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Immunity
In the very near future, a devastating Ebola-like pandemic has struck the world, but for the 1% in New York City it's an excuse for even more twisted behavior.
Taylor Antrim delivers a thrilling new novel that combines the best of dystopian fiction with a sharp-eyed exploration of class and wealth in the world's capital. In this fast-paced paranoid, near-future New York City, we meet Catherine, a broke socialite who is getting sick. Desperate, she takes a job with a luxury concierge service that fulfills the most outlandish desires of the ultra-rich;even if that means hunting down the 99%. As the hidden agendas of her employer and his shadowy clients emerge, Catherine realizes things are not remotely as they appear and she finds herself a pawn of mega-corporations and government agents all eager to profit from the cure embedded inside of her.
Taylor Antrim delivers a thrilling new novel that combines the best of dystopian fiction with a sharp-eyed exploration of class and wealth in the world's capital. In this fast-paced paranoid, near-future New York City, we meet Catherine, a broke socialite who is getting sick. Desperate, she takes a job with a luxury concierge service that fulfills the most outlandish desires of the ultra-rich;even if that means hunting down the 99%. As the hidden agendas of her employer and his shadowy clients emerge, Catherine realizes things are not remotely as they appear and she finds herself a pawn of mega-corporations and government agents all eager to profit from the cure embedded inside of her.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2015
11 people are currently reading
332 people want to read
About the author
Taylor Antrim
2 books10 followersTaylor Antrim is the author of the novels The Headmaster Ritual and Immunity. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications including Five Chapters, American Short Fiction, and Best American Short Stories. A senior editor at Vogue, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
March 17, 2021
Written in 2015 this book depicts a near future where an Ebola like pandemic where everything gone insane. The 1% against the 99 % kind of destopian. This had potential to be an entertaining enough read but I feel like the story was flat as a pancake. The story nor the characters was as intriguing as the premise.
June 25, 2015
I picked up this book by pure chance because of the gorgeous cover. That florescent orange and the gold embedded title kidnapped me like the promise of rainbows and unicorns. Thinking back, I usually research books before reading and would not have given this book as second thought, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. I would go even further to say that the book should have been longer.
I didn't hate any of the characters, in fact, I was intrigued. You could say that I'm a hipster simply going against the grain but honestly I want more people to read this book. Let's get this clear. By no means is this book perfect. It's illogical at times and lagging the rest. Normally I would have considered the main protagonist to be completely selfish and the plot confusing, but looking back it's not as if Catherine wants my sympathy or the cure is actually a cure. It doesn't try to sell me the idea that people like Mercer are saints because they're not. They are the 1% and they are above the law or conventional societal norms. They are at the top of the social Darwinism hierarchy. Survival of the fittest and in turn they are immune.
I haven't the faintest inkling that this is the hidden message underneath. This is what I choose to take away from any book: my own interpretation. Ultimately, the ending was loose and there were so many plot holes that it would scare those with trypophobia. I don't necessary consider this book to be a medical thriller seeing that the thriller part is lacking despite a chase that should have ended in Catherine being shot down instead of neatly escaping. I just want people to know what they're getting into because if you have patience and willing to over analyze books as if this is some high school English class then you're in store for something good.
I didn't hate any of the characters, in fact, I was intrigued. You could say that I'm a hipster simply going against the grain but honestly I want more people to read this book. Let's get this clear. By no means is this book perfect. It's illogical at times and lagging the rest. Normally I would have considered the main protagonist to be completely selfish and the plot confusing, but looking back it's not as if Catherine wants my sympathy or the cure is actually a cure. It doesn't try to sell me the idea that people like Mercer are saints because they're not. They are the 1% and they are above the law or conventional societal norms. They are at the top of the social Darwinism hierarchy. Survival of the fittest and in turn they are immune.
I haven't the faintest inkling that this is the hidden message underneath. This is what I choose to take away from any book: my own interpretation. Ultimately, the ending was loose and there were so many plot holes that it would scare those with trypophobia. I don't necessary consider this book to be a medical thriller seeing that the thriller part is lacking despite a chase that should have ended in Catherine being shot down instead of neatly escaping. I just want people to know what they're getting into because if you have patience and willing to over analyze books as if this is some high school English class then you're in store for something good.
March 9, 2015
No. I didn't read it by choice and nor should you. First 120 pages (half the book) is a goddamn slog with no point and the rest is underdeveloped (though faster) and ultimately the ending is unsatisfying. Feels like a draft.
May 7, 2015
I'm a sucker for any books that deal with pandemics or apocalyptic scenarios - strange and morbid, I know. I managed to read this in a few hours and all I can say is that there's a lot of promise in the premise of the book, but it's disjointed to the point of sloppiness. The first part of the story lays some interesting groundwork but it never follows through. Catherine is a character that wavers between sympathetic and totally maddening, and the rest of the characters are fairly one dimensional. I'm not even sure if giving it 3-stars is being too generous for such an inconsistent story.
February 4, 2020
The concept was cool and had potential.
The characters were underdeveloped and unlikable. The story was hard to follow, loosely connected and I still don’t really know what this was book was mainly about, because there were too many story lines.
Also, there was overtly sexual content that seems unnecessary and forced, including a rape scene.
The characters were underdeveloped and unlikable. The story was hard to follow, loosely connected and I still don’t really know what this was book was mainly about, because there were too many story lines.
Also, there was overtly sexual content that seems unnecessary and forced, including a rape scene.
May 22, 2016
Reading the blurb I was totally hooked and grabbed this book off the library shelf. As I started to read I felt the story ramp up and I was totally in it...until things went absolutely nuts and we still hadn't reached the climax. I liked the character of Catherine, and I thought the idea of the story was fantastic, but there was both too much and not enough in plot development for me. While I appreciate a good wandering story with side plots, I felt like "Immunity" wandered a little too long in New York and the end felt rushed. There was also a bowtie of an end, which can be super effective or a letdown. In this case, it was a letdown. Do I regret reading it? Definitely not. Would I recommend it? Probably not.
July 3, 2015
borrowed, hardcover, library
Immunity is set sometime in the future, when 10% of the global population has been wiped out by the TX virus. Enter the daughter of an heiress with 800 dollars in her bank account and down on her fortune who most likely has the deadly virus; she gets a lead on a job and she signs away her life for the chance to pay rent--the gig is shady and there is an implant involved. Turns out she's been granted Immunity if she agrees to be a party of a dodgy team. Immunity is a thriller, the characters repel and fascinate, and it's a pretty fast read.
Immunity is set sometime in the future, when 10% of the global population has been wiped out by the TX virus. Enter the daughter of an heiress with 800 dollars in her bank account and down on her fortune who most likely has the deadly virus; she gets a lead on a job and she signs away her life for the chance to pay rent--the gig is shady and there is an implant involved. Turns out she's been granted Immunity if she agrees to be a party of a dodgy team. Immunity is a thriller, the characters repel and fascinate, and it's a pretty fast read.
July 31, 2015
Topical premise. Mediocre prose and follow-through. Decent enough beach read.
April 24, 2020
Great if you're looking for a low-rent Sci-fi that fits into the beach read category!
Otherwise it's pretty bad, you guys.
Otherwise it's pretty bad, you guys.
August 5, 2017
I have a thing for post-apocoalyptic, some days it seems so much better than reality. This book was good not great. A flu took out 300 million people (4% of the population) but it still reeks some havoc. In this post-flu world the government seems to maybe possibly have a little too much power and Catherine most definitely gets caught up in it. Confused? I was a little bit too but it is worth a read.
March 21, 2019
Thought it sounded interesting when i found it in my library, but could barely make it halfway. The premise itself had promise, but it was bland, and i found the characters very 2dimensional. The way characters were described, in a single paragraph with very odd details, grated on me as well. It seemed to sexualize every woman for no reason, which was uncomfortable. All in all, it was not worth my time.
December 11, 2019
This book was a waste of time, I love a good pandemic/post apocalyptic novel but this was just strange and disjointed. I didn't care about any of the characters, and whatever story there was fell apart midway through. I was annoyed when I finished because I kept hoping it would redeem itself but then it just... didn't.
July 22, 2020
Had this on my To-Read shelf for a couple of years, and then I guess this pandemic came along. The beginnings of the novel are gripping, five star level of plotting and writing, etc. Unfortunately it quickly loses steam and wants to mix in Ellis and McInerney lit Brat Pack elements.
June 30, 2017
After struggling through the first 100 pages, I was determined to keep reading until something exciting happened. I finished the book today ............. I'm still waiting :(
August 4, 2017
Not nearly as good as I hoped it would be.
September 30, 2017
Quick easy read. Hope there is a sequel
Read
June 7, 2020I've (accidentally) read a lot of virus-takes-out-swaths-of-people-oh-no books this summer and this was by far the worst. No need to read it.
August 7, 2015
from kalireads.com:
Taylor Antrim’s Immunity tells the story of a post-plague world, a Spanish flu-like epidemic (named TX, after the state of its origins) adapted for our modern times. The Department of Health has ballooned into Big Brother, setting up checkpoints on corners and scanning bodies on sidewalks. Anarchists cough on people as an act of rebellion, terrifying everyone they hack and sneeze at as they run madly through the streets. And then there’s the rich, that ever-present buzz of an upper-class doing better than the rest of us, hovering above the fray, as the elite do, and ready to take some sort of action.
In Antrim’s post-pandemic New York, the wealthy get bored and things get ugly. Protagonist Catherine finds herself, after a vague job interview, working in a sort of concierge call center for the city’s wealthy men. Requests like the perfect gift, reservations at a great restaurant–you give these gals a call, and they’ll take care of it for you. But there’s a bigger vision behind the company, an idea of real experience taken to an uncomfortable maximum level. There’s a place called The Hideaway, there’s an endless supply of coke and booze. And then the guns come out.
Aside from this plot, a sort of rich men gone wild, Catherine is implanted with what promises to be a chip providing immunity from the TX virus. A perk of the job, of being amongst the rich and elite. But nothing is so simple in this complicated world, and nothing comes for free.
The New York Times book review hails Immunity as an “effortlessly assembled” novel. After reading the Times’s triumphant review, I bought Immunity in a sort virus-mad fervor, imagining a book full of dreary desperation and high stakes health risks like David Quammen’s non-fiction tome Spillover. What I got, the plot and statement made by Immunity, was far from what I imagined. I’m still not sure what to make of it. It’s different. It’s strange in a 12 Monkeys-conspiracy-The Most Dangerous Game type of way. Instead of being the usual dystopian fare, Immunity questions our desire for dystopia in general, and our need to take the power back from greater traumas surrounding us.
What’s natural is the microbe.
All the rest–health, integrity, purity (if you like)–is a product of the human will, of a vigilance that must never falter.
—Immunity, epigram, from The Plague by Albert Camus
Officials said the best line of defense was vigilance. Report symptoms immediately. Yours. Family members’. Friends’. Get the TX test every three months. Ninety Days… It’s the Law ran the ads. Carry your MED card at all times. Don’t gamble with symptoms. Don’t travel if you’re sick. These messages had been drummed into the public through news and magazine stories and stacks of bestselling how-to books on surviving another full-scale TX pandemic–which would come, the scientists said. It was just a matter of time.
—Immunity
Taylor Antrim’s Immunity tells the story of a post-plague world, a Spanish flu-like epidemic (named TX, after the state of its origins) adapted for our modern times. The Department of Health has ballooned into Big Brother, setting up checkpoints on corners and scanning bodies on sidewalks. Anarchists cough on people as an act of rebellion, terrifying everyone they hack and sneeze at as they run madly through the streets. And then there’s the rich, that ever-present buzz of an upper-class doing better than the rest of us, hovering above the fray, as the elite do, and ready to take some sort of action.
In Antrim’s post-pandemic New York, the wealthy get bored and things get ugly. Protagonist Catherine finds herself, after a vague job interview, working in a sort of concierge call center for the city’s wealthy men. Requests like the perfect gift, reservations at a great restaurant–you give these gals a call, and they’ll take care of it for you. But there’s a bigger vision behind the company, an idea of real experience taken to an uncomfortable maximum level. There’s a place called The Hideaway, there’s an endless supply of coke and booze. And then the guns come out.
Aside from this plot, a sort of rich men gone wild, Catherine is implanted with what promises to be a chip providing immunity from the TX virus. A perk of the job, of being amongst the rich and elite. But nothing is so simple in this complicated world, and nothing comes for free.
The New York Times book review hails Immunity as an “effortlessly assembled” novel. After reading the Times’s triumphant review, I bought Immunity in a sort virus-mad fervor, imagining a book full of dreary desperation and high stakes health risks like David Quammen’s non-fiction tome Spillover. What I got, the plot and statement made by Immunity, was far from what I imagined. I’m still not sure what to make of it. It’s different. It’s strange in a 12 Monkeys-conspiracy-The Most Dangerous Game type of way. Instead of being the usual dystopian fare, Immunity questions our desire for dystopia in general, and our need to take the power back from greater traumas surrounding us.
October 20, 2016
I’m getting around to this one kind of late, as it was published in May, but it’s been sitting at the bottom of my “to be read” pile for a few months. I picked it up today around two in the afternoon and finished it about an hour ago, around 6:30 PM, so it clearly held my attention, but it’s also a fast, easy read.
Set in New York City in the near future after a flu pandemic has wiped out 10% of the global population, the world and its context are absolutely fascinating and unbelievably realistic. Mandatory testing, thermal scanners on the street corners, masks in the subway, automated health tracking devices, half-empty restaurants and discounted airfare to once luxurious resort cities across the globe.
What I found most interesting about this particular novel, and what sets it apart from most “post-apocalyptic” fiction, is that this is not the story of a catastrophic contagion leaving only a handful of survivors. There is no need to rebuild society from scratch or institute a new world order. While losing 10% of the population is a huge and tragic loss, it would not decimate life as we know it.
There are still tabloids and television and student loans. And there is still an incredibly wealthy minority who have access to better health care and, when living under the sword of Damocles that is the threat of a reemergence of this killer virus, better healthcare means a better life.
Despite top notch world building, the characters are irritating at best, despicable at worst. But it’s not a novel which relies very heavily on the reader’s sympathy, rather, your horror and disgust are encouraged.
It does rely on the suspension of your disbelief both in terms of the medical accuracy of the major plot line and in terms of the ability of the characters to emerge unscathed from a variety of potentially deadly situations.
The ending feels rushed and unsatisfying, and you find yourself wondering where to find the rest of the book. There’s an almost absurdist flavor to the story and a creeping sense of futility in the face of such a destructive force as a global pandemic. Most questions remain unanswered and the characters are ineffective and their actions frustrating.
Upon discovering that the author has previously written short stories, I’m able to see why “Immunity” feels slightly disjointed and unfinished, but I can also recognize the language and sensory experience of the novel as being heavily influenced by world of short stories.
This wasn’t a great book, but it was a good one, and I’d recommend it based on the depiction of post-pandemic society alone. But don’t get your hopes up too high.
Set in New York City in the near future after a flu pandemic has wiped out 10% of the global population, the world and its context are absolutely fascinating and unbelievably realistic. Mandatory testing, thermal scanners on the street corners, masks in the subway, automated health tracking devices, half-empty restaurants and discounted airfare to once luxurious resort cities across the globe.
What I found most interesting about this particular novel, and what sets it apart from most “post-apocalyptic” fiction, is that this is not the story of a catastrophic contagion leaving only a handful of survivors. There is no need to rebuild society from scratch or institute a new world order. While losing 10% of the population is a huge and tragic loss, it would not decimate life as we know it.
There are still tabloids and television and student loans. And there is still an incredibly wealthy minority who have access to better health care and, when living under the sword of Damocles that is the threat of a reemergence of this killer virus, better healthcare means a better life.
Despite top notch world building, the characters are irritating at best, despicable at worst. But it’s not a novel which relies very heavily on the reader’s sympathy, rather, your horror and disgust are encouraged.
It does rely on the suspension of your disbelief both in terms of the medical accuracy of the major plot line and in terms of the ability of the characters to emerge unscathed from a variety of potentially deadly situations.
The ending feels rushed and unsatisfying, and you find yourself wondering where to find the rest of the book. There’s an almost absurdist flavor to the story and a creeping sense of futility in the face of such a destructive force as a global pandemic. Most questions remain unanswered and the characters are ineffective and their actions frustrating.
Upon discovering that the author has previously written short stories, I’m able to see why “Immunity” feels slightly disjointed and unfinished, but I can also recognize the language and sensory experience of the novel as being heavily influenced by world of short stories.
This wasn’t a great book, but it was a good one, and I’d recommend it based on the depiction of post-pandemic society alone. But don’t get your hopes up too high.
September 17, 2015
In a not so distant future, there is a break out of TX aka the Texas Flu. It is highly deadly and highly contagious. There is no cure for it once you have it you go to quarantine to die.
Catherine Duvall is a socialite with absolutely nothing going for her. She has zero personality, and zero friends which makes her the perfect idiot to test an implant that makes you immune to TX. It also has tracking capabilities of some sort and it paralyzes you if you get TX or if someone breaks into your back and tries to take it out (not really explained that well).
Her mother was a rich woman that did nothing and therefore Catherine did nothing (apparently trying to impress her mother). They of course partied and wasted all their money but offered nothing.
There is also the story of the rich people that can pay a company called Pursuit to get anything they want. Even if they want to shoot people with plastic bullets, to injure only, that is no problem (this would have made a better story I think).
I almost forgot to mention the fact that she could not be friends with a man without having to sleep with him. Mercer is oh everything will be fine don't worry...and then we had sex. (He is only sleeping with you so you will quit your bitching, idiot!) Then she sleeps with Laird because they were alone together for a while. Not to mention that both of these men were sleeping with her friend Frances before she came along.
Catherine was terrible Mercer was terrible, and the ending was absolutely pointless.
Catherine Duvall is a socialite with absolutely nothing going for her. She has zero personality, and zero friends which makes her the perfect idiot to test an implant that makes you immune to TX. It also has tracking capabilities of some sort and it paralyzes you if you get TX or if someone breaks into your back and tries to take it out (not really explained that well).
Her mother was a rich woman that did nothing and therefore Catherine did nothing (apparently trying to impress her mother). They of course partied and wasted all their money but offered nothing.
There is also the story of the rich people that can pay a company called Pursuit to get anything they want. Even if they want to shoot people with plastic bullets, to injure only, that is no problem (this would have made a better story I think).
I almost forgot to mention the fact that she could not be friends with a man without having to sleep with him. Mercer is oh everything will be fine don't worry...and then we had sex. (He is only sleeping with you so you will quit your bitching, idiot!) Then she sleeps with Laird because they were alone together for a while. Not to mention that both of these men were sleeping with her friend Frances before she came along.
Catherine was terrible Mercer was terrible, and the ending was absolutely pointless.
October 14, 2015
The general plot of this book was super interesting to me. I love the post-apocalyptic genre and reading what each author views as the aftermath. This version is about the aftermath of a virus which has killed off 4% of the world's population. The resulting description of how the US would respond and how daily life would continue as a result was interesting to read.
Even though I find this type of drama interesting, I also need to have a character to root for. I wanted to love the main character, Catherine, but I just couldn't do it. She seemed to just go along with the group and instead I wanted her to fight more for herself. There were also moments where she let the guys in the book, like Mercer, treat her poorly.
The book also ends in a weird spot. There are several important people in Catherine's life who she has placed in danger through her choices and yet the book ends without this being resolved. I can't tell if the end is a sign that the money behind the scheme will fail or if she's turned into part of the very same repulsive mix of people she has hung out with throughout the book.
Overall it was a quick read with fairly short chapters and I did like the creativity of the scheme that arose as a result of the virus.
Even though I find this type of drama interesting, I also need to have a character to root for. I wanted to love the main character, Catherine, but I just couldn't do it. She seemed to just go along with the group and instead I wanted her to fight more for herself. There were also moments where she let the guys in the book, like Mercer, treat her poorly.
The book also ends in a weird spot. There are several important people in Catherine's life who she has placed in danger through her choices and yet the book ends without this being resolved. I can't tell if the end is a sign that the money behind the scheme will fail or if she's turned into part of the very same repulsive mix of people she has hung out with throughout the book.
Overall it was a quick read with fairly short chapters and I did like the creativity of the scheme that arose as a result of the virus.
February 23, 2016
The story seems to be about a world where tens of millions have died due to some epidemic called the Texas flu. The flu has not been completely devastating, but fear has given way to a government that has ratcheted up its watch over its citizens while simultaneously letting the rule of law run amuck, particularly among the rich. Money buys anything in America now, including trap shooting people, it appears.
In fact, the world drawn here is rather sketchy and our lead character, Catherine, is a boring pawn. Once having been one of the rich, she has fallen in the wake of the flu and is willing to submit to being the test subject of a new possible immunity treatment in an effort to reclaim a position once again in the world of the wealthy. In any case, she does little but allows much to happen to her. Still, all this is basically background to Mr. Antrim’s efforts to show us sex and violence in a new venue.
Frankly, I found it to be mostly uninteresting. New York City and its environs, where most of the action takes place, is poorly realized, as it the history that leads up to the setting of this story. Catherine and the plot that happens to her is mostly unbelievable and mostly tiresome, unless you like violent set pieces. I was sincerely hoping for much more.
November 17, 2015
Spoiler Alert: I think I'm being generous giving three stars because I could tell the idea was there. It was just the execution that seemed to have lost its way.
Antrim's book is yet another dystopian thriller, except this time its surrounding NYC's wealthy socialites. Specifically, one whose neglectful parents haven't left her with anything but conspiracy theories. With the people she used to be closest with either dead or closing her off, Catherine is struggling to make her way in a world she isn't used to. How else to do this than drink and make poor decisions?
That, essentially, describes the entire novel, with a break in the middle where you realize Antrim had no idea where his story was going. It's truly that obvious: the short chapters add little to the story except the rich moving from location to location, seemingly with a plan. By the end of the book, I was reading more just to say I could finish it than the hopes that it would somehow salvage itself.
Overall: it isn't the worst book I have ever read, but I probably won't bother reading it again any time soon. Maybe during the apocalypse when there is little else to read (assuming they burn the books).
Antrim's book is yet another dystopian thriller, except this time its surrounding NYC's wealthy socialites. Specifically, one whose neglectful parents haven't left her with anything but conspiracy theories. With the people she used to be closest with either dead or closing her off, Catherine is struggling to make her way in a world she isn't used to. How else to do this than drink and make poor decisions?
That, essentially, describes the entire novel, with a break in the middle where you realize Antrim had no idea where his story was going. It's truly that obvious: the short chapters add little to the story except the rich moving from location to location, seemingly with a plan. By the end of the book, I was reading more just to say I could finish it than the hopes that it would somehow salvage itself.
Overall: it isn't the worst book I have ever read, but I probably won't bother reading it again any time soon. Maybe during the apocalypse when there is little else to read (assuming they burn the books).
February 11, 2017
Good premise, but he didn't quite follow through on the strong start.
June 9, 2019
I knew very little about this book going into it because my interest was more about the point in my life it signified. VERY shortly before I started my most recently bookstore job, I had seen this book on the new release shelves in the same story I ended up working at.
Unfortunately, this book did end up missing the mark of my expectations upon reading.
This book has some very solid groundwork that I wish had been fleshed out a little more. Immunity is set in a world where a very serious flu outbreak has come and gone, but its presence is slowly creeping up and there is an ever-present fear of catching the virus. Instead of having a viral outbreak be the story arc, Immunity follows a character who falls into a shady, hard to understand world.
I wanted more science and end-of-the-world vibes, but this didn't quite bring that. Once I was able to get through that, the writing was enjoyable enough and I felt like the story it WAS telling was still interesting. I'd love to see if there is ever a follow-up or sequel that will explain some of the events going on in this book, but I can also live with having to fill in the blanks myself.
Unfortunately, this book did end up missing the mark of my expectations upon reading.
This book has some very solid groundwork that I wish had been fleshed out a little more. Immunity is set in a world where a very serious flu outbreak has come and gone, but its presence is slowly creeping up and there is an ever-present fear of catching the virus. Instead of having a viral outbreak be the story arc, Immunity follows a character who falls into a shady, hard to understand world.
I wanted more science and end-of-the-world vibes, but this didn't quite bring that. Once I was able to get through that, the writing was enjoyable enough and I felt like the story it WAS telling was still interesting. I'd love to see if there is ever a follow-up or sequel that will explain some of the events going on in this book, but I can also live with having to fill in the blanks myself.
August 15, 2016
I thought this would be a more medically based book on the characters' lives after a deadly virus "TX" was released - how they coped, what society was like. IT WAS NOT. It was about a self-centered rich bitch who loses all her money, gets a monkey-could-do-it job just to pay the bills, ends up as glorified eye candy for rich guys who have nothing better to do with their lives than snort coke and shoot rubber bullets at people for fun. She is not a likable character in any way and the story could just as easily have been set in real time as a "bestseller" about the rich crowd, drugs and general boredom with life.
I ended up skipping to the end, and decided I was glad I missed the last third of the book. What a wast of my time.
I ended up skipping to the end, and decided I was glad I missed the last third of the book. What a wast of my time.
May 9, 2016
Actually more like 3 1/2 stars, this book caught my eye due to the intriguing cover.. The story took a little time to develop but I have to say that I thoroughly disagree with most of the reviews of this book. It was entertaining, had a couple of plot twists, and the author has a way of moving the story along at a fast pace and does not bog down the reader with pointless rhetoric.
Sounds to me like some of the reviewers of this book had a personal axe to grind with Mr. Antrim.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys medical thrillers and the writings of Robin Cook.
An enjoyable read.
Sounds to me like some of the reviewers of this book had a personal axe to grind with Mr. Antrim.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys medical thrillers and the writings of Robin Cook.
An enjoyable read.
Read
April 26, 2022There's a wonderful sense of danger and dread in this novel, set in New York after a pandemic has wiped out 4% of the population worldwide. But ultimately, the atmosphere was not enough for me to care what was going to happen (although I did finish it, so obviously I cared on some level). The only two characters who come to life are the main character's 17-year-old best friend and her neck-tattooed Scottish sidekick. If the book had centered on the two of them, I would have enjoyed it a whole lot more.
February 10, 2016
This is a book for anyone who likes dystopian novels. Set in a world of the near-future after an epidemic virus has decimated the world's population, Catherine Duvall is hired for a job which involves an implant in her which is an experimental treatment and immunizing device for the virus. A portrait is painted of a post-Judeo/Christian, post-humanistic, almost totally nihilistic world. Murder is a sport. The bleakness slowly but surely engulfs almost everybody.
December 17, 2015
Very difficult to follow, especially with the 3rd person narrative. The immunity had very little to do with the story and did not take the path you would expect, there was much less to the plot that expected. There was very little character development and it was very shallow. Huge disappointment.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews