A review by simonlorden
Kingdom of Needle and Bone by Mira Grant

4.0

Drinking game: drink every time they say "herd immunity". (it's just a funny phrase, okay? i know it's serious stuff.)

After the spread of anti-vax ideology damages America's herd immunity, a new virus appears and kills millions, leaving the survivors immunocompromised. A doctor called Isabel Gauley starts gathering those who have not been infected to quarantine them on private islands, where they can wait and live (potentially for decades) until a cure is found and they can return to society.

It's a very ethically ambiguous story, especially with the twist at the end, which is wow.

It is also very very American, because Europe has had mandatory vaccinations for certain illnesses for like, forever. Unfortunately, like control, many Americans believe mandatory vaccinations are the work of the Devil. (If the shoe doesn't fit, don't wear it - I know not all Americans think this, but enough that mandatory vaccines would be met with riots.)

For the life of me I don't understand Angela's logic, and even some of Isabel's, since she seems to be against mandatory vaccination at first then has a much more reasonable view later. But it's a complicated topic.