The Unvaccinated by Jean Grandbois
Mo thought he'd planned well for the end of civilization. What he hadn't planned on was having his dying neighbor's little boy thrust into his care:
"Please, I beg you, take him! He's only four, he won't survive on his own. You're the only one I know who isn't vaccinated!"
In the aftermath of Covid-19, the world's population is dying en masse from the very thing that was supposed to protect them: the vaccine. Mo joins forces with a small band of survivors: a retired schoolteacher, some inner-city gang members, a med school dropout, and an IT specialist. They soon realize they are the only refuge for the unvaccinated, and now orphaned, young children.
As individuals, they have only one thing in common: they aren't vaccinated.
As a group, they have only one goal: find, save, and care for all the orphaned children.
They must face untold horrors while breaking into the homes of the dead to rescue abandoned children before it's too late. The stakes are high: they need to ensure their own survival in a post-apocalyptic world, while being vastly outnumbered by the children in their care. Water, food, shelter - they will need to put aside their differences if they are to secure these basic survival necessities. But not everyone is on their side...
About the author
Jean has refused to set roots, having lived everywhere from the frozen winters of Alberta, to the scorching heat of Southern California, to the wet and windy Netherlands.
He is a firm believer that pizza is the perfect food (unless you put pineapple on it, that’s just wrong).
When not writing software, he is writing prose, renovating his house, or making herbal soap with his six-year-old daughter.
Jean has had two shots and a booster, but no dizzy spells. Yet…
Review
I will admit I was slightly reluctant to read and review this book as its title and content is a divisive matter. I get that, as someone whose father died from covid I can understand people’s strong feelings on the subject. However, I was very presently surprised as the author doesn't really take a stand on the reasons why or why not to get vaccinated it's just really used as a plot point rather than a discourse! There is no judgement on either stance. What the story is actually about is how humanity copes with events, how people will band together to ensure survival and that there is always going to be goodness in the world.
The world is dealing with the aftermath of the pandemic and it seems that those who got vaccinated are dying roughly dying five years afterwards, with warning signs like dizzy spells. When they hit you only have a day left. Mo’s neighbour has started to get dizzy spells and when he knocks on his door asking to look after her son Ben he takes him in despite some apprehensions. Deb finds Lucy in the street and comes to the realisation that there must be lots of children out there whose parents have suddenly died and they are now alone. Deb decides she needs to search her local area for more children and when she reaches Mo’s house they decide to band together and team up. Soon they realise that this is a mammoth task as they find more and more children alone. Will they find other like them who just want to help?
It turns out that I really enjoyed this book. All the characters were well-formed but I particularly liked Mo, Dee and Jessica. I found it to be a thought-provoking read and it really got my attention from the get-go. There was enough drama and tension to keep the readers focus and it dealt with some hard-hitting topics. This was an original take on dystopian fiction and I think will start a lot of this type of story looking at the post covid world. Fans of this genre are sure to like this novel and I highly recommend it!
Let me know if you read this one.
