Orenda Books The Waiting Rooms

Loved reading this book! I would highly recommend for everyone.

The Waiting Rooms is an insightful, chilling and well researched tale of antibiotic resistance, shocking societal wrongs and personal drama. An accessible, page-turning read, the intellect and quality of the author’s brain shines through on every page and given it is so polished and slick, it is hard to believe that this is a first novel. There is inevitably going to be a whole raft of ‘pandemic literature’ coming out over the next period but the clever and surprising thing is that this novel is utterly original - the idea for the story was conceived years ago and the book was completed well before the advent of Covid. It is mind blowing how the author foresaw with such clarity and precision what the future could potentially look like - although given the realities of growing microbe resistance, perhaps it wasn’t such a leap, more a refusal to stick ones head in the sand and hope for the best. The Waiting Rooms is not for the faint of heart, particularly given the parallels with our current, corona virus-induced ’normal’. The fact that we have recently been given a taster of things we take for granted being taken away overnight only makes the world of The Waiting Rooms more credible and hard hitting. The main characters, in line with the book itself, feel authentic and very quickly get under your skin. I particularly liked the feisty, sharp ‘old’ lady Lily and was outraged, sickened and heartbroken on her and her peers’ behalf. I thought Kate’s daughter was an excellent character who showed (in a very subtle, understated way) what losses the new world’s rules bring for the individual. Imagine a world where you can’t go to a sweaty nightclub without risking your life? Imagine a world where you can’t hug or kiss a stranger, freely, without incurring risk? Ah yes - now, of course, we can, as can the people in Eve Smith's world who have also in the main not grown up with such restrictions and limitations. Parallels with the current global crisis situation abound in this story and it hits home again and again as we feel how possible the world depicted in The Waiting Rooms is, how close we are to it. Even without Covid, this book would have delivered punch after punch to the gut. In summary, I read The Waiting Rooms because it was written by a dear and lovely friend of my sister. I would never have otherwise picked up a thriller, let along a medical one, but am SO glad I did - I read it in 3 sittings as I simply couldn’t put it down, it was brilliant - fast paced, horribly relevant to our current ’new normal’ and thoroughly riveting. Eve Smith’s attention to detail is exquisite - be it in the description of the flora and fauna of South Africa or of a rock concert or of dinner time in a care home. I felt like I was there, in every single scene. Brilliant, just brilliant, on so many levels - can’t wait for the next one, this is one hot new author to follow!

Loses momentum. The rigid structure doesn't help. Initially intriguing with some very good set pieces. But no surprises. Ultimately it didn't deliver on the hype. An average read.

This has been an intriguing read firstly because it's a thriller at in the medical world i work in , and secondly with the viral epidemic storyline which is so resonant of the recent covid times . Eve Smith has written two very strong female characters in Mary/Lily and Kate . I liked the background storyline of kate trying to find her birth mother Mary , it worked well within the plot. This had a very conspiracy type feeling whilst reading this especially at the end but i felt it was very subtle danger with the character Natalie - her personal reasoning more scary thsn i expected when i first started reading the book. It's quite a chilling read and well written with a lot of research evident into the medical world of viruses that was essential to the story .

I couldn’t put this book down and I won’t forget about it in a hurry either. The story is told on two timelines - one set 20 years after an antibiotic resistance crisis has wreaked havoc on the world, and one beginning 27 years before the crisis hit. The timelines converge to a gripping conclusion, with plenty of twists along the way. The Waiting Rooms reminded me of The End of Men in its imagining of a potential future pandemic - but it was even better, because it had more plot to go with it. Here the ‘Crisis’ is the background, and the characters and their stories take centre stage - whereas TEOM was more the other way around. As well as memorable characters, the author conjures vivid settings through very accomplished writing; I loved the South Africa scenes. The medical aspect is clearly well researched so it’s entirely believable - too much so! Antibiotic resistance is terrifyingly possible… It feels like this book is not so much a vision as a prediction, or at the very least a warning. I absolutely loved The Waiting Rooms and I can’t wait for more of the same from Eve Smith.