Review of THE CURE by Eve Smith (New Release)

 4 Stars

This dystopian thriller is narrated from the perspectives of two women: Ruth and Mara.

Ruth, years earlier, while searching for a cure for the disease that led to her daughter’s premature death, accidentally discovered a vaccine against age-related diseases. Erik Grundleger, a colleague, hijacked this vaccine known as ReJuve and, with the help of a billionaire obsessed with immortality, created an upgrade, SuperJuve, which extends human life span. There were disastrous consequences so laws were passed to limit life to 120 years. Supers who took SuperJuve are tracked down by Omnicide investigators and executed. One of these investigators is Mara who hesitantly teams up with Ruth to find Grundleger.

The reader comes to understand the two women and what drives them. Ruth is easy to like from the beginning. Her intention was always to help people like her daughter, and she even tried to insure that her discovery would not be misused. Mara, known as The Blade, is more difficult to like. She’s a relentless, merciless hunter of Supers but the reason for her obsession becomes clear; like Ruth, she experienced a trauma that profoundly affected her.

The novel is very thought-provoking. It forces us to consider what might happen if people lived longer. The novel suggests that if the population of the planet increased, there could be housing and food shortages. Natural environments are devastated leading to extinction of animals as land is needed to build homes: “open grasslands no longer exist. They were razed for food production and housing.” The old outnumber the young who become resentful: “crime is rising amongst the younger generations who are out of work, out of an inheritance, and out of patience.” Amongst the many centenarians, there’s an emotional toll of living longer. Loneliness and depression are major concerns: “there’s an increasingly anxious and disconnected generation of elders who lack purpose and fulfilment.”

What the novel also emphasizes is the extreme disparity between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of the world. To receive ReJuve, citizens must meet criteria, one of which stipulates that they must pay into an accredited pension scheme for a minimum of sixty years. Not everyone qualifies for ReJuve so the lives of the disadvantaged have not improved. As for SuperJuve, it can only be afforded by the ultra-rich who obviously will do whatever is necessary to access it. And what if SuperJuve had side-effects which were dangerous for everyone?

The name of the SuperJuve investor is Jeff Busk who has a “net worth of over three hundred billion dollars.” Is the name an amalgam of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, two people with unlimited wealth and power? I can imagine these two men would concur with the choices made by Grundleger and Supers. Channeling the names of two of the richest men in the world just adds to the realism of the novel. We are already seeing extreme financial inequality in the world and the devastation of ecosystems so what the author is suggesting is certainly not far-fetched.

In the latter part of the novel, the thriller elements come to the fore. Ruth and Mara find themselves in increasing danger so tension also increases. And, as expected in thrillers, there are some plot twists. There are a couple of instances where there was reliance on coincidence but it was not enough to affect my enjoyment of the novel.

Because what is described is plausible, this is a terrifying cautionary tale. The book entertains and informs – a perfect combination for me.