Rachel lives an almost hermit-like life far from others deep in the Australian bush. So when a young woman arrives asking for help for her sick baby, Rachel is at first tempted to turn them away. But listening to the woman, Hannah, she begins to realise that the civilisation she's fled from has started to crumble under a pandemic, and that Rachel herself may be the only person left who can help.
At first they head for the nearest town ('nearest' being a bit of a relative term as the story is set in the Australian outback) to find Rachel's sister who's the doctor there. Then, finding she's already left, they follow her presumed trail to Canberra. It's road trip with a difference as besides the natural difficulties they have to face survivors as desperate as themselves, and a new plague of 'demons' or 'spirits' which kill through fear.
There's a lot here that readers of apocalyptic fiction will find familiar - a person living safely outside of society during a time of upheaval is forced to take a journey out of their secure bubble, to confront the chaos and dangers of the outside world. And if Rachel thought the outside was dangerous before, it's now doubly, triply, so, with bush fires, survivor groups and the demons to be evaded, plus she has Hannah and the baby to look after.
It's a gripping enough read but too similar to other apocalyptic stories to really stand out from the crowd. Its main difference comes in that, for once, the world is going to be saved by women rather than men.
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