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Fiction

Review: The Pharmacist by Rachelle Atalla

May 13, 2022May 13, 2022 Jen Post a comment
Review: The Pharmacist by Rachelle Atalla

Title: The Pharmacist
Author: Rachelle Atalla
Publisher:  Hodder & Stoughton
Page Count: 368
Published: 12th May 2022
Genre: Fiction, Thriller, Sci-Fi

Get a copy: Waterstones | The Book Depository

The ‘I got a free copy’ warning

I got this as a preview copy from the nice people at Netgalley BUT I will always be honest about a book no matter if I paid for it or not. There are also affiliate links in here, too 💜

Oh heeeeyy! It’s been a hot minute. Between work, moving in to our new home and general chaos, this dumb site has been somewhat neglected over the last few months. Also didn’t help that I was in a reading slump where it took me TWO MONTHS to finish this book.

image from The Storygraph that says:
You have read this book once in 2022.

18 March 2022 to 11 May 2022 
(Took about 2 months)

Anyhoo, I’m back and I have a chunk of updating to do (sorry publishers!) so here we gooooooo.

TL;DR

Liked but didn’t love. This is a post-apocalyptic story about the residents of a bunker slowly losing their minds with too many loose ends for my liking

The Juice

Post-apocalyptic but put it underground in a bunker with what can only be described as a dictatory prick running the show. Here are the fancy bullet points:

✨ The chosen few flung into a nuclear fallout bunker
✨ A pharmacist (Sarah Wolfe) just trying to live her best life in an underground tin can
✨ Some insane power plays
✨ A moral compass that is being flung all over the place

Wolfe is lucky to be in the bunker. Or so she’s told over and over.

Being one of the few pharmacists in the bunker, she’s the resident’s pill giver-outer, dispensing everything from period products to diazepam in a vain attempt to tackle the crushing depression from living an insanely controlled life.

Whilst things have never exactly been peachy, the leader of the bunker, Natha Douglas or ND, starts to go all dictatory on their asses. With his behaviour becoming more erratic, he starts asking Wolfe for little favours in exchange for treats (such as solid food) which she can’t possibly refuse. The only question is, what is she willing to sacrifice for these little tastes of home?

The Take

Given the way things are going right now, this book felt a little more like a glimpse into the future rather than a work of fiction. A terrifying thought but I’ve also played A LOT of the Fallout games so this genre is absolutely my jam.

HOWEVER.

I just couldn’t fall in love with this book. And it drove me up the wall because it sounded perfect. The only things I can think of were:

  • Wolfe’s character was portrayed exactly as I imagined she would be except I neither loved nor despised her. She was just there doing uninteresting stuff.
  • There’s no punctuation to show when someone’s talking which hurt my dyslexic brain and left me spending too much time figuring out which was dialogue and what was world-building.
  • Loose ends. If you don’t like books that don’t tie things up nicely, this isn’t the book for you. I’ll put a wee spoilers bit at the bottom to show you my VERY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS that I wish I could wrap up.

The plot points in this book are absolutely banging as is the world-building inside the bunker. I just wish there was a little more closure for my simple brain.

This is going to be a Marmite book – it will either be your jam or just not for you.

Get a copy: Waterstones | The Book Depository

Additional Stuff

Spoilers & Jen’s Unanswered Questions of Pain

I have so many unanswered questions and I just need to get them out:

  • What happened?! Like why are the even in the bunker in the first place? And what’s going on outside?
  • Who is ND and how did he end up with so much power? Is this the Truman Show for these people? All I can think about is how he had such a different life to everyone else so he HAS to be getting food from the outside world.
  • A little bit related to above, but we need to talk about the supplies. There’s no way they could survive years underground without some sort of farm or medical factory to produce meds. They’d run out SO fast.
  • Why are their two halves to the bunker? And what happens on the other side?
  • What’s Canavan’s backstory and why was he there?
  • What happens now ND is dead?
Trigger/Conent Warnings

Suicide, drug abuse, sexual assault, infertility, rape, war, confinement & abortion

2022fictionHodder & Stoughtonnetgalleyrachelle atallaScience Fictionthe pharmacist
About Jen

About Jen

I write potentially shit and/or bad reviews of potentially excellent books.

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