Kingdom of Needle and Bone

I suspect this will prove to be a marmite of a book: people will love it or hate it. I definitely don't hate it, but I'm not quite sure I love it either.

This is not the fault of the author. This book is typical Mira Grant--well researched, thought out, and written. The POV here is omniscient, an unusual choice for this kind of book (previous Grant books have been first- or tight third-person narratives), but the reason why becomes apparent at the end. What's also apparent from the get-go is the author's dislike (to put it mildly) of the anti-vaxx crowd, and the reader soon realizes this is a thought experiment of what could happen if they get their way.

To go along with this, there are a lot of medical ethics conundrums in this book. In show more particular, the bodily autonomy argument as used by anti-vaxxers (co-opted from the anti-choice movement) is one I've never thought of before. (Is this argument a thing in the real world?) This becomes the central theme of the book, and is what leads our protagonist--more of an anti-hero, in this case--to do what she does. This is made clear in the creepy, abrupt ending, which reverses everything the reader has previously comprehended about Dr. Isabella Gauley and her story. The ending is not pleasant, but it has stuck in my mind for days.

I think this story is crying out for a full novel. I hope the response to this novella is such that Mira Grant decides to write it. show less

Well jeepers, it's like Mira/Seanan is a soothsayer or something.

A pretty gripping novella that, given what 2020 as brought the world, felt darkly real. I loved how the spread of the disease was described in such a simple and clinical way. I was nodding in parts as these were the same kinds of explanations we have heard during our daily televised government COVID updates. A really thought provoking discussion about vaccination with a jaw dropping ending.

I think I need to find a remote island for me and my loved ones to live on so we can stay safely isolated...wait...I live in NZ. Phew. I'm sorted.

I hope everyone and their loved ones are keeping well. Kia Kaha!

Had she been older than eight, she might have understood that the kind of unwell she was feeling wasn’t normal, wasn’t sunstroke, wasn’t something she should hide. Had she been younger than eight, she might have gone whining to her mother before she realized that she ran the risk of cancelling the day’s adventure. Had she been any other age, she would still have died, but she might not have taken quite so many people with her.

Let me say this up front before I start pondering things: This is a lot of fun. (People dropping dead all over the place and science wrecking the earth kind of fun.) I super enjoyed it. Four stars loved it rollicking good read. (With a huge content warning for on screen child death.) I want to get that out show more there because this book also gives me a lot of thinky thoughts that I want to unpack a bit and it might sound like I don't absolutely love it. I do love it.

Do I wish I had gotten this read before Covid? I'm not sure. On the one hand, my mind cannot stop making comparisons; parts of this book are much more believable than they would have felt to me before, but other parts much less so. (Not that Covid-19 has been anything like Morris Disease would be, with its soon to be 3 million deaths against Morris' 30 million in the opening salvo.) On the other hand, I know I hated "Laughter at the Academy" pretty much on sight (the story, not the anthology, which might be perhaps be the glimmer of this longer tale), but I really enjoyed this. Dr. Gauley has the presence and the pathos to make this work, and I would have gladly stayed with her for a longer story. I do wish this had been longer. The science is complicated and the politics are complicated and the consequences are complicated, and the author does her best to cram it all into this scant hundred pages. The ending scores a solid hit, but with more room to breathe it would have been an absolute devastation. (Do I like my books to devastate me? Yes, yes I do.) The politics here are much more fascinating than they appear at first glance due spoilery things I shall not mention, and I wish they had had a whole novel to unfold in because I think a lot of the preachy feeling would have vanished if there had been, again, room to breathe. (I hope Covid has made plain to everyone that you can't really talk about nations' responses to deadly pandemics without addressing the political aspects, but who knows.) That said, I am endlessly grateful to Subterranean Press for continuing to give Mira Grant an outlet for her fictions, since it's obvious that Orbit isn't really giving her the support she deserves, and if the shortened form is part and parcel of that deal, well OK then.

The one thing I will say, that is a your mileage may vary thing, but which I think is fair as a reader, is that I do sometimes wish Grant/McGuire's omniscient narrator voice were not quite so inclined to jump to conclusions. The tendency to make deus ex machina moral pronouncements on the events as they unfold is a narrative tic I could really do without. So also the tendency to use children's thoughts in the same way. Not because I object to my authors having politics in the least (whether I share them or no) or because I disagree (I agree so hard in this particular case), but because they break the suspension of disbelief immediately and totally. Here I am, trying to get into the opening pages of a book and suddenly I have to deal with eight year olds who have opinions on the antivax movement because of their flu shots? I'm getting old and it's been a while, but my peers and I did not have such discussions, and I was the kind of kid who got into arguments about presidential elections on the playground at that age. Sometimes I just want to sit my author down and say (gently, lovingly) "your experiences are not universal." Beyond that, the story does the work. This story absolutely does the work. There's no reason for the chiding. This probably wouldn't be so heavily on my mind if I hadn't read pretty much all of her novellas in the last two weeks. So maybe it's just me. (Thanks for letting me vent, Goodreads!)

Anyway. Good book. Ignore my ranting. If you like medical thrillers or apocalyptic fiction or medical thrillers that are apocalyptic fiction, you will love it. As always with Grant's Subterranean Press books, hard copies are now unobtainium, but the ebook is available and well worth getting hold of. show less

An interesting take on the vaccine/no vaccines debate. What happens when compromised herd immunity opens the door to a new form of measles that has devastating effects on the survivors? Those who are unaffected try desperately to remain quarantined. I don't want to give too much away, but it is so easy to see how some of the uglier behavior in this book could happen. I love Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) and the attention to detail she gives to the science in her horror stories. A great way to start to 2019!

And my reading year starts with a clear and loud: meeeeeh

It's difficult having favorite authors because with each book you wish to read something specific from them. So when blunders happen, you just have to deal. Like George Martin writing mild dragon porn but dying without ever finishing that ASoIaF series, Neil Gaiman writing garbage with atrocious titles like "Trigger Warning lulz you special snowflakes" and Mira Grant living her "I think about science, like a lot, would you care to see my worm collection and years of research about germs and shit, no I mean literal shit buddy" life without gracing us with another installment of the most wonderful series ever created, you know, that other one with the killer mermaids.

So you get to show more learn how to deal with your expectations, pretending you're an adult because good god you're 30 already and this is just a facking book and read something less than the best from an author you know like the back of your hand and you pretend to enjoy it and not wish for it suddenly to include killer mermaids, no really, you're fine with the flu and the disjointed chapters and Mira explaining everything in excruciating detail except for the parts she wants to use as a cliffhanger later on. And you know this, but you keep reading pretending you haven't realized that this is a short prelude to another series you can only hope will not resemble the tragedy that was the parasitology series, and you like Mira cause she's awesome and a cool nerd and writes nice gore and is an all-around rad feminist lady and her cats are the cutest and her patreon and twitter posts give you life so...so you try.

Well I tried. Thank you, I don't want a cookie, I want a new installment in the killer mermaid series pretty please I promise I'll stop shitposting on goodreads please just no more cray-cray science ladies and buttholes please. show less

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 show more 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. show less

Lisa Morris, Patient Zero, is only eight years old when she contracts a mutated and vicious form of measles, infects hundreds of other people while visiting Disney World, and dies. The disease races across the planet, killing millions, because “the virus always spreads.”

Lisa’s Aunt Isabella, a pediatrician who feels guilty about Lisa’s death, goes on a crusade to protect those who haven’t yet been exposed to the virus. Her pediatric clinic is targeted by anti-vaxxers, but she continues to champion — and try to explain — herd immunity. Then her youngest sister discovers something even more terrifying than the obvious initial effects of the new virus, making Isabella change course and launch an elaborate plan that may not be show more entirely ethical but just may save the human race.

Mira Grant’s novella Kingdom of Needle and Bone (2018) asks some interesting questions. What would happen if the human race lost its herd immunity and was in danger of being exterminated by mutating viruses? And if that happened, what would be required to get that immunity back again? And how could we do this without revoking each person’s autonomy over their own body? Grant shows us that these are not easy questions, that people will have different views, and that ethical lines may need to be crossed.

Unfortunately, much of the novella reads like an angry tirade against anti-vaxxers. Grant gives us numerous lectures about herd immunity, while also laying out the philosophical arguments in favor of bodily autonomy. Grant also throws in a few swipes at those who claim that their religious beliefs bar vaccinations, without explaining the religious concerns. Generally, Grant discusses interesting ideas, but sometimes makes them difficult to evaluate because they are delivered by unpleasant characters who are more interested in beating down their opponents than having thoughtful discourse.

In fact, that’s the problem with the entire novella — it is like a brick to the head and is more likely to offend than persuade. We are avid supporters of Grant’s purpose here — to persuade people to vaccinate their children — but when characterization and description take a back-seat to the agenda, it’s hard to view this novella as much more than a piece of propaganda, and that isn’t going to help the cause.

There’s a surprising (but not completely unforeseen) twist at the end of Kingdom of Needle and Bone. There must be a sequel coming and, though there were things we didn’t like about this story, we’d both like to know what happens next.

Kat listened to the Tantor Audio’s edition of Kingdom of Needle and Bone which is 3 hours long. Cris Dukehart, the narrator, does a nice job.

Originally published at http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/kingdom-of-needle-and-bone/ show less