Disclaimer: I know and have met Kimmery Martin; she lives in the same city as I do and has visited our book club. She. Is. Amazing. I have been anxiously awaiting her new novel after being an early reader for her first two. So you might think I am biased.
You are entitled to your opinion, I am entitled to mine.
My opinion is that this book is even more mature, solid, and definitely heavier in tone than her first two novels. This might be a book about women by a woman, but this is NOT Chick Lit Light. Martin is an ER Doctor by trade, and writes medical fiction based on medical fact with few embellishments. But what she REALLY writes about is people. Women, especially, that happen to also be doctors. Women who are Friends. Doctors and Friends.
See what I did there??
I was so worried for Kimmery with this novel. We knew a while back that she was writing about a pandemic because she knew the world was due for one and it made for an interesting medical based topic. She describes in her very well done Author's Note at the end of the book (don't read it first, it contains spoilers) that this novel began its formation back in 2018 and she began writing it in 2019. Books take a LONG time to get from germination to the hands of the Faithful Readers, y'all. There is a statement before the novel even begins that COVID-19 does not exist in the fictional world the reader is about the enter. I was worried that people would not believe her, that they'd think she was just building on the world's worst pandemic in memory, that she did not have an original idea, that people would not want to read a book about a pandemic, while we are still in a pandemic.
But, in Kimmery fashion, she forged ahead. She does not write about COVID-19, but a different virus. Are there some similarities? To my non-medical mind, sure. But it is different, and it helps to keep remembering that. What I have in my hands now is a fantastic novel. My regret for her is that we will all be reading this through the lens of our own pandemic experiences, and not freshly-naively- unaware of the terminology, horror, loss and yes, trauma that a worldwide pandemic creates.
* There will certainly be triggers for people affected the most by the real pandemic. Maybe give it some time before picking this one up if you have a direct loss from COVID-19. But even then, even with loss, the story here is really about the women's relationship with each other. Talk about being there and holding one another up!!!!!
So, on to the story! Seven very close yet dispersed medical school colleagues (all from her first novel, The Queen of Hearts) have continued their amazing friendships through the years, through marriages and divorces and children and different specialties/careers. Five of them gather for a much needed vacation to Spain. While there, a man mysteriously dies on a ferry. Then a few days later, another, right in front of them, as they try to help. They begin to realize that this could be Very Bad.
Kira, an Infectious Disease doctor, is on the case. But not before several of their own get sick. No one knows what to do, how to treat it, where it came from, or how to stop it. Kira has been dating a scientist who might have a possible treatment - until he too becomes ill. As each woman deals with this life altering event, we get a look into not only Kira's perspective, lovely in first person and making her the "main" character in my mind, but from Hannah's (an OB-Gyn who is ironically infertile) and Compton's as well. I liked the switching around, showing how Compton, an ER doctor who has a tight grip on herself, reacted to her "new normal" and how each doctor had their own worries and stresses but managed to come together to help each other when necessary. Compton has some of the most emotional scenes in the book, and I think even now it is so important that Martin included this harsh reality from an ER Doctor's perspective - how they handled the stress and constant influx and disbelief and illness. It is taxing. I actually felt like I was reading a screenplay - this is set up straight away for a movie. I could seriously hear the music swelling in some places and at the end of chapters. Martin likes to drop short sentence bombs which I luv, in case you hadn't noticed. (I do wish the editors had put dates in at the start of each chapter, rather than how many days since Patient Zero. I had to get my calculator out to figure out how many months that was, and what the time difference was between chapters. But I loved the idea and how each chapter heading included identifying which perspective, when we were in the timeline, and where.) Everything is described so vividly - lots of references like the golden light and time standing still. Several scenes feel like they are in slow motion. Yes, we hear about PPE and masks and respirators. We also hear about strange symptoms that begin to show up months after recovery, and the possibility of a vaccine, and then - one of our doctors has one experimental dose and two sick children. She has to choose.
Cuss.
Martin still manages to take a serious and yes deadly topic and throw in some humor throughout the novel. Georgia, a Urologist with the best, um, male body part jokes, provides most of this humor (she is also the star of Martin's second novel, The Antidote for Everything), but Martin's comments on parenting crack me up. Kira has a teenage daughter that tries her at every turn and even accuses her of having a favorite child, which is her little brother (I feel you, Mama). I actually laughed out loud a few times! Don't miss the acknowledgments, especially the very last one - nailed it!!!!
There is a lot of sadness and emotion here as well, of course. Twice I found myself in tears - not because of a death but because of the deep abiding friendships of these women and how they support each other unequivocally. They are truly THERE for each other. And they are all so so strong in their own ways. The ending does give us a bit of hope as well, and I definitely detect the promise of another novel about these women. (yippeeeeeee!)
I would not call this a downer. It is NOT an apocalyptic story. It is the story of how the world changed, came together, faced loss, and survived. It grabbed me and ravished me and I finished it in 2 days.
I did not find it traumatic, I found it more informative. Yes, it is emotional in places, but I could not put it down, wanting to know what happened to and for every character while also covering my eyes with splayed fingers.
And THAT my friends, is the sign of a very good novel. It was worth it. Read it.
