice and people should be allowed to make their own decisions.
This would make a good book club read as there is plenty to discuss throughout. show less

"There's risk inherent in every decision we make, everything we do"

This book would be a great selection for a book club as it invites discussion and opinion in our world with Covid.

Elizabeth and Byrony are so very different, opposites in personality yet they have been the best of friends since college. They are godparents to each others children, they get together for dinners, they swap picking up their children from school and are there for each other - thick and thin.

Elizabeth and Jack show more have three children but the focus in this book is on their young daughter Clemmie. She's a vivacious lovely little girl who is best friends with Byrony's daughter Alba. Clemmie had seizures when she was an infant and can not be vaccinated. As Clemmie's birthday party is approaching, Elizabeth, ever the competent and organzied woman she is, sends out an email to the parents attending asking if they and the children have been vaccinated. She adds that a risk to Clemmie's health would mean no further contact with those unvaccinated.

Byrony has a severely autistic older brother. Her mother blames the autism on a vaccine he had as an infant. Therefore, Byrony has never been vaccinated and she has strong feelings about having her daughter Alba getting any immunizations. Her mom is the poster girl for anti-vax by the way. Byrony is not like her mother preaching about it, she quietly endures mom's tirades and keeps that part of her life private from everyone.

One little white lie causes a dramatic shift in the friendships and a devastating health crisis results. The issues for vaccination-or-not are explored in this book but is not unsympathetic or unkind towards those who have fears. I thought this was very well written without being self-righteous from either standpoint.

The ending is a jaw dropper.

This is my third book by this author, the other two were written under the name Emily Elgar.  Love her work. Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

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Timely novel about the currently contentious issue of vaccination. Through a variety of none-too likeable & often irritating characters & social media intrusions, Emily Edwards shows various beliefs sympathetically, whilst putting forward the case for vaccination.

It actually had the effect of prompting me to Google about the discredited research linking MMR to autism, which I found eye-opening.