The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley

This book gave me nightmares! I'm sure it's because the disaster discussed in the book is a real fear for me. I'm always reading "end of the world as we know it" books, but the premise is this book is more believable than most.

Imagine a world where Avian flu is pandemic and it metamorphoses into different viruses as time goes on...

Ann and Peter Brooks are separated. Ann has the house and the two children, Peter has an apartment and is a university researcher.

When his research leads him to a large duck kill and there is no sign of any external cause, he takes samples to the lab to test and see what caused their deaths. He's horrified to find Avian flu - and university is already shutting down and evacuating the building!

It doesn't take long to spread, and soon it is killing fifty out of every hundred people it touches. No one knows why some survive, but everyone is soon locking their doors and quarantining members of the family who were exposed.

Ann refuses to let her neighbor lady in because she's sick and she doesn't want to expose her children. The neighbor begs her to take her son in and save him and leaves him on the porch in the snow and goes home. Peter sneaks around the house and brings the baby inside and Ann cannot understand how he can risk his family...

There are difficult decisions to make in times like this, and many choices have deathly consequences.

This book may not give you nightmares, but I bet it'll keep you awake at night!

It has well paced writing, the story line is almost real, and there are places that will make you cry. It's the author's first novel and I highly recommend it. I'll be watching for her next one...

If you'd like to win my ARC from Delacourte Press, leave a comment here on the blog and send me an email at info NOSPAM @bookfaerie.com with your name and address and why you'd like to read it. I'll be giving it away in about a week.