The Herd will, I’m fairly sure, find its way to many a book club and the ensuing discussion will no doubt be interesting. It’s a timely release, focusing on the issue of vaccination and to what extent our responsibility is personal or social.
The book opens with us knowing that a group of former friends are facing each other in court. Of course we want to know why and what chain of events led to this particular scenario.
Elizabeth and Bry are our primary focus. Two very different mothers, with different views on vaccination. With a daughter prone to febrile convulsions, Elizabeth is understandably nervous about people not vaccinating their children. Her best friend has lived for years with the understanding that her brother’s autism was caused by vaccination. She has opted not to.
What transpires is one of those horribly unlucky events. A measles outbreak occurs, many in the community are ill but Elizabeth’s daughter ends up blind. She wants revenge on the ones she blames-the parents who would not vaccinate their daughter.
The book took a while to get going but the establishment of the characters was engaging. By the time we got to the court scene it seemed that we’d be waiting for some kind of twist. When it came I found myself a little irritated because it seemed so at odds with what we’d been told throughout and made a mockery of the situation.