Are you ready to read fiction set during Covid?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Ned

Hardly surprising given the overall mortality rate of 0.3%. Same here.
I know people damaged by the vaccine though.
The pandemic that wasn't.

Spreading misinformation. Vaccine risk was low and it has saved lives of more than 10s of thousands.

Flu can be bad, which is why as a mitigation freshly designed vaccines for the new strains are free to all vulnerable people in Ireland each Winter. Of over 7,000 deaths in Ireland of people with Covid-19, over 5,000 had Covid-19 as cause of death. It would have been massively more without the free testing, lock downs and the free vaccines.
Also the ICU were overwhelmed, resulting in some increase in deaths from other causes. That would have been also much higher without the masks and vaccines, because otherwise the demand on ICU would have been catastrophic. As it was the Government commandeered all private hospitals for additional ICU.

Of course it is a pandemic and could easily have been very much worse.

[Deskisamess]

I'd be ok with a fiction book set during the time frame of Covid, but wouldn't want to read a book centered on it.

It's still disrupting our lives. We had family members who were unable to get together with us for the cookout we had with our oldest son, who was finally able to come home for a visit after 3 years. He lives in South Korea, and all the quarantine rules, travel restrictions, etc. meant not being able to fly home to visit.

These family members are vaxxed, boosted, etc. and have now had Covid for the second time. It is still an issue, and many people have died. Several older members of our church died, some are now dealing with "Long Covid" etc.

I wish they wouldn't call the shots "vaccines" as they certainly don't work in the same way as a true vaccine. They should be treated like flu shots. Hubby had the first 2 shots, won't be getting another.

[John F]

I would read a fiction book.

I've read 2 books so far. They both dealt with the early outbreak and the shutdown of transportation. Although I might be mixing them up with a movie/tv series.

Most sociatal stuff that has personally effected me I get sucked into when I read it.

[issybird]

Moderator Notice
I’m not going to edit the thread, but posts about vaccine policy and effectiveness need to be taken to P&R. Several of these are far over the line. Future posts along these lines will be deleted in their entirety.

[haertig]

A book that mentions covid in passing is fine. A book that centers around it would not be to my taste, and would probably be abandoned if I accidentally stumbled into reading it. A book that tries to exploit it ... immediately to the trash heap for that author.

To further clarify, a book about a generic pandemic is OK (as long as it's not obviously about covid, without mentioning covid). A book that mentions covid by name, in more than a brief passing sentence, is in the exploitation category IMHO.

I don't think my views on this will change during the remainder of my life. I view exploitation of covid the same way most of us view racism, misogamy, antisemitism, etc. I just don't care to read about that stuff.

[Catlady]

I can recall only two books I've read in which the pandemic was an important element of the story, both of them suspense novels. In 56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard, a newly dating couple move in together just as covid hits; one of them ends up dead. Carol Goodman's The Disinvited Guest is set ten years after covid, with a group of people isolating on an island during a new pandemic.

I don't feel one way or another about whether covid is included in a novel unless the story is specifically set in 2020-21, with other historical reference points. Which isn't common in most of the suspense books I read.

[BookCat]

I'll never read books about the pandemic. I want to forget the whole thing. During 2020 and 2021 I suffered terribly from anxiety, so much so that I bought myself a new ereader as a present for surviving with my mind intact.

This wasn't helped by the fact that the first lockdown in March 2020 lead to the death of a beloved cat - Cydric. All the vets were closed so he was unable to get proper treatment. He and my other cat were devoted, so I felt her grief also. And the normal support networks could not be called upon; no hugs etc from friends.

So I went through the pandemic with just my cat Victoria. I never want to be reminded of that time. So I'll probably forever give books about the pandemic a miss.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by BookCat

I'll never read books about the pandemic. I want to forget the whole thing. During 2020 and 2021 I suffered terribly from anxiety, so much so that I bought myself a new ereader as a present for surviving with my mind intact.

This wasn't helped by the fact that the first lockdown in March 2020 lead to the death of a beloved cat - Cydric. All the vets were closed so he was unable to get proper treatment. He and my other cat were devoted, so I felt her grief also. And the normal support networks could not be called upon; no hugs etc from friends.

So I went through the pandemic with just my cat Victoria. I never want to be reminded of that time. So I'll probably forever give books about the pandemic a miss.

That's very sad. Were veterinary services really deemed non-essential in the UK? No vet clinics were closed here. I remember feeling briefly panicked in the spring of 2020 when I thought that perhaps they will be closed (I had 3 cats at the time, two of them with chronic illnesses), but they weren't.

One of my cats died a year later, in March 2021, but Covid had nothing to do with it.

[Bookstooge]

I don't read a lot of contemporary fiction, but when I do, I really don't want covid to be part of it.

[DiapDealer]

I would find it quite odd if any fiction I read that was set in the "real world" during the time of the pandemic failed to take Covid into account. Same as if new fiction set in Europe during the mid-1300's failed to mention The Black Death (or if fiction set in the late '30s, early '40's didn't mention WWII ). *shrug*

Having said that: I'm not likely to seek out books that are about Covid (or rely heavily upon its effects upon society for plotting). It's simply too soon for me to "revisit" something I'm still experiencing is all.

[Tarana]

It's similar to 9/11. The first crime books out with that aftermath as a background were bothersome. I've read one short story with the pandemic in the background and it was weird. Affects people differently.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by haertig

A book that mentions covid in passing is fine. A book that centers around it would not be to my taste, and would probably be abandoned if I accidentally stumbled into reading it. A book that tries to exploit it ... immediately to the trash heap for that author.

To further clarify, a book about a generic pandemic is OK (as long as it's not obviously about covid, without mentioning covid). A book that mentions covid by name, in more than a brief passing sentence, is in the exploitation category IMHO.

I don't think my views on this will change during the remainder of my life. I view exploitation of covid the same way most of us view racism, misogamy, antisemitism, etc. I just don't care to read about that stuff.

Why do you think "mentioning covid by name" more than briefly is exploitation? I can certainly understand not wanting to read a book that focuses on covid, or any other personally unsettling events--it took me 20 years to read a novel that used 9/11 in its plot--but I'm genuinely curious about why you'd define it as exploitation. Are novels that focus on the Spanish flu exploitation? What about novels set during WWII and the Holocaust? Why shouldn't writers use real, painful events to perhaps help readers gain a deeper understanding of them?

[4691mls]

I like fiction to be a temporary escape from my real world. Maybe I'll stick to books written before 2020 for now....

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That's very sad. Were veterinary services really deemed non-essential in the UK? No vet clinics were closed here. I remember feeling briefly panicked in the spring of 2020 when I thought that perhaps they will be closed (I had 3 cats at the time, two of them with chronic illnesses), but they weren't.

One of my cats died a year later, in March 2021, but Covid had nothing to do with it.

Yes, all the vets in my city - Birmingham UK - were closed. Their policy was "emergency cases only" but they wouldn't define what an emergency was, so I thought they meant things like Road Traffic Accidents where the animal was in imminent threat of death. Cydric was very ill, but I didn't know how ill and couldn't get a diagnosis.

They did telephone consultations, which were useless. I blame their policy for his death and told them so on social media. During subsequent lockdowns local vets would see pets but their humans would have to wait outside and they began defining 'routine' work as vaccinations, neutering, etc which they were still not doing. If they'd said this during the first lockdown, he might still be alive.

GPs were as bad. Many of them treated the pandemic as an excuse for an extended holiday.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Why do you think "mentioning covid by name" more than briefly is exploitation?

Because so many used covid (exploited it) to increase their power, control and/or profits. Governments, health agencies, manufacturers, online sellers and scammers, ... have you ever seen so many useless "designer masks" for sale? Made out of common clothing fabric that couldn't stop a virus in any way, shape or form. People were paid more to not work than to work. People stopped paying rent/mortgages, stopped repaying loans. And book authors are getting in on the action too. As a disease that killed and injured many, covid was bad enough. You had people hawking miracle cures and preventatives. You had people downplaying covid and you had people presenting it as worse than it actually was - whatever it took to increase their power/profit. Those who milked it for all it was worth for their own enrichment and power, just horrible.

So I am sensitive to anyone trying to make money off of covid. That includes book authors. You may not feel this way, and that's fine. But I do.