Resistance

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Title :

Resistance / Val McDermid ; with art by Kathryn Briggs.

Title:

Resistance

Author:

McDermid, Val

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

1 volume (unpaged) : chiefly illustrations ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First Grove Atlantic paperback edition.

ISBN:

9780802158727

Production / Publication Information:

New York, NY : Black Cat, 2021.

Summary:

"Journalist Zoe Meadows is on a break from hard-hitting investigative reporting to spend more time with her family, which is how she finds herself doing celebrity Q&As at an outdoor music festival. She and her friends, who run a food truck, head north, along with 150,000 festival-goers for a weekend of music and camping. When some of the revelers fall ill, many point to food poisoning. But after the festival ends and attendees scatter across England, more people begin to get sick, and then some die. The mysterious illness is spreading fast and baffles doctors, resisting all efforts to contain or cure it, and desperation leads to scapegoating which shades into violence. With time running out and her own world upended, Zoe must face dismissive medical professionals, misinformation, and one of the most threatening public health crises of our time, antibiotic resistance. Conceived before COVID-19, Resistance is a powerful, alarming cautionary tale about an equally deadly threat from the minds and pens of Val McDermid and Kathryn Briggs"--

Language:

English

Added Author:

Briggs, Kathryn

Genre:

Graphic novels.

Subject Term:

Epidemics -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Music festivals -- England -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Medical fiction.

Women journalists -- Comic books, strips, etc.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Burlington Public Library	GN MCDERM	32116003810914	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Groton Public Library	GF MCDERMID	37003701861198	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Ipswich Public Library	GN MCDERMID	32122002846529	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lawrence Public Library	FIC MCD GRAPHIC NOVEL	31549004891254	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newburyport Public Library	GRAPHIC MCDERMID	32128003988723	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Tewksbury Public Library	ADULT GRAPHIC RESISTANCE	32132003329839	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Topsfield Town Library	GN MCDERMID	32133002568880	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The first graphic novel from Britain's "Queen of Crime" ( Scotsman ) and gorgeously illustrated by up-and-comer Kathryn Briggs, Resistance is a chilling but incredibly moving and inspiring story of individuals pressed to rise above their station, first to nail down the truth of a looming pandemic, and later to try to fight it.

Journalist Zoe Beck has taken a break from hard-hitting investigative reporting to spend more time with her family, which is how she finds herself doing celebrity Q&As at an outdoor music festival near the Scottish border. She and her friends, who run a food truck, head north, along with 150,000 festival-goers for a weekend of music and camping.

Then, some of the food truck's customers begin to fall ill, and many point to food poisoning. But when the festival ends and the attendees scatter across England, more people begin to get sick and die. What's worse, it is spreading fast and baffles doctors, resisting all efforts to contain or cure it. With time running out, Zoe is compelled to fight for the truth, even as she loses that which she holds most dear.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Scottish crime writer McDermid (the Tony Hill series) takes a stab at bio-noir in this spare but riveting graphic novel tracking a pandemic. Zoe, a dreadlocked freelance journalist, foreshadows "this was where the end began" from ground zero: A Northumberland music festival where tainted sausages may spell humanity's demise. Zoe tracks the bacterium from infected rock stars to the wider world "like ripples from a stone thrown into a pond" while trying to ignore the possibility that a friend may have been the cause. A less-developed secondary plot tracks Dr. Siddiqui, an infectious disease researcher muzzled by an arrogant, clueless bureaucracy, who provides Zoe with a handy "idiot's guide" to how greedy pharmaceutical companies and antibiotic-stuffed animals helped create a killer plague. McDermid rockets the catastrophe along as the mutating and species-jumping bacterium overwhelms a phlegmatic medical response. Briggs's grungy and off-kilter figures visually counterpoint the clinical plot, while her ashy charcoal backgrounds and faux-medieval frames suggest a cyclical human drama. Though missing the gravitas of recent disaster disease fiction like Lawrence Wright's The End of October, this chilling story may prove oddly comforting for Covid-era readers--it's a glimpse of a far worse potential future. Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management. (June)

Kirkus Review

Writer McDermid and illustrator Briggs show a plague tearing through all aspects of modern life--personal, professional, political--leaving plenty of apocalyptic blame to go around. For decades the world has been stewing in a volatile mix of antibiotic overuse, industrialized farming, profit-driven pharmaceuticals, and public ignorance. The danger finally boils over at a music festival in the Scottish countryside, when several musicians and concertgoers come down with a bad case of what at first is dismissed as food poisoning but eventually reveals itself to be much, much worse. Like any good disaster narrative, the story follows several key figures making their ways through the carnage: intrepid reporter Zoe Beck, who had abandoned "real" news in favor of more popular cultural pieces like her coverage of the doomed music festival; Sam the Sausage Sandwich Man, the proprietor of the food truck that appears to have been the source of this outbreak, as he defends his reputation; infectious disease expert Dr. Aasmah Siddiqui, who works with a loose affiliation of global medical professionals who have thrown off the strictures of corporate funding and individual ambition in a desperate attempt to understand the new disease; as well as government officials who are mainly enraging with their prioritization of systems over people. McDermid skillfully builds pathos for the individuals wrestling with their dire circumstances while also baking in enough science to make the proceedings feel frighteningly plausible. Briggs composes fascinating pages and panels that have a mixed-media feel, layering her realistic figures over maps and medical diagrams, invoices and intake forms, tarot cards and plague paintings. The effect puts the story on a historical continuum, which is comforting in the sense that humanity has faced similar disasters in the past but also chilling with its reminder that history is full of cataclysms and the current age is hardly exempt. A powerful, unique look at the benign origins of catastrophe. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.