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graggirl's review against another edition
3.0
I forgot to mark that I finished this book…so then I tried to remember the details. The amount of work that took made me downgrade my rating. This book was compelling and I enjoyed it, but it didn’t stick with me. It was uncanny how many things the author got right about a global pandemic. Reading this as someone in the medical field felt a little more difficult. Covid has imprinted all of us, but those who continued to stress to patients it was real and fight fake news as part of their job have been a little more battered. When I reflected on all the places I heard about this book none of them came from health care workers. So my impression of this book may be colored by that.
brooke_review's review against another edition
3.0
Kimmery Martin’s new novel Doctors and Friends is gaining attention for being a story about a pandemic written before COVID-19 changed life as we knew it. Martin, a former emergency medical doctor, started her story about the fictional artiovirus in 2019, and I imagine she was just as surprised as the rest of us by what happened the following year. Her book Doctors and Friends details the relationships among a group of female doctors set against the backdrop of a global pandemic.
The similarities between Doctors and Friends and the real-life COVID-19 pandemic are staggering. It is almost hard to believe that Doctors and Friends was conceived before the COVID. From quarantine to vaccines, everything that we have been living through over the past few years is contained in this book. For some, it will hit too close to home and be “too much too soon,” but for someone like me who doesn’t mind stories that feel ripped from the headlines, Doctors and Friends was an informative journey into a pandemic told through the eyes of several prominent doctors.
While Doctors and Friends is verifiably eye-opening and affirming, I found that it majorly lacked one thing that I deem necessary for any novel written henceforth about a pandemic - heart. This book seriously lacked that emotional, heart-tugging connection that I believe readers who have now lived through their own pandemic will yearn for. Doctors and Friends is quite the dry, clinical take on a pandemic, and read more as a factual account of the virus’s effect on the world, as opposed to a resounding story of what we all have just lived through.
So depending on what you are looking for in a pandemic-themed novel, Doctors and Friends may or may not appeal to you. Want an educational narrative about what it is like to be a doctor in the midst of a pandemic void of emotion and drama? Then this is the book for you! Want something that will allow you to connect with a character living through a pandemic on a more personal, soul-searching level? Try Jodi Picoult’s Wish You Were Here instead.
The similarities between Doctors and Friends and the real-life COVID-19 pandemic are staggering. It is almost hard to believe that Doctors and Friends was conceived before the COVID. From quarantine to vaccines, everything that we have been living through over the past few years is contained in this book. For some, it will hit too close to home and be “too much too soon,” but for someone like me who doesn’t mind stories that feel ripped from the headlines, Doctors and Friends was an informative journey into a pandemic told through the eyes of several prominent doctors.
While Doctors and Friends is verifiably eye-opening and affirming, I found that it majorly lacked one thing that I deem necessary for any novel written henceforth about a pandemic - heart. This book seriously lacked that emotional, heart-tugging connection that I believe readers who have now lived through their own pandemic will yearn for. Doctors and Friends is quite the dry, clinical take on a pandemic, and read more as a factual account of the virus’s effect on the world, as opposed to a resounding story of what we all have just lived through.
So depending on what you are looking for in a pandemic-themed novel, Doctors and Friends may or may not appeal to you. Want an educational narrative about what it is like to be a doctor in the midst of a pandemic void of emotion and drama? Then this is the book for you! Want something that will allow you to connect with a character living through a pandemic on a more personal, soul-searching level? Try Jodi Picoult’s Wish You Were Here instead.
mindfullibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating, eerily close to COVID but most definitely not COVID. Martin’s work is always deep into the actual medical side of her stories and I so appreciate that.
mostdefinitelystephanie's review against another edition
emotional
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
This took a while for me to really get into but once I hit part three, I couldn't put it down. I got bogged down by all the characters and different POVs. Many tears were shed, it was almost too real at times considering the proximity to the worst of the COVID pandemic. My favorite line was "You go to war with the army you have." So many times I wanted to reach into my imagination and hug the characters.
Other thoughts: as soon as I saw the president's name was President Corbett I wondered if it was after Dr Kizzy Corbett. I was delighted to find out in the acknowledgements that it is. She would make an amazing president someday. The very last line of the acknowledgements is the best. "And finally, to COVID: F*** you." 👏
Other thoughts: as soon as I saw the president's name was President Corbett I wondered if it was after Dr Kizzy Corbett. I was delighted to find out in the acknowledgements that it is. She would make an amazing president someday. The very last line of the acknowledgements is the best. "And finally, to COVID: F*** you." 👏
lexbian's review against another edition
just can’t read books about pandemics anymore
ghartke's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
fromsarahsbooknook's review against another edition
5.0
The first thing I’m going to say — which I hope would be obvious — is that before diving into this book, you need to know if you are ready for some serious pandemic related content or not.
Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not, but I will say there is some sort of comfort and solidarity spending time with these characters. There are moments I read books or watch shows that take place in current day, but a parallel current day without the Covid-19 pandemic, and I want to shake someone and say, “but don’t you know what we’ve been through?!” Lemme tell you, these doctors know what we’ve been through.
Sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not, but I will say there is some sort of comfort and solidarity spending time with these characters. There are moments I read books or watch shows that take place in current day, but a parallel current day without the Covid-19 pandemic, and I want to shake someone and say, “but don’t you know what we’ve been through?!” Lemme tell you, these doctors know what we’ve been through.
jagrimm's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0