Kingdom of Needle and Bone

By: Mira Grant

Narrated by: Cris Dukehart

Modern medicine has conquered or contained many of the diseases that used to carry children away before their time, reducing mortality and improving health. Vaccination and treatment are widely available, not held in reserve for the chosen few. There are still monsters left to fight, but the old ones, the simple ones, trouble us no more.

Or so we thought. For with the reduction in danger comes the erosion of memory, as pandemics fade from memory into story into fairy tale. Those old diseases can't have been so bad, people say, or we wouldn't be here to talk about them. They don't matter. They're never coming back.

It begins with a fever. By the time the spots appear, it's too late: Morris's disease is loose on the world, and the bodies of the dead begin to pile high in the streets. When its terrible side consequences for the survivors become clear, something must be done, or the dying will never stop. For Dr. Isabella Gauley, whose niece was the first confirmed victim, the route forward is neither clear nor strictly ethical, but it may be the only way to save a world already in crisis. It may be the only way to atone for her part in everything that's happened. She will never be forgiven, not by herself, and not by anyone else. But she can, perhaps, do the right thing.

©2018 Seanan McGuire (P)2019 Tantor

Yikes

Stars: 5 Stars
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Cris Dukehart
Series: Stand Alone
Steam Level: Not Steamy

Well.

S**t.

Quick Thoughts:
- I KNOW virologists have been warning people for decades about a disease ravaging the world population but knowing that snd having experience the beginning of COVID-19, so this book really creeped me out to the point I had to pause the book for a few hours before finishing
- Something I adore about Mira Grant’s books is how she pulls real life events/causes into these stories. It makes everything easier to believe, which in turn, makes the book so much creepier
- I don’t know how she did it in such a short book but I loved all these characters and would gladly read a full length novel with them
- Did NOT see that ending coming. Holy moo
- This story is going to be to haunt me for a while
- This is the first time listening to Cris Dukehart and I greatly enjoyed her narration. I will absolutely pick something up by her again.

Overall this would have been scary before 2020 now in 2025 it’s fing terrifying. Yes, I lost sleep over this.

Have you ever wondered

what uber-measles would be like? Well never fear, Mira Grant has you covered. And if course people will be people about it.

please tell me there will be a sequel!

It was a good story. It was really getting good at the end. I hope this isn't the only book.

great short listen

very good story. leaves you with just enough small questions to make you wonder throughout the story without sending up red flags to giving away the ending.

I want more!

The only negative I have for this book is that I didn't want it to end. The premise is feasible so it's terrifying! This author never fails me. Her writing is believable and utterly entrancing!