The Herd is a very thought-provoking novel about two mom's and their very different opinions on vaccinating children. This book really couldn't be more timely with Covid. The story remains gripping and fascinating throughout. Highly recommended!

This book was a great read and so very apt at the moment. It is very thought provoking and it explores a controversial topic of immunisations.

A very thought provoking book
It didn’t have me gripped but I finished it
It hasn’t put me off reading more from this author
Thanks NetGalley

I couldn’t put this down - the theme, the characters and the context drew me in. As a 1980s parent, I read all of the speculation about vaccination, had friends who blamed their child’s autism on MMR and was relieved when the flawed research was discredited. However, this novel balances the facts against the emotions beautifully. I didn’t know how it would end, but even that was dealt with sensitively. Brilliant book and I’ll definitely be looking out for this author.

After the past few rather memorably strang6couple of years we have all lived through this is a fantastic timely book that feels relevant and thought provoking in the environment we are all still currently living and working through.

On the surface this is a tale of a parents choice of whether to immunise their child/ren or not. Is their choice valid of that choice can harm others and the risks they are also imposing on their own child.

Scratch below that surface and the story also deals with lifelong friendship, differences in opinion, grief, anger and the pressures of parenting as a whole.

The story is set around the two lead characters Bryony and Elizabeth. Whilst both strong characters they have unlikable qualities. Bryony is a disorganised, rather chaotic mum of one and step mother to her husband's two boys. Elizabeth is a super organised, extremely busy mother of three. Complete opposites that have somehow become the best of friends. The two families live on the same street and run along as one big happy family... until a huge spanner is thrown in the mix. *NO SPOILERS *

Set in the year 2019 this is a story told from the POVS of both women with extracts of a trial that is held at the end of that year thrown in.

A fast paced riveting read that felt completely relevant. Highly recommended.

Huge thanks to netgalley and Random House UK for the ARC.

I battled through this one, it was timely and definitely topical but sadly could not hold my attention. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thought this was an incredible thought provoking read.

Two mothers, best friends with two very different views on vaccination.

This book came out at a time when vaccination was very much at the forefront of everyone’s conversation, and although it is not about covid a lot of the concerns and feelings people experienced at the height of the pandemic are expressed beautifully here.

The author presented the arguments for and against beautifully. I imagine that this book would be good to discuss at book club, but also potentially highly emotive as a topic.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher.
A book with an interesting premise but unfortunately not a satisfying read. Every character was unlikeable and one-dimensional with few redeeming qualities and the writing felt so contrived at times it was almost cringe-worthy.
I do seem to be in the minority here so will definitely acknowledge that I am maybe not the right audience for this story. However I can only give it 2 stars.

I loved the relationship between the two main characters. If did feel a bit far fetched as the book progressed - would it really have got that far? Overall I think the subject was handled well and the characters were really well written.

Oh my goodness, what an engrossing read.

Timely and fascinating and ultimately relatable-I couldn’t put it down.

The characters and the relationship between them is well written and I really enjoyed this book because of this.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.
This book is an excellent book club read as it can raise so many different arguments about parenting and choices.
I did feel for both Elizabeth and Bryony throughout, even though Elizabeth did annoy me alot and I guessed the twist quite early on.
About a quarter of the way through i was like omg I can't believe they did that and had to carry on reading!
Its a hard, conflicting subject and quite relevant at the moment but I couldn't put it down!

I'll be honest, when I started reading this book I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy the premise however I was very quickly drawn to the characters and their situations. Friendships and loyalties are tested and the reader is presented information that they need to consider at the same time as the characters - this means that you may change 'whose side' you are on more than once during your reading. Very contemporary with the vaccinations currently available for young people.

Given the prevalence of anti-vaxxers in the wake of the Covid pandemic, this feels like a very timely exploration of a highly emotive topic.

Best friends Elizabeth and Bryony are very different – Elizabeth strait-laced and perfectionistic, Bryony hippie-ish and spiritual - but they've always been inseparable and now live on the same street with their young families. Following an illness in her early childhood, Elizabeth's daughter Clemmie cannot be vaccinated, and her mother is anxious and watchful, fearful that Clemmie will come into contact with a disease. Bryony, meanwhile, is quietly opposed to vaccination, having grown up with an autistic brother whose condition their mother blames squarely on his childhood jabs.

When Bryony thoughtlessly tells a white lie/half truth about her own daughter's vaccination status, a devastating series of events are set in motion that change both womens' lives forever.

I was impressed that this book took the time to explore both women's fears and values, and their very human responses to the situations in which they find themselves. The author manages to tell the story without preaching or judging, allow the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Although I personally believe very strongly in vaccination, I appreciated the chance to explore the topic with compassion, and ultimately the book reminds us that we're all human, and all doing our best.

Elizabeth and Bry are best friends and godmothers to each other’s children. They trust each other implicitly until one fateful day that trust is tested to its absolute limits - what happens has catastrophic consequences that shakes their friendship to its core.
This brilliant book tackles the often contentious issue of vaccinations and vaccines. It is extremely thought provoking and explores huge moral and ethical questions. At times, it almost made me livid with anger. As a nurse, I struggled to understand why some of the characters chose not to have their children vaccinated, but the author writes so insightfully and empathetically that she challenges beliefs, attitudes and ideals so much so that, as strongly as I believe in vaccinations, I was able to feel for those on both sides of the debate. We never know how someone’s life experiences impacts on their judgements or how our experiences affect our decision making processes.
As the author says in her notes at the end: “We all just want to do the right thing for those we love and we are terrified of getting it wrong”
This book would be a fantastic book club choice - it’s sure to open a lively debate. I loved it!

The Herd is a fiction book on the difficult subject of childhood vaccinations. This is a decision every parent has to make for their child, particularly the MMR vaccine which is the main highlight of this book.
So what if your best friend knows your child needed to be kept safe as they could not have the vaccines due to poor health and then decided to tell a lie about their child’s vaccine status so her child could attend the other child’s party? How would you react? Especially when things take a turn for the worse.
This was an interesting and enlightening read. I see and hear about it frequently in real life, especially having three children, should you vaccinate or not, do these vaccines cause problems down the line? It’s all thoughts that go through our minds. I can also understand why people choose not to have them. It is a very personal choice and people should be allowed to make their own decisions.
This would make a good book club read as there is plenty to discuss throughout.

Elizabeth and Bryony are unlikely friends and godmothers to each other's daughters. Clemmie, Elizabeth's daughter, had seizures whilst a baby and cannot be vaccinated, whilst Bryony has consciously chosen not to vaccinate her own daughter, Alba. This is because of her mother Sara's mantra that vaccines are dangerous and Bry's adult brother Matty being in a home due to autism allegedly brought on by the MMR vaccine.

Elizabeth throws a 7th birthday party for Clemmie but asks all the parents of children attending to confirm they are vaccinated. Bry hesitates, then acknowledges Alba is vaccinated, but Alba is only vaccinated against meningitis and pneumonia and hasn't had the MMR vaccine.

After the party, Bry and Alba become ill with measles and so does Clemmie. Bry and Alba recover but Clemmie is taken to hospital with encephalitis which causes her to go blind. Elizabeth and her husband, Jack, are irate and launch a court case against Bry and her husband, Ash, for gross negligence, refusing Ash's offers of financial compensation.

This is a well-written and emotive story, with both sides of the vaccination debate carefully balanced by the author. There are snippets of observers - a journalist, a female internet troll, a social worker among them - commenting on the case and the publicity it generates, which add to the background debate.

I found the characters believable, although Elizabeth came over as suffocating and obsessive. Bry elicited more sympathy because of the situation with her brother but needed to let go of her past and make choices based on her own feelings rather than being driven by her mother's. Rosalyn, the new neighbour, came across as kind and non-judgemental, unlike many of the others.

The outcome of the case throws into doubt a number of preconceptions that the reader will have formed whilst reading the story to this point. It begs the question of how far a parent will go to protect their child and - most pertinently - how we remember things we are told when in a time of self-doubt and emotional strain.

The two families cannot be the same after the case as before, but the ending suggests a more positive future for all of them. I felt this was important, showing that people can choose to be destroyed by something or learn to rise above it and face the future, however uncertain.

Emily Edwards is an author I would be happy to read again.

I received an ARC of this book from Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, in return for an honest appraisal.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The parallels with what we have gone through for the last two years are obvious, albeit relating to a different vaccination programme. I felt that the author wanted to give all sides of the debate, which is fine, but I think that the issues within the two main families over complicated the story. It is an important topic and I admire the author for tackling it.

This was a very thought provoking book.
Elizabeth and Bryony are best friends but have very different views when it comes to bringing up their children. I loved both the main characters as each had clear understandable view and neither was seen as being in the wrong. Bryony tells a white lie to Elizabeth neither woman could ever foresee the catastrophic consequences that follow.
It was clear the author had carefully researched the subjects in the book which only added to the believability of the story.
I would read another book by this author.
Thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #TheHerd

As parents, Elizabeth and Bryony are very different, but somehow their friendship has lasted for many years. But when confronted with a stark choice - have your child vaccinated or don’t attend the party - Bryony panics and makes what she thinks is a simple compromise. But when disaster strikes, that decision will come back to haunt her.

The Herd is a thought provoking story about vaccinations and the truths and myths that surround them. Do parents have responsibility for others’ health when considering whether to vaccinate their children? Having become a parent myself soon after Andrew Wakefield published his, since discredited, research on the MMR links to autism, I know what a tough decision it can feel. And when Bryony is confronted by the facts of her brother’s life, this decision is made even harder,

I did find myself wondering how the story would play out - what is the right and wrong answer? - but the ending did not disappoint. Very cleverly worked and not something I had foreseen. Great read.

I really enjoyed the unbiased views that were presented in this book. For me, being able to read both sides of the story was really important and the way the author did this was really well done.

I also enjoyed the theme of intense friendships and how they can unravel as I've seen this play out in real life and as a bystander, it's always fascinated me.

I'm looking forward to discussing this book with my book club when we meet up next. I know which side of the fence I sit on and it will be interesting to hear other views.