The Herd: the thought-provoking and unputdownable must-read book club novel of 2022

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I am a scientist and a strong proponent of vaccination, but I don't want a story about vaccination, with some characters thrown in, I want a story about some engrossing characters with a strong plot that happens to involve vaccination. The book was engaging despite the two key protagonists having aspects to their characters which did them no favours. An interesting read that is definitely a good book club pick - I can imagine great discussions and many conflicting feelings towards this book and the topic it covers.

I enjoyed this fiction book based on two families with differing opinions on vaccinating their children with devastating consequences. This is essentially a book about two middle class women who think they know better than decades of established medical science.My husband and our birth doula were talking about the birth that was to come - I was about eight months pregnant. I think what's really difficult is that it is so binary: it's really hard to find a space to be like, "I don't know what the best thing to do is and I know I have to make some sort of choice". A woman with glossy French-braid pigtails and molded spectacles smiled at me from behind a marble-fronted desk. The book is told through both parties viewpoints in 2019 with sections designated to a trial held at the end of that year. It grips from the start and doesn't let go, sending us on a journey that's both timely and controversial, through masterful storytelling, brilliantly drawn characters and huge swathes of emotion.

It challenges pre-conceived attitudes and beliefs and it turns your heart upside down and inside out.At the outset it reminded me a little of The Slap, so much so that I read it in my head in an Australian accent, though it’s set in England. Bry has been conditioned to be fearful of vaccines due to her mother’s belief that her severely autistic and non-verbal elder brother’s condition was a direct result of receiving the MMR vaccine and, as a consequence her daughter Alba is unvaccinated.

Three stars for the decent book club fiction writing, one star for the message that we’re all just doing our best and for the rehashing of outdated anti-vaxx bullshit. It takes a while to figure out that the are unrelated as they just appear in italics without names or descriptions.The characters are well developed, and various people around the court case balance either side of the argument.