Kingdom of Needle and Bone

by Mira Grant

[Melanie]

4.5 stars

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

I’m a huge Mira Grant fan. I’ve read (or well, listened) to all of her stuff. I love her writing so much, that I now grab all of her stuff, not having a clue of what the story might be about. She hasn’t failed me yet.

So this story is about how Measles mutates into a whole new disease that is basically Measles on steroids. Which they call Morris’s disease, named for the little girl who was the first to die from it. 10 million people die and then, as with regular Measles, people lose their immunity to other diseases. With Morris’s disease, people’s past vaccinations are not only nullified, future vaccinations won’t work either. They are basically at the mercy of their own body’s ability to fight whatever comes their way. Whooping Cough, Small Pox, Mumps, they are all back in play.

This is a wonderful cross between sci-fi and horror. Kingdom of Needle and Bone is about what could happen when everything goes wrong. If real life possibilities of worst case scenarios bother you, this is not the story for you. I could truly see something like this happening in the real world. It is a novella length story at 108 pages and 3 hours of listening, but it is a full and complete story.

Narration
I’m a huge fan of Cris Dukehart. I’ve listened to her read the fun Shifters Unbound series by Jennifer Ashley, which can be a bit dark, but is much lighter than a horror story. I was curious how she would do with something much more serious and a bit on the scary side. She did a great job. There is a decent size cast, especially for a novella and she does a good job with it. She has many different types of people, from children and scientist to billionaire businessman. All the voice choices were perfect. If you’ not tried Cris Dukehart, I highly recommend her work.

**I'd like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.