This novel follows three different points of view. Henry as he races to cure or prevent this new virus, Jill, Henry’s wife, as she struggles back home to keep their kids calm and safe in the increasingly dangerous world, and Tidly, a bureaucrat in the US, originally from Russia, as she works to keep the country running and destroy Russia in the process. I loved the first part of the book. The science is well researched and well explained. Wright guides us through the process of identifying the underlying virus while using real-world examples and cautions beautifully. Back in the US, the political portions are interesting but frequently a distraction from the more important work of getting the world a cure. Probably realistic, but I found they dragged the most. Henry’s family’s struggles initially give him something to fight for, but over time develop into another story that is never given a satisfying ending. I wished the last puzzle of the epidemiological mystery had been given more care rather than spend so much time focusing on a story about family and how much they mean to us only to have that story make so little sense once it reached its peak and conclusion.
There were three competing stories in this book. How do professionals during a potential species-ending pandemic save the world? How do governments, who lack real understanding about virology and have personal vendettas and selfish interests, keep a country running in a time of crisis? And how does a family survive through extreme hardship when they can’t even communicate with one another? All three stories are valid and worth telling. I don’t think you can tell all three in a 400-page book. At first, it felt like the epidemiology would be the main story with the others serving as some background information, but over time they grew into their own tales. In the end, I felt I didn’t get a satisfying ending to any of them.
“An eerily prescient novel about a devastating virus that begins in Asia before going global . . . A page-turner that has the earmarks of an instant bestseller.” —New York Post
“Featuring accounts of past plagues and pandemics, descriptions of pathogens and how they work, and dark notes about global warming, the book produces deep shudders . . . A disturbing, eerily timed novel.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A compelling read up to the last sentence. Wright has come up with a story worthy of Michael Crichton. In an eerily calm, matter-of-fact way, and backed by meticulous research, he imagines what the world would actually be like in the grip of a devastating new virus.” —Richard Preston, author of The Hot Zone
“This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
In this riveting medical thriller--from the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author--Dr. Henry Parsons, an unlikely but appealing hero, races to find the origins and cure of a mysterious new killer virus as it brings the world to its knees.
At an internment camp in Indonesia, forty-seven people are pronounced dead with acute hemorrhagic fever. When Henry Parsons--microbiologist, epidemiologist--travels there on behalf of the World Health Organization to investigate, what he finds will soon have staggering repercussions across the globe: an infected man is on his way to join the millions of worshippers in the annual Hajj to Mecca. Now, Henry joins forces with a Saudi prince and doctor in an attempt to quarantine the entire host of pilgrims in the holy city . . . A Russian émigré, a woman who has risen to deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security, scrambles to mount a response to what may be an act of biowarfare . . . Already-fraying global relations begin to snap, one by one, in the face of a pandemic . . . Henry's wife, Jill, and their children face diminishing odds of survival in Atlanta . . . And the disease slashes across the United States, dismantling institutions--scientific, religious, governmental--and decimating the population. As packed with suspense as it is with the fascinating history of viral diseases, Lawrence Wright has given us a full-tilt, electrifying, one-of-a-kind thriller.
Some spoiler-filled thoughts…
I am a huge fan of epidemiology books. Both fiction and non-fiction. Wright’s attention to detail, comparing the flu he created in this book to the 1918 flu pandemic with great detail and to other outbreaks like Legionnaire’s Disease, was masterful. That was easily my favorite part of the book. Of course, I’m biased since that is something I’m very interested in. They consider the virus could be man-made. A biological weapon. They have solid reasons for it and some biased ones for it. We get a few pages tacked on to the end to solve the mystery. It felt rushed and unearned.
We spent a lot of time with Henry searching for a way to get back to his family in the US. It makes sense. With a billion people dead, he would be desperate to know if his family was safe. But once he gets back to Atlanta, he just doesn’t do what I would expect to find his kids. He knows his wife has died and the kids have left the house. He even speculates that they are where we know they are but doesn’t check. Instead, he goes back to work. Yes, curing the pandemic is important, but what? Then he finds them, and it happens off-page. We just know that he found them. It was a huge plot point, and there was no payoff.
When I started The End of October, I devoured the pages. Around halfway through, I started telling myself to just finish it. I wanted to love this, and it wasn’t bad; it just didn’t deliver on any story in a way that felt complete.
Donna is an author and engineer with 15 years of IT experience and a lifetime love of literature and cinema, especially horror. She has written a paranormal Holiday novel, What Creatures Are Stirring. She holds and Electrical Engineering Degree from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Western Governor’s University. Donna is passionate about reading and the importance of access to books. She loves writing about her favorite books and movies and sharing it with her readers.
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