The Herd, the thought-provoking and unputdownable must-read book club novel of 2022, Emily Edwards

The Herd: the thought-provoking and unputdownable must-read book club novel of 2022 by [Emily Edwards]

Genre: General Fiction, Romance

Well, wow. What a read. Did I like the characters? Not really, but empathise with them – oh yes, both sides. As parents the vast majority just what to do what they believe is right for their children, and sadly nothing in life is 100% risk free. We assess and make out choices as best we can.
I've always been very pro-vaccine, I'm of the age when I remember the threat of polio and the awful consequences. My younger brother had whooping cough, and it left him very frail. He died at just five after what should have been a routine operation. Vaccines preventing those kind of tragedies seemed like a godsend. I was also one of the first groups to have the German measles vaccine at 13, later proved such a gift when I was pregnant and my youngest child caught it. My poor doctor was so relieved when he knew I was vaccinated.

So I'm very pro-vaccine, and yet I've always been very Liberalist, very pro-choice. 1999, the year the ( later proved very flawed) Wakefield study came out was the year my eldest grandchild was born. Faced with a respected doctor saying the vaccines could cause serious harm, more harm than the vaccine, it made me think and reassess my stance. Ultimately after much reading and talking to GP, discussing with me the pros and cons my daughter decided to have him vaccinated. It wasn't an easy decision though, certainly not as easy as my decision to have my children vaccinated. That study did – and still does – so much harm.
Add in I'm reading this in Jan 2022, Covid times, when we're encouraged to have vaccines yet there are so many people who claim to believe in any number of different conspiracy theories. The death toll here in the UK is staggering, and for me far outweighs the "data" provided by the anti vaccines groups, that mostly consist of social media and YouTube videos. Much of it has been disproved but still people believe it. Some, such Gov control, simply isn't possible to disprove, and of course that convinces those looking for a reason not to vaccinate. We see in the book many of those theories repeated, so much of the "vaccine dangers" repeated with supposed proof. When a parent has what seems like a healthy child who develops an illness, a disorder of some sort its easy and human nature to look for a cause. Unfortunately many of those things develop at just the age children are having vaccines so its easy to make a link, whether its correct of not. I've done it with my brother, assuming his frailty was caused by whooping cough, when he may just have been born that way but those first few months took time to show he was different.

So here I am reading a book, full of things I've thought about, seen others consider, and reading it through the eyes of two best friends with very opposite views. No one ever thinks the awful consequences of not vaccinating will actually happen.
Its gripping reading, very relatable, very heart-rending on both sides. How do you ever recover from something like that. Is there ever a right or wrong answer?
Of course there's the twist at the end too, something ( the twist) I thought would be coming as its such a well written novel, and yet was completely taken by surprise at what it was.
Its hard to believe this is Emily's debut adult novel, it's so well written, made me feel part of the story. Even now after finishing I'm thinking "what if" and I felt so saddened for all the people involved. There really is no easy, "right" answer and The Herd shows this all play out in a very realistic situation. I could see events unfolding exactly as Emily has written.
Its a real insight into not just people's beliefs, but why they are that way, why they feel as they do. Once more it brings home the fact that most parents choose what they honestly believe is the best thing for their families. Every choice carries risk though.....

Stars: Five, an amazing read. One that kept me riveted, made me ask myself so many questions "in their position what would I do?"

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

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