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A review by noveldeelights
The Waiting Rooms by Eve Smith
5.0
Well, now. Where do I even begin? If you’re looking for a thought-provoking, terrifying but realistic story that’s extremely apt for the crazy times we’ve been living in the last few months, … here it is! I’m hard pressed to think of any other book that blurs the lines of fiction as much as The Waiting Rooms does and I’d have no qualms whatsoever to sacrifice whatever it takes to please the powers-that-be so this type of situation can be avoided because it’s bloody scary, you guys!
There is a global antibiotic crisis caused by drug resistance. Ordinary infections are untreatable and a scratch from a pet can kill you. If you’re a person over the age of 70, you are royally screwed. The elderly are not allowed new antibiotics and are being sent to hospitals that carry the misleading name of “The Waiting Rooms”. It’s a bit like Hotel California. You can never leave. Nor will you ever get well. This crisis has been raging for the last twenty years. Some people remember how things used to be, for others this is the new normal. In the midst of all this, Kate starts searching for her birth mother. But Kate isn’t the only one. Someone else is trying to find Kate’s birth mother too.
It’s clear Eve Smith has done a ton of research on this. Even though the science sometimes went slightly over my head, I was endlessly fascinated by it all. That is also true of the truly stunning descriptions of South Africa, where we meet Mary at the beginning of what will ultimately become a global crisis. Mary is a botanist who is tasked with finding a new medicinal plant to help in the treatment of a new drug resistant strain of TB. But there’s a lot more to her story than that and the mystery surrounding Mary runs through the entire book.
Back in the present, we are introduced to Lily. Lily resides in one of the better retirement homes. She’s counting down the days to her 70th birthday, fully aware of the danger she’ll be in once she crosses that line. But there seems to be another kind of danger lurking in the corridors when Lily starts receiving odd messages that seem to taunt her about her past. A past nobody is supposed to know anything about. Lily was one of those characters I warmed to from the start and through her we get a rather sad insight into life at the retirement home and what happens when you’re unfortunate enough to be sent off to the waiting rooms.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Eve Smith has psychic powers because quite a few things in The Waiting Rooms are part of our current daily lives. Wearing masks outside, for instance. Keeping your distance from others. No shaking hands or any other kind of touching, really. Unless it’s for sexy time
There is a global antibiotic crisis caused by drug resistance. Ordinary infections are untreatable and a scratch from a pet can kill you. If you’re a person over the age of 70, you are royally screwed. The elderly are not allowed new antibiotics and are being sent to hospitals that carry the misleading name of “The Waiting Rooms”. It’s a bit like Hotel California. You can never leave. Nor will you ever get well. This crisis has been raging for the last twenty years. Some people remember how things used to be, for others this is the new normal. In the midst of all this, Kate starts searching for her birth mother. But Kate isn’t the only one. Someone else is trying to find Kate’s birth mother too.
It’s clear Eve Smith has done a ton of research on this. Even though the science sometimes went slightly over my head, I was endlessly fascinated by it all. That is also true of the truly stunning descriptions of South Africa, where we meet Mary at the beginning of what will ultimately become a global crisis. Mary is a botanist who is tasked with finding a new medicinal plant to help in the treatment of a new drug resistant strain of TB. But there’s a lot more to her story than that and the mystery surrounding Mary runs through the entire book.
Back in the present, we are introduced to Lily. Lily resides in one of the better retirement homes. She’s counting down the days to her 70th birthday, fully aware of the danger she’ll be in once she crosses that line. But there seems to be another kind of danger lurking in the corridors when Lily starts receiving odd messages that seem to taunt her about her past. A past nobody is supposed to know anything about. Lily was one of those characters I warmed to from the start and through her we get a rather sad insight into life at the retirement home and what happens when you’re unfortunate enough to be sent off to the waiting rooms.
You’d be forgiven for thinking Eve Smith has psychic powers because quite a few things in The Waiting Rooms are part of our current daily lives. Wearing masks outside, for instance. Keeping your distance from others. No shaking hands or any other kind of touching, really. Unless it’s for sexy time