The End of October

Am unnervingly accurate of another pandemic that could go waaaaay worse than what we’ve wheat been through, but that could STILL happen, if humanity is not careful! A great read, thriller-like and totally engaging. Wow!!

Was not thrilled by the ending it was expected and that is disappointing when you can anticipate what the outcome of a story will be. Also did not develop the other characters as they should have. I found the lead character‘s family much more interesting than a lead character. Wish the author would’ve taken the time to develop those characters fully. I purchased this book after hearing the author on NPR , his interview was very interesting and I had high hopes for this book.

That was an intense buildup. Kept me reading. However, sometimes it jumped ahead leaving me wondering what’s happening.

Caricature characters.

This is what a really deadly virus pandemic would look like. COVID-19 is a walk on the park compared to the virus pandemic portrayed in this novel. The timing of this book is pretty scary seeing as how it was released in April 2020, meaning that the author wrote it well before the COVID-19 outbreak even began. Great book. Very well written. Exciting, thrilling, and down right scary.

I did find that it took awhile for the storyline to progress and I found it difficult initially to fully engage for the first few chapters. However, after those initial slower chapters that were heavy on character development rather than plot building, the pacing seemed to pick up and the story moved a long at a much more engrossing pace. If you can get past the first few chapters and hang in there it is a worthwhile read and endlessly fascinating. There were a lot of big jumps in the timeline/ storyline that I would have liked to have been addressed better and built out more, rather than just expecting the reader to catch up and fill in the blanks (seems a more appropriate format for a movie rather than a novel), but, overall a good, solid read. It was very well researched and informed and gives one a better understanding of the nuanced dynamics of pandemics/ novel diseases and the extreme risk they pose to our society, which most behave as if our way of life is invincible. Reading this book I now see how a novel virus could quickly get beyond anyone’s control and wreak complete havoc on every dimension of life. One of the biggest complications with pandemics being the fear and suspicion of others which this book highlights very realistically. In most crisis, people tend to come together and support one another. With an invisible deadly virus, it instead distances communities so that they don’t have the societal safety net that has gotten them through past disasters. We are seeing that now as our country has never been more divided or simply outright hostile to each other. It’s truly sad to see what humanity has chosen to be during this Covid crisis with so many examples of hate, violence and ignorance. I do recommend this read not only for entertainment but for better understanding of the current crisis we are facing with Covid and why the measures that are being taken are necessary to ensure not only our survival but our way of life.