Living forever can be lethal: The Cure by Eve Smith #bookreview #TheCure

Ruth is a law-abiding elder, working out her national service, but she has secrets.
Her tireless research into the disease that killed her young daughter led to an unexpected discovery of a vaccine against old age. Just one jab a year wards off age-related diseases, guaranteeing long, healthy life.
But Ruth’s cure was hijacked by her colleague, Erik Grundleger, and his elderly billionaire backer, who hunger for immortality, and SuperJuve – a premium upgrade – was created, driving human lifespan to a new high. The wealthy elite who take it are the Supers, and the population begins to rocket.
Then, a perilous side-effect of SuperJuve emerges, with catastrophic consequences, and as the planet is threatened, the population rebels, and laws are passed to restore life ends at 120. Supers are tracked down by Omnicide investigators like Mara, and executed.
Mara has her own reasons for hunting Supers, and she forms an unlikely alliance with Ruth to find Grundleger.
But Grundleger has been working on something even more radical and is one step ahead, with a deadly surprise in store for both of them…

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Hi and welcome to my review of The Cure!

I’ve had a weakness for dystopian literature for as long as I can remember, it’s no wonder I adore Eve Smith’s unique brand of thrillers, a fact proven once more by my excellent reading experience with The Cure!

The Cure is told from the perspectives of Ruth and Mara and is set in a future world that is scarily realistic and terrifyingly plausible. As with her earlier books, Eve Smith escalates current technology and medicine and makes her readers wonder: what if. 

In this case, scientist Ruth develops a cure for Progeria, an illness she lost her daughter to, and unwittingly develops a cure for old age. Ruth may have had the best intentions but one of her colleagues is blinded by greed (for money, fame and immortality), taking her invention and running with it, and essentially ruining the planet which was bursting at the seams as it was.

You guys, I had such a great time with The Cure! If life had allowed me to, I would have binged it in a day! As it was, life and its obligations got in the way, but it was always such a pleasure to return to this world, even if it was a really scary place to be in and I would not want to live in this future for anything in the world. Who wants to live to 120 anyway, let alone even longer! (Although, realistically, that’s probably about how long I should live to read all the books I want to read 😬)

The Cure is an engrossing slice of thought-provoking dystopian literature, as well as a twisty thriller, and it has everything you could possibly hope to find in a story: protagonists to feel for and to root for, antagonists to loathe and get angry at, a riveting plot, human interest and a few shocking reveals along the way. Highly recommended.

The Cure is out in digital formats and paperback on 10 April. Preorder it directly from Orenda Books here.

Massive thanks to Orenda Books for the digital review copy. All opinions are my own.