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Resistance
The first graphic novel from Britain’s “Queen of Crime” ( Scotsman ) and gorgeously illustrated by up-and-comer Kathryn Briggs, Resistance is a chilling but incredibly moving and inspiring story of individuals pressed to rise above their station, first to nail down the truth of a looming pandemic, and later to try to fight it. Journalist Zoe Beck has taken a break from hard-hitting investigative reporting to spend more time with her family, which is how she finds herself doing celebrity Q&As at an outdoor music festival near the Scottish border. She and her friends, who run a food truck, head north, along with 150,000 festival-goers for a weekend of music and camping. Then, some of the food truck’s customers begin to fall ill, and many point to food poisoning. But when the festival ends and the attendees scatter across England, more people begin to get sick and die. What’s worse, it is spreading fast and baffles doctors, resisting all efforts to contain or cure it. With time running out, Zoe is compelled to fight for the truth, even as she loses that which she holds most dear.
160 pages, Paperback
Published June 15, 2021
29 people are currently reading
350 people want to read
About the author
Val McDermid
308 books5,368 followersVal McDermid is a No. 1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over eleven million copies.
She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009 and was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2010. In 2011 she received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award.
She writes full time and divides her time between Cheshire and Edinburgh.
She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009 and was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2010. In 2011 she received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award.
She writes full time and divides her time between Cheshire and Edinburgh.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 131 reviews
March 11, 2021
Review published in: https://diagnosisbookaholic.blogspot....
2,5 ⭐️
Had this graphic novel come out before 2020 I’m sure we all would have thought that it would not be possible for the story depicted here to happen in real life, but guess what? It can and it (almost) did.
While the story was interesting enough and showed tremendous research, I don’t think it’s the right time for it. Reading about a pandemic killing millions of people while we’re still immersed in a pandemic that’s killing millions of people?
This is the author’s first graphic novel and it’s a bit text heavy. The black and white art made it sometimes a bit difficult to read, especially when the text was over a very busy background.
Quick read with an story that a year ago would have been enjoyed for what it was, a work of fiction, but nowadays it’s too close to home. In three words: WAY TOO SOON!
Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
2,5 ⭐️
Had this graphic novel come out before 2020 I’m sure we all would have thought that it would not be possible for the story depicted here to happen in real life, but guess what? It can and it (almost) did.
While the story was interesting enough and showed tremendous research, I don’t think it’s the right time for it. Reading about a pandemic killing millions of people while we’re still immersed in a pandemic that’s killing millions of people?
This is the author’s first graphic novel and it’s a bit text heavy. The black and white art made it sometimes a bit difficult to read, especially when the text was over a very busy background.
Quick read with an story that a year ago would have been enjoyed for what it was, a work of fiction, but nowadays it’s too close to home. In three words: WAY TOO SOON!
Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 27, 2021
Val McDermid is an author renowned for her crime and thriller creations, but this is the first time she has adapted these skills to the graphic novel format. Her words, along with Kathryn Briggs' illustrations, reveal a harrowing story whose terror only becomes more pronounced when read during the current pandemic.
Zoe Meadows is a journalist tasked with covering an outdoor Scottish music festival. She is reluctant to encounter both the celebrities and the mud that will greet her there, but takes comfort in knowing that at least two friends will be among the crowd.
These friends are Lisa and Sam, who own and run a food truck appearing at the festival to fuel those attending for all-day and late-night partying. They are overrun with hungry individuals but the hype soon dies off as, well, the party-goers begin to die off, too.
What begins as a seemingly simple case of food poisoning is soon revealed to be something so much worse. And humans seem unable to stop its spread, even after they figure out its true cause.
Despite the obvious differences in what features here and the current spread of COVID-19, this had very similar and startling similarities to what we are all currently living through, across the globe. I found this a bleak and harrowing story-line, with the reality of what was depicted ensuring it struck a more chilling chord. How the bacterial infection was initial brushed off as nothing of concern and the later fear when it proved to be just the opposite was hard to read, because of this.
I didn't gel with the illustration style as wholly as I did the written narrative, however. The grey pencil drawings were simple yet well-done, but they didn't add much to my understanding or evoke emotion surrounding the events unravelling, for me.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Val McDermid, the illustrator, Kathryn Briggs, and the publisher, Grove Atlantic, for this opportunity.
Zoe Meadows is a journalist tasked with covering an outdoor Scottish music festival. She is reluctant to encounter both the celebrities and the mud that will greet her there, but takes comfort in knowing that at least two friends will be among the crowd.
These friends are Lisa and Sam, who own and run a food truck appearing at the festival to fuel those attending for all-day and late-night partying. They are overrun with hungry individuals but the hype soon dies off as, well, the party-goers begin to die off, too.
What begins as a seemingly simple case of food poisoning is soon revealed to be something so much worse. And humans seem unable to stop its spread, even after they figure out its true cause.
Despite the obvious differences in what features here and the current spread of COVID-19, this had very similar and startling similarities to what we are all currently living through, across the globe. I found this a bleak and harrowing story-line, with the reality of what was depicted ensuring it struck a more chilling chord. How the bacterial infection was initial brushed off as nothing of concern and the later fear when it proved to be just the opposite was hard to read, because of this.
I didn't gel with the illustration style as wholly as I did the written narrative, however. The grey pencil drawings were simple yet well-done, but they didn't add much to my understanding or evoke emotion surrounding the events unravelling, for me.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Val McDermid, the illustrator, Kathryn Briggs, and the publisher, Grove Atlantic, for this opportunity.
March 17, 2021
Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this informative and compelling ARC in return for an honest review. I don't usually read graphic novels, but when I realized it was written by one of my favourite authors, Val McDermid, specializing in crime and suspense, I could not resist requesting the book. I was thrilled when my request was granted.
This is an account of an antibiotic-resistant pandemic that began at an outdoor music festival in a field in England. About 150,000 spectators were in attendance, and some started out being ill with a bacterial-caused gastrointestinal illness. Some of the audience and a couple of musicians died, but those who survived recovered within 24 hours. The infection source was traced to pork sausages at a food truck run by Sam and his wife. Before this, Sam's sausages had been considered the best sold, and the business had the reputation of being hygienic. Unfortunately, the supplier obtained pork from animals raised in cramped, unsanitary conditions. This was unknown to Sam and his wife. Their reputation was ruined, their restaurant was burned down, and the family had to leave the area under threat.
Those who recovered from the gastrointestinal illness soon broke out with skin lesions that turned septic, and many died. Others were asymptomatic or presymptomatic and able to spread the disease. There was no cure. Soon, thousands were ill, and bodies were buried in backyards or set on fire. A few appeared to be immune to the disease.
A leading character in the story is a female reporter named Zoe. She interviewed medical professionals, doctors, specialists working for a cure and even made a couple of visits to the filthy, polluted pig farm. It becomes apparent that she is immune to the disease. Her husband was concerned that she might carry the disease to him and their two young sons when she comes home. Despite her good health, her family succumbed to the sickness. As the deal disease spread in Great Britain, efforts to find a timely cure were futile. The Queen was too ill to perform her duties and asked Prince Charles to dissolve Parliament. Millions were dying worldwide, and governments were breaking down. Anarchy spread amongst the living. Officials covered up the extent of the disease.
A scientist in Australia observed the plague was ending due to a lack of hosts who were susceptible to the bacteria. He also estimated that there were only about 2 million people left alive worldwide. This was a grim forecast of what could actually occur unless the world becomes better prepared. This was a well-researched book about a fictional pandemic and the science involved. It was terrifying in its implications. Having lived through a year of COVID and hoping for my vaccine soon, this book may be upsetting or frightening to some readers. I found it both informative and scary.
I felt that author Val McDermid and illustrator Kathryn Briggs told a harrowing story that is more pronounced and worrisome during the present pandemic.
This is an account of an antibiotic-resistant pandemic that began at an outdoor music festival in a field in England. About 150,000 spectators were in attendance, and some started out being ill with a bacterial-caused gastrointestinal illness. Some of the audience and a couple of musicians died, but those who survived recovered within 24 hours. The infection source was traced to pork sausages at a food truck run by Sam and his wife. Before this, Sam's sausages had been considered the best sold, and the business had the reputation of being hygienic. Unfortunately, the supplier obtained pork from animals raised in cramped, unsanitary conditions. This was unknown to Sam and his wife. Their reputation was ruined, their restaurant was burned down, and the family had to leave the area under threat.
Those who recovered from the gastrointestinal illness soon broke out with skin lesions that turned septic, and many died. Others were asymptomatic or presymptomatic and able to spread the disease. There was no cure. Soon, thousands were ill, and bodies were buried in backyards or set on fire. A few appeared to be immune to the disease.
A leading character in the story is a female reporter named Zoe. She interviewed medical professionals, doctors, specialists working for a cure and even made a couple of visits to the filthy, polluted pig farm. It becomes apparent that she is immune to the disease. Her husband was concerned that she might carry the disease to him and their two young sons when she comes home. Despite her good health, her family succumbed to the sickness. As the deal disease spread in Great Britain, efforts to find a timely cure were futile. The Queen was too ill to perform her duties and asked Prince Charles to dissolve Parliament. Millions were dying worldwide, and governments were breaking down. Anarchy spread amongst the living. Officials covered up the extent of the disease.
A scientist in Australia observed the plague was ending due to a lack of hosts who were susceptible to the bacteria. He also estimated that there were only about 2 million people left alive worldwide. This was a grim forecast of what could actually occur unless the world becomes better prepared. This was a well-researched book about a fictional pandemic and the science involved. It was terrifying in its implications. Having lived through a year of COVID and hoping for my vaccine soon, this book may be upsetting or frightening to some readers. I found it both informative and scary.
I felt that author Val McDermid and illustrator Kathryn Briggs told a harrowing story that is more pronounced and worrisome during the present pandemic.
March 17, 2021
Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for this informative and compelling ARC in return for an honest review. I don't usually read graphic novels, but when I realized it was written by one of my favourite authors, Val McDermid, specializing in crime and suspense, I could not resist requesting the book. I was thrilled when my request was granted.
This is an account of an antibiotic-resistant pandemic that began at an outdoor music festival in a field in England. About 150,000 spectators were in attendance, and some started out being ill with a bacterial-caused gastrointestinal illness. Some of the audience and a couple of musicians died, but those who survived recovered within 24 hours. The infection source was traced to pork sausages at a food truck run by Sam and his wife. Before this, Sam's sausages had been considered the best sold, and the business had the reputation of being hygienic. Unfortunately, the supplier obtained pork from animals raised in cramped, unsanitary conditions. This was unknown to Sam and his wife. Their reputation was ruined, their restaurant was burned down, and the family had to leave the area under threat.
Those who recovered from the gastrointestinal illness soon broke out with skin lesions that turned septic, and many died. Others were asymptomatic or presymptomatic and able to spread the disease. There was no cure. Soon, thousands were ill, and bodies were buried in backyards or set on fire. A few appeared to be immune to the disease.
A leading character in the story is a female reporter named Zoe. She interviewed medical professionals, doctors, specialists working for a cure and even made a couple of visits to the filthy, polluted pig farm. It becomes apparent that she is immune to the disease. Her husband was concerned that she might carry the disease to him and their two young sons when she comes home. Despite her good health, her family succumbed to the sickness. As the deal disease spread in Great Britain, efforts to find a timely cure were futile. The Queen was too ill to perform her duties and asked Prince Charles to dissolve Parliament. Millions were dying worldwide, and governments were breaking down. Anarchy spread amongst the living. Officials covered up the extent of the disease.
A scientist in Australia observed the plague was ending due to a lack of hosts who were susceptible to the bacteria. He also estimated that there were only about 2 million people left alive worldwide. This was a grim forecast of what could actually occur unless the world becomes better prepared. This was a well-researched book about a fictional pandemic and the science involved. It was terrifying in its implications. Having lived through a year of COVID and hoping for my vaccine soon, this book may be upsetting or frightening to some readers. I found it both informative and scary.
I felt that author Val McDermid and illustrator Kathryn Briggs told a harrowing story that is more pronounced and worrisome during the present pandemic.
This is an account of an antibiotic-resistant pandemic that began at an outdoor music festival in a field in England. About 150,000 spectators were in attendance, and some started out being ill with a bacterial-caused gastrointestinal illness. Some of the audience and a couple of musicians died, but those who survived recovered within 24 hours. The infection source was traced to pork sausages at a food truck run by Sam and his wife. Before this, Sam's sausages had been considered the best sold, and the business had the reputation of being hygienic. Unfortunately, the supplier obtained pork from animals raised in cramped, unsanitary conditions. This was unknown to Sam and his wife. Their reputation was ruined, their restaurant was burned down, and the family had to leave the area under threat.
Those who recovered from the gastrointestinal illness soon broke out with skin lesions that turned septic, and many died. Others were asymptomatic or presymptomatic and able to spread the disease. There was no cure. Soon, thousands were ill, and bodies were buried in backyards or set on fire. A few appeared to be immune to the disease.
A leading character in the story is a female reporter named Zoe. She interviewed medical professionals, doctors, specialists working for a cure and even made a couple of visits to the filthy, polluted pig farm. It becomes apparent that she is immune to the disease. Her husband was concerned that she might carry the disease to him and their two young sons when she comes home. Despite her good health, her family succumbed to the sickness. As the deal disease spread in Great Britain, efforts to find a timely cure were futile. The Queen was too ill to perform her duties and asked Prince Charles to dissolve Parliament. Millions were dying worldwide, and governments were breaking down. Anarchy spread amongst the living. Officials covered up the extent of the disease.
A scientist in Australia observed the plague was ending due to a lack of hosts who were susceptible to the bacteria. He also estimated that there were only about 2 million people left alive worldwide. This was a grim forecast of what could actually occur unless the world becomes better prepared. This was a well-researched book about a fictional pandemic and the science involved. It was terrifying in its implications. Having lived through a year of COVID and hoping for my vaccine soon, this book may be upsetting or frightening to some readers. I found it both informative and scary.
I felt that author Val McDermid and illustrator Kathryn Briggs told a harrowing story that is more pronounced and worrisome during the present pandemic.
June 17, 2021
In collaboration with illustrator Kathryn Briggs, the Scottish Queen of Crime Val McDermid launches into a new medium with Resistance - the graphic novel.
In this bleak dystopian thriller, we follow journalist Zoe Beck, as she investigates the story of a fast-spreading pandemic, from "patient zero", through devastating personal loss, towards a new beginning.
Zoe attends the Summer Solstice music festival in rural Northumberland in her professional guise, hoping to sell several interviews she conducts with musical acts. The festival is beset by constant rain and Zoe shelters in the food van of her friends Sam and Lisa Shore - "Sam's Sausage Sandwiches" - between interviews. Before long, several performers and many patrons begin to feel the effects of a gastro bug, a development festival organisers are keen to play down.
Zoe's relieved to return home to Newcastle and to her partner and their two sons. But before long, a headline performer from the festival is reported as having died from a mystery illness, and many who had been in attendance begin to fall seriously ill, even those who had appeared to have recovered from the initial gastro infection.
As the mystery disease spreads throughout the UK and the world, Zoe tries desperately to get to the truth of what is happening. Authorities have zeroed in on Sam's Sausages as the initial source of the pathogen, and her friends are forced into hiding to avoid the community backlash. Zoe identifies suspect practices at the farm which supplied Sam with his supposedly "organic" meat. She also makes contact with research scientist Dr. Aasmah Siddiqui, from whom she begins to learn the awful truth about the elusive and antibiotic-resistant Erysipelas pathogen - colloquially known as "The Sips".
In these current times, Resistance was a disquieting read. Many of the developments are gut-wrenching on a personal scale, and horrifying at a global or species level. McDermid explores many pertinent issues - the over-use of antibiotics, the politicisation of threats to population health and safety, the impacts of commercial motives undermining ethics and consideration of the greater good in both the pharmaceutical and agriculture-food production industries, and the inability of our under-resourced healthcare systems to deal with a sudden and fast-moving pandemic. She also considers the human and community-level responses that might occur when subjected to threats of this kind.
Kathryn Briggs's comic-style illustrations are fitting to the narrative and evocative of the horror of the situation. I was intrigued by her incorporation of many recognisable motifs, including illuminated manuscript, religious iconography, ancient Greek art and even public service letterheads into her illustrations. The dynamic combination of narrative and illustration made for a compelling reading experience.
Readers around the world will bring to this edition of Resistance their own experience of living during a pandemic, which is not something the author can have anticipated when she wrote the original narrative. In the course of preparing for this review, I listened to Resistance in its original form - a radio play released by Val McDermid in 2017, starring the fabulous Gina McKee in the lead role as Zoe. While there are some changes to character names and genders, and additional dialogue has been added in places, this new graphic novel release closely resembles its predecessor. It's remarkably prescient of McDermid to have accurately fictionalised several issues that have arisen during the current Covid-19 pandemic almost three years in advance.
Resistance isn't an easy read, with many confronting scenes and themes, and may be especially triggering for those who have suffered personal losses due to Covid-19. However, I feel that it's a characteristically well-researched and written piece by one of my favourite writers. I'd recommend it to all lovers of dramatic contemporary fiction, including those who, like myself, haven't yet ventured far into the emerging format of graphic novels.
My thanks to the author, Val McDermid, illustrator Kathryn Briggs, publisher Grove Atlantic - Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.
In this bleak dystopian thriller, we follow journalist Zoe Beck, as she investigates the story of a fast-spreading pandemic, from "patient zero", through devastating personal loss, towards a new beginning.
Zoe attends the Summer Solstice music festival in rural Northumberland in her professional guise, hoping to sell several interviews she conducts with musical acts. The festival is beset by constant rain and Zoe shelters in the food van of her friends Sam and Lisa Shore - "Sam's Sausage Sandwiches" - between interviews. Before long, several performers and many patrons begin to feel the effects of a gastro bug, a development festival organisers are keen to play down.
Zoe's relieved to return home to Newcastle and to her partner and their two sons. But before long, a headline performer from the festival is reported as having died from a mystery illness, and many who had been in attendance begin to fall seriously ill, even those who had appeared to have recovered from the initial gastro infection.
As the mystery disease spreads throughout the UK and the world, Zoe tries desperately to get to the truth of what is happening. Authorities have zeroed in on Sam's Sausages as the initial source of the pathogen, and her friends are forced into hiding to avoid the community backlash. Zoe identifies suspect practices at the farm which supplied Sam with his supposedly "organic" meat. She also makes contact with research scientist Dr. Aasmah Siddiqui, from whom she begins to learn the awful truth about the elusive and antibiotic-resistant Erysipelas pathogen - colloquially known as "The Sips".
In these current times, Resistance was a disquieting read. Many of the developments are gut-wrenching on a personal scale, and horrifying at a global or species level. McDermid explores many pertinent issues - the over-use of antibiotics, the politicisation of threats to population health and safety, the impacts of commercial motives undermining ethics and consideration of the greater good in both the pharmaceutical and agriculture-food production industries, and the inability of our under-resourced healthcare systems to deal with a sudden and fast-moving pandemic. She also considers the human and community-level responses that might occur when subjected to threats of this kind.
Kathryn Briggs's comic-style illustrations are fitting to the narrative and evocative of the horror of the situation. I was intrigued by her incorporation of many recognisable motifs, including illuminated manuscript, religious iconography, ancient Greek art and even public service letterheads into her illustrations. The dynamic combination of narrative and illustration made for a compelling reading experience.
Readers around the world will bring to this edition of Resistance their own experience of living during a pandemic, which is not something the author can have anticipated when she wrote the original narrative. In the course of preparing for this review, I listened to Resistance in its original form - a radio play released by Val McDermid in 2017, starring the fabulous Gina McKee in the lead role as Zoe. While there are some changes to character names and genders, and additional dialogue has been added in places, this new graphic novel release closely resembles its predecessor. It's remarkably prescient of McDermid to have accurately fictionalised several issues that have arisen during the current Covid-19 pandemic almost three years in advance.
Resistance isn't an easy read, with many confronting scenes and themes, and may be especially triggering for those who have suffered personal losses due to Covid-19. However, I feel that it's a characteristically well-researched and written piece by one of my favourite writers. I'd recommend it to all lovers of dramatic contemporary fiction, including those who, like myself, haven't yet ventured far into the emerging format of graphic novels.
My thanks to the author, Val McDermid, illustrator Kathryn Briggs, publisher Grove Atlantic - Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.
February 27, 2021
Val McDermid now will not only terrify you with tales of murder, she will also terrorise you with stories of a world-ending pandemic.
This is her first graphic novel, and I do think it shows. It's just a bit too wordy, although it elicits a reaction in the art that I found very interesting. More about that later.
The book starts with Zoe, a reporter, visiting a music festival (no Covid in this world - this book's disease is far worse) to interview several acts. As on any festival, there are stands selling food, including one run by a couple who are friends of Zoe, selling sausages. We, the readers, instantly hear the alarm bells.
And slowly a disease starts spreading through the festival goers and the artists, alike. At first it looks like a case of food poisoning, that seems to go away after 48 hours. And then it comes back stronger and kills the patient.
Zoe hears of the disease as it first pops up at the festival, and tries to find more about it. She contacts her friends, and asks where their meat comes from. All their meat is locally sourced, they say. All their meat..? No! There is one butcher who has provided unsourced meat.
The alarm bells are deafening, by now.
And then the book changes gears. People start dying, people close to Zoe. And society starts crumbling. There are jumps in time, the horror hits hard - kind of reminding me of UK science fiction from the 70s (particularly something like Threads).
I don't think the book handles all the emotional horror that accompanies apocalyptic horror - people die and their bodies have to be disposed of by family members themselves, which feels like such a insanely horrific thing, it weirded me out when characters would conduct whole conversations during their grisly work (that said, people have been forced to do this all through humanity's past, so what do I know).
McDermid has done her research, and it provides interesting scientific background (again reminding me of Threads).
I wasn't blown away by the art at first, but I came to appreciate it more while reading the book. As I mentioned before, McDermid writes wordy dialogue for her characters, and the way Kathryn Briggs handles this, is by placing wordy conversations against a background playing with what is being discussed. The frames will be part of a statistics diagram, for example. Briggs shows a lot of inventiveness here.
If I have one real complaint, it is the book's lettering. Seems like such a small thing, but a deceptively important one. Now, I have to note here that I read an advance copy, so maybe this won't be the lettering used in the final version. As it is now, the lettering seems to be done with computer, and it just looks awful. It is always worth it to invest in a real, by-hand letterer.
Overall, another bleak, terrifying outing by Val McDermid, albeit in a different genre.
3.5 stars
(Kindly received an ARC from Atlantic Monthly Press through Edelweiss)
This is her first graphic novel, and I do think it shows. It's just a bit too wordy, although it elicits a reaction in the art that I found very interesting. More about that later.
The book starts with Zoe, a reporter, visiting a music festival (no Covid in this world - this book's disease is far worse) to interview several acts. As on any festival, there are stands selling food, including one run by a couple who are friends of Zoe, selling sausages. We, the readers, instantly hear the alarm bells.
And slowly a disease starts spreading through the festival goers and the artists, alike. At first it looks like a case of food poisoning, that seems to go away after 48 hours. And then it comes back stronger and kills the patient.
Zoe hears of the disease as it first pops up at the festival, and tries to find more about it. She contacts her friends, and asks where their meat comes from. All their meat is locally sourced, they say. All their meat..? No! There is one butcher who has provided unsourced meat.
The alarm bells are deafening, by now.
And then the book changes gears. People start dying, people close to Zoe. And society starts crumbling. There are jumps in time, the horror hits hard - kind of reminding me of UK science fiction from the 70s (particularly something like Threads).
I don't think the book handles all the emotional horror that accompanies apocalyptic horror - people die and their bodies have to be disposed of by family members themselves, which feels like such a insanely horrific thing, it weirded me out when characters would conduct whole conversations during their grisly work (that said, people have been forced to do this all through humanity's past, so what do I know).
McDermid has done her research, and it provides interesting scientific background (again reminding me of Threads).
I wasn't blown away by the art at first, but I came to appreciate it more while reading the book. As I mentioned before, McDermid writes wordy dialogue for her characters, and the way Kathryn Briggs handles this, is by placing wordy conversations against a background playing with what is being discussed. The frames will be part of a statistics diagram, for example. Briggs shows a lot of inventiveness here.
If I have one real complaint, it is the book's lettering. Seems like such a small thing, but a deceptively important one. Now, I have to note here that I read an advance copy, so maybe this won't be the lettering used in the final version. As it is now, the lettering seems to be done with computer, and it just looks awful. It is always worth it to invest in a real, by-hand letterer.
Overall, another bleak, terrifying outing by Val McDermid, albeit in a different genre.
3.5 stars
(Kindly received an ARC from Atlantic Monthly Press through Edelweiss)
October 30, 2021
The author certainly picked the correct time to release this. A comic about a pandemic in the middle of a pandemic. This was has a different basis. It's brought on by tainted pork due to the overuse of antibiotics. That's one of my pet peeves about the book. It's almost a PSA about the overuse of antibiotics, it's mentioned so many times. The art is rough at times and there's way too much dialogue on every page. Still, it's a scary and sobering read.
August 22, 2021
Pretty gripping tale of an antibiotic resistance-driven pandemic. Not my preferred topic for last year or this year (fingers crossed for 2022) but McDermid does a great job describing the family tensions, government (poor)response, public tensions, and in some ways the utter fragility of our societal and governmental institutions. The art was pretty off putting, and there were huge info dumps of words on several pages that reduced the graphic novel at times to just an illustrated manuscript. Four stars for the story, two for the art and use of the medium.
**Thanks to the author, artist, publisher, and Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
**Thanks to the author, artist, publisher, and Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
December 4, 2021
RESISTANCE: A GRAPHIC NOVEL
By Val McDermid with Illustrations by: Kathryn Briggs
“Resistance” is a graphic novel written by Val McDermid and illustrated by Kathryn Briggs,
The story was originally presented as a radio broadcast on BBC in 2017. The narrative entails
a world-wide pandemic and explores a multitude of societal ills along the way. Zoe Meadows is a journalist covering a Scottish music festival - the Summer Solstice, with the goal of interviewing several of the performers. The festival is plagued by almost constant rain (ala Woodstock) and Zoe often takes refuge in her friends Sam and Lisa Shore’s food truck - “Sam’s Sausage Sandwiches”, while darting in and out of the downpour. Some of the attendees appear stricken with a gastrointestinal disturbance, originally feared to be “food poisoning” and blamed on the food at her friend’s food truck. After the festival is over, one of performer dies from a “mysterious infection” , followed by sequentially not only attendees becoming ill, but the disease spreads initially throughout the UK and then the world. Ground Zero infection appears related to tainted sausages from a farm with suspect practices. The pathogen appears to be an elusive antibiotic-resistant strain of Erysipelas …. commonly referred to as “The Sips”
McDermid crafts a gripping and unfortunately relevant narrative that explores many present day themes: the politicization of health concerns, the ultimate effect of over-use of antibiotics,
commercial greed impacting on ethics in both pharmaceutical and food production industries, and finally inability of the worldwide healthcare system to deal with an aggressive pandemic.
Unfortunately the heady mix of themes is not complemented by the sparse comic-style graphics.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review
…. at readers remains.com …..
By Val McDermid with Illustrations by: Kathryn Briggs
“Resistance” is a graphic novel written by Val McDermid and illustrated by Kathryn Briggs,
The story was originally presented as a radio broadcast on BBC in 2017. The narrative entails
a world-wide pandemic and explores a multitude of societal ills along the way. Zoe Meadows is a journalist covering a Scottish music festival - the Summer Solstice, with the goal of interviewing several of the performers. The festival is plagued by almost constant rain (ala Woodstock) and Zoe often takes refuge in her friends Sam and Lisa Shore’s food truck - “Sam’s Sausage Sandwiches”, while darting in and out of the downpour. Some of the attendees appear stricken with a gastrointestinal disturbance, originally feared to be “food poisoning” and blamed on the food at her friend’s food truck. After the festival is over, one of performer dies from a “mysterious infection” , followed by sequentially not only attendees becoming ill, but the disease spreads initially throughout the UK and then the world. Ground Zero infection appears related to tainted sausages from a farm with suspect practices. The pathogen appears to be an elusive antibiotic-resistant strain of Erysipelas …. commonly referred to as “The Sips”
McDermid crafts a gripping and unfortunately relevant narrative that explores many present day themes: the politicization of health concerns, the ultimate effect of over-use of antibiotics,
commercial greed impacting on ethics in both pharmaceutical and food production industries, and finally inability of the worldwide healthcare system to deal with an aggressive pandemic.
Unfortunately the heady mix of themes is not complemented by the sparse comic-style graphics.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review
…. at readers remains.com …..
February 27, 2021
Thanks to NetGalley and to Atlantic Monthly Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Do you want to relive last year? If so, then look no further. Change a deadly virus for a deadly bacteria resistant to antibiotics and this is the graphic novel for you. This is Val McDermid’s graphic novel debut and, though a good effort, I don’t think this was the right format for this story. It is really text heavy and the monochromatic illustrations and weird layout of some pages and panels make it sometimes confusing and difficult to follow. Though the story itself is good I can’t say I enjoyed my time reading this.
Do you want to relive last year? If so, then look no further. Change a deadly virus for a deadly bacteria resistant to antibiotics and this is the graphic novel for you. This is Val McDermid’s graphic novel debut and, though a good effort, I don’t think this was the right format for this story. It is really text heavy and the monochromatic illustrations and weird layout of some pages and panels make it sometimes confusing and difficult to follow. Though the story itself is good I can’t say I enjoyed my time reading this.
March 19, 2021
I usually turn to graphic novels when I want a quick easy read. Unfortunately for me this was just not it. There was a lot of text and it felt like it wasn’t the most organized graphic novel. I know this may not be the author’s fault but it was hard to follow on my kindle which was super frustrating.
Th premise of the book also felt like it was literally summarizing 2020. There were some differences but it just didn’t surprise or intrigue me enough. I wanted to read it based on the author and what I’ve heard about all his books. Unfortunately it fell short for me.
ARC received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Th premise of the book also felt like it was literally summarizing 2020. There were some differences but it just didn’t surprise or intrigue me enough. I wanted to read it based on the author and what I’ve heard about all his books. Unfortunately it fell short for me.
ARC received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
May 9, 2021
Resistance is a graphic novel written by Val McDermid and illustrated by Kathryn Briggs. The story was originally a radio broadcast on BBC4 in 2017 and is about the dangers of the overuse of antibiotics, and industrialized farming. It begins at a music festival in Scotland. The main protagonist is reporter Zoe Beck who is covering the festival. Several festival participants become extremely ill after eating at a food truck owned by Zoe's friends. Fortunately, everyone recovers and things go back to normal...for a short while.
Then, after a week or so, people begin feeling ill again and purple blotches break out on their skin. Doctors are baffled by the disease especially when antibiotics seem to have no effect on it. Then a popular performer at the festival dies and now Zoe's friends become the targets of hate when their food truck is shut down. Zoe is determined to protect her friends' reputations while following the biggest story of her career. She investigates his suppliers to discover the original source of the disease. But even as she investigates the plague spreads, seemingly unstoppable, killing millions as it gallops across the world. Scientists work frantically to find a cure but, slowly, one by one, their communications go dark.
This is a well-written story by McDermid, made all the more terrifying by the very real and horrifying possibilities the overuse of antibiotics may lead to. It is perfectly complemented by the artwork, sharp and occasionally chaotic as the disease spreads. There are some, no doubt, that may find this novel insensitive given that we are in the midst of a very real and deadly pandemic but, if we learn anything right now, it should be the danger of diseases caused by human action whether overuse of antibiotics or loss of habitats bringing us closer to animals who may carry diseases we have no immunity to as well as our refusal to take the threat seriously enough to prepare for it.
I can't say I found the novel enjoyable given the subject and the times but it is well-written, well-illustrated and compelling. I recommend it highly to anyone wanting to understand better the world and the possibilities if we won't reevaluate what we are willing to accept both for ourselves and the only planet we have in the name of profits and expediency.
Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
Then, after a week or so, people begin feeling ill again and purple blotches break out on their skin. Doctors are baffled by the disease especially when antibiotics seem to have no effect on it. Then a popular performer at the festival dies and now Zoe's friends become the targets of hate when their food truck is shut down. Zoe is determined to protect her friends' reputations while following the biggest story of her career. She investigates his suppliers to discover the original source of the disease. But even as she investigates the plague spreads, seemingly unstoppable, killing millions as it gallops across the world. Scientists work frantically to find a cure but, slowly, one by one, their communications go dark.
This is a well-written story by McDermid, made all the more terrifying by the very real and horrifying possibilities the overuse of antibiotics may lead to. It is perfectly complemented by the artwork, sharp and occasionally chaotic as the disease spreads. There are some, no doubt, that may find this novel insensitive given that we are in the midst of a very real and deadly pandemic but, if we learn anything right now, it should be the danger of diseases caused by human action whether overuse of antibiotics or loss of habitats bringing us closer to animals who may carry diseases we have no immunity to as well as our refusal to take the threat seriously enough to prepare for it.
I can't say I found the novel enjoyable given the subject and the times but it is well-written, well-illustrated and compelling. I recommend it highly to anyone wanting to understand better the world and the possibilities if we won't reevaluate what we are willing to accept both for ourselves and the only planet we have in the name of profits and expediency.
Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review
April 27, 2021
The Short Version: A chilling look at how unprepared we are for future global pandemics that hits close to home given the recent pandemic.
The Long Version: This graphic novel was obviously inspired by our recent struggles with the COVID 19 pandemic and does an excellent job of shining a light on how as humans we tend to be reactive instead of proactive. The narrative is highly believable and creates a lot of tension as you imagine just how easily we could slip into the reality in this novel.
Although the novel is well plotted and well written, it struggles under its own weight at times. The novel is trying to educate us to scare us into taking action now, and in the process it gets very heavy with dialogue and info dumping which kind of pulled me out of the world of the narrative at times.
The artwork is solid, and the proof I reviewed isn’t a final version, so I’m not sure if it’s going to be in black and white in its final version, but if it is, the artwork will suffer because the black and white gets cloudy here and there. Adding color would really increase the impact.
The layout is clunky at times. Occasionally the flow of dialogue is counterintuitive and confusing to read. Also, a lot of the pages have backgrounds (all very intentional as they relate to what’s going on and evoke things like the times of the bubonic plague, the craze of media, etc...) and these backgrounds clash with the action in the foreground. If the art gets colorized but the backgrounds stay black and white, I think the overall product would be better.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5. It was incredibly informative and well thought out but the educational aspect of the novel clashes with the narrative aspect and pulls away at some of the enjoyability. Even so it’s something everyone should read
Component Ratings
Concept/Idea: 4.5 out of 5
Art: 3.5 out of 5
Dialogue: 2.5 out of 5
Layout: 2 out of 5
Characters: 4 out of 5
Character Development: 4.5 out of 5
Plot: 3.5 out of 5
Ending: 4 out of 5
The Long Version: This graphic novel was obviously inspired by our recent struggles with the COVID 19 pandemic and does an excellent job of shining a light on how as humans we tend to be reactive instead of proactive. The narrative is highly believable and creates a lot of tension as you imagine just how easily we could slip into the reality in this novel.
Although the novel is well plotted and well written, it struggles under its own weight at times. The novel is trying to educate us to scare us into taking action now, and in the process it gets very heavy with dialogue and info dumping which kind of pulled me out of the world of the narrative at times.
The artwork is solid, and the proof I reviewed isn’t a final version, so I’m not sure if it’s going to be in black and white in its final version, but if it is, the artwork will suffer because the black and white gets cloudy here and there. Adding color would really increase the impact.
The layout is clunky at times. Occasionally the flow of dialogue is counterintuitive and confusing to read. Also, a lot of the pages have backgrounds (all very intentional as they relate to what’s going on and evoke things like the times of the bubonic plague, the craze of media, etc...) and these backgrounds clash with the action in the foreground. If the art gets colorized but the backgrounds stay black and white, I think the overall product would be better.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5. It was incredibly informative and well thought out but the educational aspect of the novel clashes with the narrative aspect and pulls away at some of the enjoyability. Even so it’s something everyone should read
Component Ratings
Concept/Idea: 4.5 out of 5
Art: 3.5 out of 5
Dialogue: 2.5 out of 5
Layout: 2 out of 5
Characters: 4 out of 5
Character Development: 4.5 out of 5
Plot: 3.5 out of 5
Ending: 4 out of 5
December 4, 2021
RESISTANCE: A GRAPHIC NOVEL
By Val McDermid with Illustrations by: Kathryn Briggs
“Resistance” is a graphic novel written by Val McDermid and illustrated by Kathryn Briggs,
The story was originally presented as a radio broadcast on BBC in 2017. The narrative entails
a world-wide pandemic and explores a multitude of societal ills along the way. Zoe Meadows is a journalist covering a Scottish music festival - the Summer Solstice, with the goal of interviewing several of the performers. The festival is plagued by almost constant rain (ala Woodstock) and Zoe often takes refuge in her friends Sam and Lisa Shore’s food truck - “Sam’s Sausage Sandwiches”, while darting in and out of the downpour. Some of the attendees appear stricken with a gastrointestinal disturbance, originally feared to be “food poisoning” and blamed on the food at her friend’s food truck. After the festival is over, one of performer dies from a “mysterious infection” , followed by sequentially not only attendees becoming ill, but the disease spreads initially throughout the UK and then the world. Ground Zero infection appears related to tainted sausages from a farm with suspect practices. The pathogen appears to be an elusive antibiotic-resistant strain of Erysipelas …. commonly referred to as “The Sips”
McDermid crafts a gripping and unfortunately relevant narrative that explores many present day themes: the politicization of health concerns, the ultimate effect of over-use of antibiotics,
commercial greed impacting on ethics in both pharmaceutical and food production industries, and finally inability of the worldwide healthcare system to deal with an aggressive pandemic.
Unfortunately the heady mix of themes is not complemented by the sparse comic-style graphics.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review
…. at readers remains.com …..
By Val McDermid with Illustrations by: Kathryn Briggs
“Resistance” is a graphic novel written by Val McDermid and illustrated by Kathryn Briggs,
The story was originally presented as a radio broadcast on BBC in 2017. The narrative entails
a world-wide pandemic and explores a multitude of societal ills along the way. Zoe Meadows is a journalist covering a Scottish music festival - the Summer Solstice, with the goal of interviewing several of the performers. The festival is plagued by almost constant rain (ala Woodstock) and Zoe often takes refuge in her friends Sam and Lisa Shore’s food truck - “Sam’s Sausage Sandwiches”, while darting in and out of the downpour. Some of the attendees appear stricken with a gastrointestinal disturbance, originally feared to be “food poisoning” and blamed on the food at her friend’s food truck. After the festival is over, one of performer dies from a “mysterious infection” , followed by sequentially not only attendees becoming ill, but the disease spreads initially throughout the UK and then the world. Ground Zero infection appears related to tainted sausages from a farm with suspect practices. The pathogen appears to be an elusive antibiotic-resistant strain of Erysipelas …. commonly referred to as “The Sips”
McDermid crafts a gripping and unfortunately relevant narrative that explores many present day themes: the politicization of health concerns, the ultimate effect of over-use of antibiotics,
commercial greed impacting on ethics in both pharmaceutical and food production industries, and finally inability of the worldwide healthcare system to deal with an aggressive pandemic.
Unfortunately the heady mix of themes is not complemented by the sparse comic-style graphics.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review
…. at readers remains.com …..
July 27, 2021
Slow, boring, and rambling. This may have worked better in the audio drama format it was apparently originally designed for.
I hated the art, which drags my rating from "it was okay" to "did not like it," especially because of the way the lettering was done. It doesn't help that the script is wordy (fine for an audio drama, bad for a comic); and it certainly doesn't help that the medieval Black Plague imagery overlaid on some pages makes the already-cluttered, text-heavy pages even more illegible; but the worst sin, in my book, is that the periods are indistinguishable from the commas. I actually find this unforgivable in a text-heavy comic!
The only redeeming quality in my eyes was the weird medical stuff, which I always find interesting.
I hated the art, which drags my rating from "it was okay" to "did not like it," especially because of the way the lettering was done. It doesn't help that the script is wordy (fine for an audio drama, bad for a comic); and it certainly doesn't help that the medieval Black Plague imagery overlaid on some pages makes the already-cluttered, text-heavy pages even more illegible; but the worst sin, in my book, is that the periods are indistinguishable from the commas. I actually find this unforgivable in a text-heavy comic!
The only redeeming quality in my eyes was the weird medical stuff, which I always find interesting.
July 21, 2021
*****3.5*****
"The real issue is that we've stuffed ourselves and the animals we eat with a cocktail of unnecessary antibiotics over the past thirty years or more. It was only a matter of time before a disease came along that was stronger than anything we've got left to try."
Sir Alexander Fleming "knew how easy it could be for microbes to develop resistance... He said, 'The thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatment is morally responsible for the death of the man who succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism.'"
This book is very timely. It's a cautionary tale but also one of hope. The main character and narrator, Zoe, is a journalist. She's tired of covering celebrity news, which she switched to from "real journalism" to make more money, but which she genuinely dislikes. She's covering a music festival held during Solstice, and she's reluctant to go. Her best friends, Sam and Lisa, will be there, serving food out of their truck, Sam's Sausage Sandwiches. Zoe spends most of the rainy festival interviewing headliners and hanging out with her friends. She doesn't eat Sam's food because she's a vegetarian. The story really begins when people begin falling sick at the festival. Well, they're eating poorly, drinking a lot, hungover, not showering, and walking around in the "mud."
But it quickly becomes apparent that poor sanitation at the festival and overindulging are not the culprits. Zoe begins to dig into what's really going on and finds out more than she wants to know. Soon, it doesn't matter who knows what, thanks to "the sips," a deadly disease blowing through the population at an exponential rate.
If this sounds too familiar, that's because this graphic novel is very timely. There are major differences between the sips and COVID, the primary difference being that the sips is bacterial, not viral. Therefore, antibiotics should be able to help, but because of bacteria's resistance to our over-medication, the disease mutates quickly. Another difference is how quickly the sips passes from person to person. It's more like the plague than COVID in that regard. Also, Zoe's digging uncovers more than just people eating food they shouldn't, leading to species-jumping viruses. There's more going on than meets the eye (I was tempted to say than "meats" the eye, but this is serious), and there are major critiques of big pharma, politics, and economics in this book. Scientists are heroes, underfunded but dedicated to finding answers and making a difference with their research.
This book starts off very gripping. The tension and suspense build from page to page, especially as the perspective shifts from Zoe to her friends to politicians and scientists, notably Aasmah Siddiqui and her colleague Cheryl. There are surprising revelations and not-so-surprising but sad turns of event. Once I got to about 75% through, though, I felt like the plot moved towards an ending very quickly, and I lost a lot of the suspense and connection I felt throughout the first two-thirds or so of the book. I found that major events were spelled out pretty quickly and without much impact, and the book wraps up in a way that makes sense but that seems too easy given the circumstances. Also, a major revelation at the end that gives the characters quite a shock seems unrealistic given the amount of time over which the book seems to take place.
With all that being said, I really enjoyed this book. I found it very interesting with everything we've gone through since last year. Reading about a pandemic while living through one is hard in some ways but also oddly comforting in others. Resistance shows us that it could be much worse, and there are many things that people in power don't do in the book that they've done in life that have helped make things better than they could have been. The book also ends on a hopeful (though tragic) note, and there's a sort of gloomy optimism with it.
As for the artwork, there are a few pages that are a bit confusing, and I'm not sure how to read them (like the clock page), but overall, I found Kathryn Briggs' work very intriguing and thought-provoking. There's one image that really stuck with me, and most of them have a depth to them that tells you more about the story and the context and how we're meant to understand the characters and their roles but also what they symbolize.
Overall, I'm glad I read this book, and I recommend it if you like graphic novels, and if you feel up to reading a book about a pandemic. Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for offering a digital copy of Resistance in exchange for an honest review.
"The real issue is that we've stuffed ourselves and the animals we eat with a cocktail of unnecessary antibiotics over the past thirty years or more. It was only a matter of time before a disease came along that was stronger than anything we've got left to try."
Sir Alexander Fleming "knew how easy it could be for microbes to develop resistance... He said, 'The thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatment is morally responsible for the death of the man who succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism.'"
This book is very timely. It's a cautionary tale but also one of hope. The main character and narrator, Zoe, is a journalist. She's tired of covering celebrity news, which she switched to from "real journalism" to make more money, but which she genuinely dislikes. She's covering a music festival held during Solstice, and she's reluctant to go. Her best friends, Sam and Lisa, will be there, serving food out of their truck, Sam's Sausage Sandwiches. Zoe spends most of the rainy festival interviewing headliners and hanging out with her friends. She doesn't eat Sam's food because she's a vegetarian. The story really begins when people begin falling sick at the festival. Well, they're eating poorly, drinking a lot, hungover, not showering, and walking around in the "mud."
But it quickly becomes apparent that poor sanitation at the festival and overindulging are not the culprits. Zoe begins to dig into what's really going on and finds out more than she wants to know. Soon, it doesn't matter who knows what, thanks to "the sips," a deadly disease blowing through the population at an exponential rate.
If this sounds too familiar, that's because this graphic novel is very timely. There are major differences between the sips and COVID, the primary difference being that the sips is bacterial, not viral. Therefore, antibiotics should be able to help, but because of bacteria's resistance to our over-medication, the disease mutates quickly. Another difference is how quickly the sips passes from person to person. It's more like the plague than COVID in that regard. Also, Zoe's digging uncovers more than just people eating food they shouldn't, leading to species-jumping viruses. There's more going on than meets the eye (I was tempted to say than "meats" the eye, but this is serious), and there are major critiques of big pharma, politics, and economics in this book. Scientists are heroes, underfunded but dedicated to finding answers and making a difference with their research.
This book starts off very gripping. The tension and suspense build from page to page, especially as the perspective shifts from Zoe to her friends to politicians and scientists, notably Aasmah Siddiqui and her colleague Cheryl. There are surprising revelations and not-so-surprising but sad turns of event. Once I got to about 75% through, though, I felt like the plot moved towards an ending very quickly, and I lost a lot of the suspense and connection I felt throughout the first two-thirds or so of the book. I found that major events were spelled out pretty quickly and without much impact, and the book wraps up in a way that makes sense but that seems too easy given the circumstances. Also, a major revelation at the end that gives the characters quite a shock seems unrealistic given the amount of time over which the book seems to take place.
With all that being said, I really enjoyed this book. I found it very interesting with everything we've gone through since last year. Reading about a pandemic while living through one is hard in some ways but also oddly comforting in others. Resistance shows us that it could be much worse, and there are many things that people in power don't do in the book that they've done in life that have helped make things better than they could have been. The book also ends on a hopeful (though tragic) note, and there's a sort of gloomy optimism with it.
As for the artwork, there are a few pages that are a bit confusing, and I'm not sure how to read them (like the clock page), but overall, I found Kathryn Briggs' work very intriguing and thought-provoking. There's one image that really stuck with me, and most of them have a depth to them that tells you more about the story and the context and how we're meant to understand the characters and their roles but also what they symbolize.
Overall, I'm glad I read this book, and I recommend it if you like graphic novels, and if you feel up to reading a book about a pandemic. Thank you to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for offering a digital copy of Resistance in exchange for an honest review.
April 27, 2021
The Short Version: A chilling look at how unprepared we are for future global pandemics that hits close to home given the recent pandemic.
The Long Version: This graphic novel was obviously inspired by our recent struggles with the COVID 19 pandemic and does an excellent job of shining a light on how as humans we tend to be reactive instead of proactive. The narrative is highly believable and creates a lot of tension as you imagine just how easily we could slip into the reality in this novel.
Although the novel is well plotted and well written, it struggles under its own weight at times. The novel is trying to educate us to scare us into taking action now, and in the process it gets very heavy with dialogue and info dumping which kind of pulled me out of the world of the narrative at times.
The artwork is solid, and the proof I reviewed isn’t a final version, so I’m not sure if it’s going to be in black and white in its final version, but if it is, the artwork will suffer because the black and white gets cloudy here and there. Adding color would really increase the impact.
The layout is clunky at times. Occasionally the flow of dialogue is counterintuitive and confusing to read. Also, a lot of the pages have backgrounds (all very intentional as they relate to what’s going on and evoke things like the times of the bubonic plague, the craze of media, etc...) and these backgrounds clash with the action in the foreground. If the art gets colorized but the backgrounds stay black and white, I think the overall product would be better.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5. It was incredibly informative and well thought out but the educational aspect of the novel clashes with the narrative aspect and pulls away at some of the enjoyability. Even so it’s something everyone should read
Component Ratings
Concept/Idea: 4.5 out of 5
Art: 3.5 out of 5
Dialogue: 2.5 out of 5
Layout: 2 out of 5
Characters: 4 out of 5
Character Development: 4.5 out of 5
Plot: 3.5 out of 5
Ending: 4 out of 5
The Long Version: This graphic novel was obviously inspired by our recent struggles with the COVID 19 pandemic and does an excellent job of shining a light on how as humans we tend to be reactive instead of proactive. The narrative is highly believable and creates a lot of tension as you imagine just how easily we could slip into the reality in this novel.
Although the novel is well plotted and well written, it struggles under its own weight at times. The novel is trying to educate us to scare us into taking action now, and in the process it gets very heavy with dialogue and info dumping which kind of pulled me out of the world of the narrative at times.
The artwork is solid, and the proof I reviewed isn’t a final version, so I’m not sure if it’s going to be in black and white in its final version, but if it is, the artwork will suffer because the black and white gets cloudy here and there. Adding color would really increase the impact.
The layout is clunky at times. Occasionally the flow of dialogue is counterintuitive and confusing to read. Also, a lot of the pages have backgrounds (all very intentional as they relate to what’s going on and evoke things like the times of the bubonic plague, the craze of media, etc...) and these backgrounds clash with the action in the foreground. If the art gets colorized but the backgrounds stay black and white, I think the overall product would be better.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5. It was incredibly informative and well thought out but the educational aspect of the novel clashes with the narrative aspect and pulls away at some of the enjoyability. Even so it’s something everyone should read
Component Ratings
Concept/Idea: 4.5 out of 5
Art: 3.5 out of 5
Dialogue: 2.5 out of 5
Layout: 2 out of 5
Characters: 4 out of 5
Character Development: 4.5 out of 5
Plot: 3.5 out of 5
Ending: 4 out of 5
July 16, 2021
"By the time the politicians started listing to what the scientists were saying, the damage was done."
What’s amazing about this cautionary tale eerily penned before the COVID-19 global pandemic is its spot-on predictions surrounding human nature and the effects that such an event has on humanity. The graphic novel’s lead protagonist is a journalist, Zoe, who covers a large, international Woodstock-like event on a rural farm in Northumberland. Almost immediately, a large number of people become ill and you can guess - return to their homes (local and abroad), families, jobs and in the case of the performers - off to their next booking (local and abroad) innocently spreading the contagion.
Art then imitates life when familiar themes emerged in the book:
- The politicization of Health Care
- Refusal to warn the public or share facts to avoid “causing a panic,” or because there was no immediate cure or effective treatment
- The demand of some for the “Freedom of Movement” when quarantine and social distancing is needed and recommended
- Big Pharma and Corporate greed ignoring the scientific warning of anti-microbial resistance in animals and humans
- Misreporting/Minimizing/Lying about the number of infections and deaths to undermine the scientists and medical professional’s warnings, skew statistics, and trend analysis.
- Ignoring the effects of cross-species contamination and doing nothing to prevent it
Not only does the author nailed much of what we witnessed during 2020, she seemingly presented facts that should not be ignored -- the reader is left with a lot to digest.
I received a free early access copy of Resistance: A Graphic Novel by Val McDermid through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for this opportunity.
What’s amazing about this cautionary tale eerily penned before the COVID-19 global pandemic is its spot-on predictions surrounding human nature and the effects that such an event has on humanity. The graphic novel’s lead protagonist is a journalist, Zoe, who covers a large, international Woodstock-like event on a rural farm in Northumberland. Almost immediately, a large number of people become ill and you can guess - return to their homes (local and abroad), families, jobs and in the case of the performers - off to their next booking (local and abroad) innocently spreading the contagion.
Art then imitates life when familiar themes emerged in the book:
- The politicization of Health Care
- Refusal to warn the public or share facts to avoid “causing a panic,” or because there was no immediate cure or effective treatment
- The demand of some for the “Freedom of Movement” when quarantine and social distancing is needed and recommended
- Big Pharma and Corporate greed ignoring the scientific warning of anti-microbial resistance in animals and humans
- Misreporting/Minimizing/Lying about the number of infections and deaths to undermine the scientists and medical professional’s warnings, skew statistics, and trend analysis.
- Ignoring the effects of cross-species contamination and doing nothing to prevent it
Not only does the author nailed much of what we witnessed during 2020, she seemingly presented facts that should not be ignored -- the reader is left with a lot to digest.
I received a free early access copy of Resistance: A Graphic Novel by Val McDermid through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for this opportunity.
November 5, 2021
A surprising disappointment. Apparently the pandemic-apocalypse plot has played itself out. Here we have the same actors’ troupe we’ve seen a hundred times before: the plucky journalist, salt-of-the-earth friends and families, conflicted scientists, corrupt politicians, nut-job vigilantes. And the same exhausted story arc repeated by rote: shock, denial, resistance, resignation. The prose flatlines. The colorless drawings are hard to decipher, patterned over a palimpsest of smudge. The characters couldn’t die fast enough. I’d have been happy to turn a page halfway through and find the remainder blank.
June 24, 2021
"This used to be the greatest city in the world."
"Probably still is. That's the worst of it."
Viral outbreak at a music festival has horrific consequences. This graphic novel moves quickly. The scope ended up being much broader than I had anticipated. I enjoyed all the historical, scientific, literary, and artistic references that the visual artist managed to incorporate.
British slang I learned:
copper-bottomed: trustworthy
End of.: That's it.
sat nav: more or less what Americans call GPS
"Probably still is. That's the worst of it."
Viral outbreak at a music festival has horrific consequences. This graphic novel moves quickly. The scope ended up being much broader than I had anticipated. I enjoyed all the historical, scientific, literary, and artistic references that the visual artist managed to incorporate.
British slang I learned:
copper-bottomed: trustworthy
End of.: That's it.
sat nav: more or less what Americans call GPS
June 30, 2021
(2.5) The second 2021 release I’ve read in quick succession in which all but a small percentage of the human race (here, 2 million people) perishes in a pandemic – the other was Under the Blue by Oana Aristide. Like Aristide’s novel, this story had its origins in 2017 (in this case, on BBC Radio 4’s Dangerous Visions) but has, of course, taken on newfound significance in the time of Covid. McDermid imagines the sickness taking hold during a fictional version of Glastonbury: Solstice Festival in Northumberland. All the first patients, including a handful of rockstars, ate from Sam’s sausage sandwich van, so initially it looks like food poisoning. But vomiting and diarrhea give way to a nasty rash, listlessness and, in many cases, death.
Zoe Beck, a Black freelance journalist who conducted interviews at Solstice, is friends with Sam and starts investigating the mutated swine disease, caused by an Erysipelas bacterium and thus nicknamed “the Sips.” She talks to the festival doctor and to a female Muslim researcher from the Life Sciences Centre in Newcastle, but her search for answers takes a backseat to survival when her husband and sons fall ill.
The drawing style and image quality – some panes are blurry, as if badly photocopied – really let an otherwise reasonably gripping story down; the best spreads are collages or borrow a frame/backdrop (e.g. a medieval manuscript, NHS forms, or a 1910s title page). The ending, which has an immune remnant founding a new community, is VERY Parable of the Sower.
Zoe Beck, a Black freelance journalist who conducted interviews at Solstice, is friends with Sam and starts investigating the mutated swine disease, caused by an Erysipelas bacterium and thus nicknamed “the Sips.” She talks to the festival doctor and to a female Muslim researcher from the Life Sciences Centre in Newcastle, but her search for answers takes a backseat to survival when her husband and sons fall ill.
The drawing style and image quality – some panes are blurry, as if badly photocopied – really let an otherwise reasonably gripping story down; the best spreads are collages or borrow a frame/backdrop (e.g. a medieval manuscript, NHS forms, or a 1910s title page). The ending, which has an immune remnant founding a new community, is VERY Parable of the Sower.
March 10, 2025
I have the worst timing when it comes to pandemic books. I read Station Eleven for the first time at the start of COVID, and I read this one when half of my coworkers are out with the flu.
It says something about how good this book is that I was so immersed, though. It's short, but packs a punch. I like stories about disasters when they're told from the perspective of an ordinary person. It makes them so much more real. We don't know what's happening in the rest of the world, or what's going on behind the scenes in the government. We just know Zoe, and her efforts to survive.
It says something about how good this book is that I was so immersed, though. It's short, but packs a punch. I like stories about disasters when they're told from the perspective of an ordinary person. It makes them so much more real. We don't know what's happening in the rest of the world, or what's going on behind the scenes in the government. We just know Zoe, and her efforts to survive.
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November 7, 2021This was really interesting. A bit hard to follow some of the speech bubbles, lol I got lost a few times but it was a cracking story once you work out the page
April 21, 2022
Well, that was rather familiar. This graphic novel can be considered a medical thriller. So many aspects of the pandemic in the book were relatable to life over the past 2 years. That may be triggering for some people. The artwork in this book was so well done and unique. I will say that the book gets very scientific. Some parts I had to read over a few times to understand.
January 15, 2023
Well this is incredibly heartbreaking and puts a huge amount of perspective into perspective.
The art was top notch amazing and the writing was so natural and scientific and perfect.
SO SO amazing
The art was top notch amazing and the writing was so natural and scientific and perfect.
SO SO amazing
May 21, 2021
A truly phenomenal graphic novel. As an admittedly rather morbid individual, I think this has come out at an appropriate time. I've always been interested in disease-cause apocalypses and the destruction of humanity, and this fits right into the genre. While I can understand this being too soon or too close to home for some people, I think it works. COVID-19 has undoubtedly been a horrible catastrophe made worse by government reluctance, humanity's selfishness, and political lines. From my very privileged position, this served as a reminder for me for how much worse the pandemic could have been. It is also important to note that this story was originally a BBC radio broadcast in 2017, so the COVID-19 pandemic wasn't exploited for narrative value here. Now onto the story!
Resistance follows journalist Zoe as she tries to uncover the source behind a sickness, later called the Sips, that breaks out at an open-air music festival in Northumberland. At first, doctor's think it's a virus but it is eventually revealed that it is a particularly violent bacteria exacerbated by the inhumane living conditions of animals and humanity's over-dependency on antibiotics. The graphic novel follows the Sips from epidemic to pandemic to wipe out.
While others have rightfully said that this is a wordy graphic novel, I think it works for the context. Additionally, the art is what elevates this from a great story to something truly phenomenal. Artist Kathryn Briggs uses what initially appears to be an unusual style for a graphic novel that eventually develops into, in my opinion, a masterpiece. Here is a blog post that shows some examples to get you excited: https://crimefictionlover.com/2021/04.... The entire story is black-and-white, making the images as dark as the text.
My only complaint is actually that I wanted this to be longer. While it is a great length and story on its own, I feel that there were aspects of the disease and its effect on humanity that could have been explored more. We jumped around a lot (because that is truly what worked best for the story in this context), but there were some gaps that could have been filled. I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who really enjoyed the story and illustrations and didn't want it to end.
Either way, this is a graphic novel I hope to purchase to re-read multiple times.
**I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!
Resistance follows journalist Zoe as she tries to uncover the source behind a sickness, later called the Sips, that breaks out at an open-air music festival in Northumberland. At first, doctor's think it's a virus but it is eventually revealed that it is a particularly violent bacteria exacerbated by the inhumane living conditions of animals and humanity's over-dependency on antibiotics. The graphic novel follows the Sips from epidemic to pandemic to wipe out.
While others have rightfully said that this is a wordy graphic novel, I think it works for the context. Additionally, the art is what elevates this from a great story to something truly phenomenal. Artist Kathryn Briggs uses what initially appears to be an unusual style for a graphic novel that eventually develops into, in my opinion, a masterpiece. Here is a blog post that shows some examples to get you excited: https://crimefictionlover.com/2021/04.... The entire story is black-and-white, making the images as dark as the text.
My only complaint is actually that I wanted this to be longer. While it is a great length and story on its own, I feel that there were aspects of the disease and its effect on humanity that could have been explored more. We jumped around a lot (because that is truly what worked best for the story in this context), but there were some gaps that could have been filled. I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who really enjoyed the story and illustrations and didn't want it to end.
Either way, this is a graphic novel I hope to purchase to re-read multiple times.
**I received an eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher!
July 13, 2021
Resistance is the first graphic novel by Queen of crime Val McDermid. In a case of life imitating art, Resistance was radio play commissioned by Welcome in 2017. Val McDermid then teamed up with graphic illustrator Kathryn Briggs. It is a science fiction/pandemic themed novel about a bacterial pandemic caused by bacteria that proves resistant to antibiotics.
Zoe, a freelance journalist, attends an outdoor music festival. Her close friends have a very popular sausage stall there. People start getting sick and as they disperse over the UK and Europe the infection rapidly spreads worldwide. Zoe’s friends are blamed, and she sets out to find out what happened and to help them clear their name However the situation spirals out of control. Like Station Eleven, there’s a doomsday feel to this novel, which made me reflect on how close to the brink we came and what could have happened.
I enjoyed this – the layout was very clever in the way it flowed across the pages. I loved the collage effects and the mixing of mediaeval/Black Death imagery in the backgrounds. So much to look at. I look forward to more collaborations by this talented duo.
Zoe, a freelance journalist, attends an outdoor music festival. Her close friends have a very popular sausage stall there. People start getting sick and as they disperse over the UK and Europe the infection rapidly spreads worldwide. Zoe’s friends are blamed, and she sets out to find out what happened and to help them clear their name However the situation spirals out of control. Like Station Eleven, there’s a doomsday feel to this novel, which made me reflect on how close to the brink we came and what could have happened.
I enjoyed this – the layout was very clever in the way it flowed across the pages. I loved the collage effects and the mixing of mediaeval/Black Death imagery in the backgrounds. So much to look at. I look forward to more collaborations by this talented duo.
May 21, 2021
Synopsis: Reporter goes to Con. People start coming down with Con Crud. Twist it's not actually ConCrud its actually an antibiotic resistant bug,
Having grown up in a prep-er household, I've read more apocalyptic works then I care to count. They were very much a staple of what I read in High School. This book is something I would have inhaled back then.
However unlike the pieces of fiction I read in High School it feels like Cal McDermid has worked to ensure their work is rooted in science to the best of their ability. Which was nice to see.
My favorite part though is Kathryn Briggs' art. There are whole pages that I would sit and look at trying to dissect everything that was depicted. Especially towards the end of the novel as it begins to move towards an art style that we think of being similar to books from the middle ages. Drawing parallels to the destruction and chaos that the Black death caused.
I would recommend this book at minimum for Kathryn's illustrations in the last half of this book.;
Having grown up in a prep-er household, I've read more apocalyptic works then I care to count. They were very much a staple of what I read in High School. This book is something I would have inhaled back then.
However unlike the pieces of fiction I read in High School it feels like Cal McDermid has worked to ensure their work is rooted in science to the best of their ability. Which was nice to see.
My favorite part though is Kathryn Briggs' art. There are whole pages that I would sit and look at trying to dissect everything that was depicted. Especially towards the end of the novel as it begins to move towards an art style that we think of being similar to books from the middle ages. Drawing parallels to the destruction and chaos that the Black death caused.
I would recommend this book at minimum for Kathryn's illustrations in the last half of this book.;
July 17, 2021
This graphic novel was an all too real story about what happens when politics and greed get in the way of science and public health. Although this was written before the arrival of COVID-19, I couldn’t help but notice how spot-on the author was in predicting human nature and the battle between politics and science.
In Resistance, we have a journalist named Zoe as our protagonist. She is assigned to cover a large music festival in Northumberland. It doesn’t take long for many of the festival-goers to become ill, although initially the illness appears to be a 24-hour bug. When the festival ends, everyone returns home to their respective towns. The simple little “24-hour bug” turns out to be a bacterial contagion that quickly spreads across the globe.
It’s a lot of doom and gloom but it’s also a warning to each of us to be mindful of the living conditions, breeding conditions, and overall care of the animals providing our meat source. In addition, it’s a wake-up call about our overuse of antibiotics.
I enjoyed the illustrations and the book flowed seamlessly.
In Resistance, we have a journalist named Zoe as our protagonist. She is assigned to cover a large music festival in Northumberland. It doesn’t take long for many of the festival-goers to become ill, although initially the illness appears to be a 24-hour bug. When the festival ends, everyone returns home to their respective towns. The simple little “24-hour bug” turns out to be a bacterial contagion that quickly spreads across the globe.
It’s a lot of doom and gloom but it’s also a warning to each of us to be mindful of the living conditions, breeding conditions, and overall care of the animals providing our meat source. In addition, it’s a wake-up call about our overuse of antibiotics.
I enjoyed the illustrations and the book flowed seamlessly.
July 23, 2021
Thanks to Net Galley.com for an advanced reading copy. Resistance is an artfully crafted, beautifully drawn graphic novel that is probably going to give me nightmares. As I write this review, reports about the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 are all over the news. But the transmissibility of a respiratory virus is nothing compared to the disastrous potential of drug resistant bacterium. Resistance explores this possibility and considers the devastating effect that kind of pandemic could have on the world. At times, the book seems didactic, but I think that we may need writers to take new approaches to encouraging scientific and medical literacy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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