- Paperback: 276 pages
- Publisher: Orenda Books (9 July 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1913193268
- ISBN-13: 978-1913193263
Synopsis
Decades of spiraling drug resistance have unleashed a global antibiotic crisis. Ordinary infections are untreatable, and a scratch from a pet can kill. A sacrifice is required to keep the majority safe: no one over seventy is allowed new antibiotics. The elderly are sent to hospitals nicknamed ‘The Waiting Rooms’ … hospitals where no one ever gets well.
Twenty years after the crisis takes hold, Kate begins a search for her birth mother, armed only with her name and her age. As Kate unearths disturbing facts about her mother’s past, she puts her family in danger and risks losing everything. Because Kate is not the only secret that her mother is hiding. Someone else is looking for her, too.
Review
If ever there was a book that mirrors the current situation The Waiting Rooms by Eve Smith is that book. Set over two different timelines this book looks at an all too realistic future where there is a global antibiotic crisis. Due to the overuse of antibiotics daily infections, like a scratch are now killing people, There are new antibiotics but very few so sacrifices need to be made, in this case the over seventies are not eligible for treatment and are sent to the eponymous Waiting Rooms to die. Twenty years after the crisis we see Kate, a nurse, as she tries to find her birth mother, but so is someone else. Lily is a in a home for the elderly and approaching her seventieth birthday, a daily life trying to avoid a scratch or a cut that could end her life. The second timeline starts twenty seven years before the Crisis, Mary is in South Africa, studying for her Phd, looking for plants that could have antibiotic properties. This is a compelling and fascinating thriller, looking at a future not too distant from where we are now.
The Waiting Rooms is one of those books that made me stop and go wow. We are in unprecedented times now and I wondered if I would find it difficult to read a book that comes close to where are now. The answer is no, I was straight in and addicted to this book, with its inspiring characters and multilayered plot. The split timeline works well as narrative as it gives us a glimpse of the future whilst also looking back at how we reached at that point. The tension builds as the book progresses and we see the reality of the situation; millions dying, rationing, no shaking hands, borders to certain countries are closed, and emphasis is on hygiene (sound familiar?).
Twenty years in the future Kate is a wife, mother and a nurse. When she started her career she was helping people, now she works in a hospital where the majority of people go to die and where there is assisted dying. She puts herself in precarious positions everyday, including at the hands of protesters who see her as a murderer. After the death of her adopted mother she decides to look for her birth mother, but she is not the only person looking for her, and it is a search that puts her and her family in danger. Kate shows great strength and compassion throughout this book, she believes in what she does, even if she has reservations about the cut off for seventy year olds, like Lilly. I couldn’t help but warm to Kate, with her strenghth, compassion and love of her family and dedication to her job.
Starting at twenty years before the Crisis hit I was intrigued and fascinated at how much research was going on to try and avert the antibiotic crisis. South Africa, seen as a third world country, has a crisis of its own with a new strand of Tuberculosis that is killing thousands and into this comes Mary who joins forces with Piet Bekker, who works for a company looking for new antibiotics. Eve Smith’s writing describes the urgency and horror of this situation, and sets it against the beautiful South African landscape. Mary gave her life looking for these properties in plants, and by bringing this timeline up to date it is through her story we see the horrors of what is to come and how there are those trying to stop it in its tracks.
I found Eve Smith’s writing intelligent in the detailing and the obvious research which captured my attention from the first page and kept it throughout. The tension was palpable, and the situation fascinating over both timelines. What I was surprised at was that I didn’t find this book depressing, yes it is shocking and dark in places but I found Kate’s and Mary’s story inspiring, that we can adapt to our circumstances and make the best of things; Eve Smith shows us what it is like to be a wife, mother, carer and daughter during these times, making it very relatable.
Waiting Rooms is a stunning debut from Eve Smith. The prose is descriptive and flows seamlessly between the two timelines, giving equal time to the three main characters, Lily, Kate and Mary, giving three very different perspectives to the Crisis, both before and after. This is a haunting, honest and horrifying in its reality, but also thought provoking and fascinating. An epic and thrilling read that I highly recommend, and one I’m glad I picked up.
I would like to thank Karen Sullivan at Orenda Books for sending me a copy of this book to read in return for an honest review.
