CHILD ZERO :: Chris Holm

As a huge fan of Chris Holm's work (go dig on The Killing Kind, I've been waiting with bated breath for Child Zero. On the other hand, I knew a bit about where this book was headed and was...let's say scairt. Holm is a super smartypants (molecular biologist) and I am a middling smartysock. When I got my copy I was elated and also, as I told him, "hoping it wasn't over my head." As usual, he had the best response: "If that's the case then I haven't done my job." I can now attest that Holm did his job to PERFECTION.

One of the things I adore about Chris's writing is that while story is Job 1, character is Job 1A. Once again, he's nailed both in thrilling fashion. In a not-too-far-ahead future, we have continued to fuck up. Unchecked climate change results in a deadly virus being unleashed from the Siberian permafrost. Also, whoopsy!, it renders antibiotics useless. That hangnail you're nursing? That teeny scratch from your beloved Dashiell? They might now be the death of you.

Child Zero is the thrilling story of people trying to adapt to a horror landscape several years following a bioterror attack. We experience that terror through NYPD Detective Jake Gibson, who lost his wife in the attack and is raising his daughter Zoe alone. As we meet Jake, Zoe has a temperature high enough he is mandated to report it to the Department of Biological Security. But Jake knows what happens when a report is made and he's willing to risk everything to keep Zoe safe.

Jake's problems are multiplied when he's notified of a massacre at Park City, an encampment of refugees stranded when Manhattan was quarantined following the 8/17 bioterror attack. The scene makes it clear the assassins were looking for something or someone and Jake and his kickass partner Amira "Amy" Hassan need to figure it out quickly.

As the Park City attack began, twelve-year-old Mateo Rivas was awakened by his uncle Gabriel and hurried to a planned escape route. Gabriel ensured Mat held a bound and wrapped package securely and remembered his instructions, then sent the boy out into the world via the sewer system.

What Mat possesses and why baddies might want it is at the core of Child Zero, a total barnburner from start to finish. The science is frighteningly on point and plausible, the characters are so well drawn you can't help but want more of them, and the sandbox the science and characters get to play in keeps the reader glued to the page. Holm's world-building is superb and, since the book was serendipitously (?) published during a pandemic, Holm has made it all too easy to imagine this world as our future.

If sciencey stuff makes you think twice, I'm here to tell you it's not an obstacle to your understanding or enjoyment. If science is your bag, there are more than enough juicy tidbits for you. If you are trying to escape pandemic reading, this didn't ring my "pandemic malaise" bell. Although we can all now sadly relate to many of the issues raised by the plot, Child Zero is still escapism at its finest.

I don't have a ratings system or give stars, so I'm just going to lasso the galaxy and hand it to Child Zero.

This is a truly terrifying novel about an antibiotic-resistant world, and its paramilitary government. Kill me now. Recommended for all who want to sleep with the lights on.
#ChildZero #NetGslley #SaltMarshAuthors

The scariest part of Zero Child by Chris Holm is that I can totally see parts of it becoming a reality in the not too distant future. For years now we’ve been seeing an uptick in antibiotic-resistant infections. Zero Child is a gripping fast-paced dystopian thriller with a focus on bioterrorism, featuring a cast of really well fleshed out characters. I think it feels all the more intense given what the world has been going through over the last several years. And given Mr. Holm’s background, the science of it all definitely has an authentically eerie feel to it. I can definitely see why many compare him to vintage Crichton. Thanks so much to Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an eARC of Zero Child.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/child-zero-chris-holm/1140157213?ean=9780316295123&bvnotificationId=c4377f0f-d08d-11ec-8d92-0e9dbba3b1b3&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/208657948

https://www.amazon.com/review/R2D6UPJU6JOV8Q/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

I'm really into medical/scientific thrillers right now. Child Zero hit the target for me with a near-future world where humans have become resistant to antibiotics and a bioterrorist attack has further decimated the population, leading to new government offices (The Department of Biological Security) and paramilitary groups (the People’s Army, the New Confederacy.) Almost all communication is monitored and the Fourth Amendment is revoked, however, there are illegal hacklabs where you can gain anonymous, encrypted internet access. A guarded quarantine zone is attacked and its inhabitants all have been murdered--except one boy. As you can guess, this is the Child Zero of the title. I really liked all the different storylines and characters in this book but it really felt like it should be the beginning of a series rather than a standalone novel.

Chris Holm brings his background as a molecular biologist to the fore in this disturbingly intense and all too believable bio-thriller set against the background of a world where disease runs rampant as antibiotic resistant infections ravage the world's population. Both timely and entertaining, CHILD ZERO should not only be one of the most talked about books of 2022, don't be surprised to see it optioned for the big screen.

Child Zero by Chris Holm- What an incredible read! With a molecular biologist’s focus, the details are so accurately terrifying. With a every new twist, I was drawn more deeply into the story. This is definitely a 5-star must read suspenseful thriller.

CHILD ZERO
By Chris Holm
Sci Fi/Fantasy

In the very near future a deadly pandemic has been unleashed. People are dying from common infections that would have been easily cured by antibiotics now. There may be one light ray of hope though. But to what levels will scientists sink to find a cure.

This books is a quick easy read and I would highly recommend it for any fan of Robin Cook or medical mysteries. I would not recommend this book who was hyper-sensitive to COVID or many of the other disease epidemics out in the world. This book is definitely not for people who may have struggled during our last pandemic because this one is way worse and could actually happen.

Chris Holm's "Child Zero" is set in in a bleak New York City decades from now. Because physicians overprescribed antibiotics for so long, these lifesaving drugs have lost their effectiveness. Three years earlier, a crazed perpetrator released an aerosol containing highly infectious plague into a crowded subway station. This heinous act of terror took the lives of more than one hundred thousand people. Subsequently, the federal government formed the DBS, the U. S. Department of Biological Security, and gave it "unfettered authority." Meanwhile, in New York, more than four thousand detainees, many of them immigrants, are sequestered in a squalid encampment known as Park City.

The hero is thirty-seven-year-old Jacob (Jake) Gibson, a NYPD detective and widower, who has a four-year-old daughter, Zoe. Captain Ian Bavitz, Jake's supervisor, places Jake and his partner, Amira Hassan, on administrative leave after an interrogation that they conducted ended disastrously. Subsequently, Jake, Amira, Jake's ex, surgeon Hannah Lang, and a twelve-year-old named Mateo Rivas struggle to elude pursuers who ordered to track them down. Throughout "Child Zero," which is a blend of science fiction, action-adventure, and political thriller, there is a massive amount of violence: beatings, stabbings, shootings, explosions, and deadly fires.

Holm is a skilled descriptive writer whose elaborate plot deals with influential and wealthy men who employ mercenaries to do their dirty work. These puppet masters have a common goal—to find Jake and kidnap Mateo, a child whose unique abilities could change the world. Although "Child Zero" lacks character development, it may appeal to readers who love chase scenes and military-style weaponry, and who are willing to overlook stilted dialogue and clichéd elements. Furthermore, this hectic and predictable David vs. Goliath tale touches on such timely issues as racism, immigrant-bashing, fringe groups who seek to topple the government, and autocratic rule vs. democracy.

I did not know fully what to expect when I started Child Zero. That is because I am garbage at reading synopses, and I can live with that. But what I ended up with was a pretty great book that rose above genre lines and gave me a little bit of all the things I love in a story. Let's talk about them!

►An apocalypse-adjacent act of bioterror. Gah, this always freaks me out, because it legit takes one rogue lunatic to end the world, yeah? In this case, the world hadn't ended, per se, but the population did take a huge nosedive and things were not going great. Resistance to antibiotics was the biggest issue, leading to illness that had been fairly benign years earlier to now be deadly. Then, when things were already at their breaking point, some terrible whackos decide to unleash illness that they know can no longer be treated into the world. And, well all know from experience how quickly pandemics travel these days. So basically, it's horrific, and it's plausible.

►As such, The Powers That Be™ are now treating many citizens like trash. Because of course they are. Basically, at some point during the wave of illness from the terrorist, folks were herded like cattle into what is essentially an internment camp in the middle of Central Park. Only as we quickly learn, not all its inhabitants were ill. And one of them, Mateo, is now missing, the rest killed by an unknown entity, and a lot of people are on his tail....

►Which brings us to the mystery portion of the program! Why is everyone after this young kid who has done literally nothing wrong other than exist? Why were a bunch of innocent people murdered in the wake of his disappearance? And of course, during the course of the whole thing, many more mysteries about the current state of the world are explored too.

►As the chase progresses, it becomes a thriller, too! The stakes are, as you can infer, ridiculously high. The story is full of action, and I found the balance between action and character development to be perfect!

►Speaking of, the characters are also really sympathetic and likable. Jake is a single dad, left widowed after his wife succumbed to the bioterror pandemic. His daughter is now ill, with what he doesn't know, but if authorities find out, they can and will take her. He enlists the help of his police partner, Amy, who is awesome, to help hide Mateo, and his ex girlfriend Hannah to take care of daughter Zoe. Mateo, of course, is incredibly sympathetic as he's clearly the most innocent party in this mess.

►Basically, I could not put the book down. I loved learning about the characters and the world, and it was so high stakes and full of action that it was a breeze to read.

Bottom Line: I pre-ordered this for my dad for Father's Day, and he's really picky. So it must be awesome.

This one both fascinated and terrified me as it felt all too real. Loved the author’s writing style and the book was excellent!

CHILD ZERO – FIVE STARS!!!

Set in the not-too-distant future, Child Zero is a dystopian thriller with a heavy dose of current-events-reality woven in, making it doubly gripping and captivating. Holm’s ability to build a credible future state relies on actual scientific knowledge, which lends Child Zero its superb backdrop: a world in which a scratch could kill you, the common cold means government involvement, and antibiotics are no longer effective against even previously eradicated diseases. The themes are poignant and timely, focusing on government’s role in a crisis and harkening back to laws such as the Patriot Act to build the case for more control.

Child Zero follows NYPD officers Jake and Amy on the case of a mass murder event at a quarantine encampment where 12-year-old Mateo flees from the operatives trying to capture him, a doctor on the front lines of the health crisis, and politicians attempting to pull all the strings while not getting their own hands dirty.

The story moves at a breakneck pace, urging you through expertly built tension to read just-one-more-chapter, until you hit the end without ever putting it down. While equal measure frightening and thrilling, Child Zero has deep roots in hope and humanity, which personally made for a quite meaningful read. In the great tradition of such geniuses as Michael Crichton, Robert McCammon, and Stephen King, Holm accomplishes something really magical with Child Zero. You will not want to miss this book. What a stunner!

Delighted to include this title in the May edition of Novel Encounters, my regular column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section Zoomer magazine. (see review at link)

Written by Chris Holm, is one scary-assed novel. Written by a real scientist, it predicts an all-too-possible future where—due to global warming—an ancient virus is released into the atmosphere from the thawing Arctic permafrost. It mutates in combination with ever-present bacterium to create a virulent strain of viruses which are impervious to most antibiotics. In plain language . . . it means a simple scratch can get infected and kill you. It means no more organ transplants or joint replacements, and a world wide resurgence of dormant diseases that are evermore resistant to antibiotics. Fear among medical scientists and physicians of a totally immune bacteria eventually emerging, cause the U.S. government to pass a bill called the Wellness Act . . . which creates the Department of Biological Security . . . and gives it broad and draconian authority to fight disease, using any means at their disposal. Citizens are required by law to report any incidents of fever, at any time, in anyone.
As the novel begins, NYPD Detective Jacob Gibson, whose wife died early in the pandemic, is home nursing his toddler daughter who has an unbroken fever of 101-plus degrees. He’s not about to call DBS, fearing that they’ll take his daughter and let her die. He’s sure that her illness is a childhood cold, and does what he can to soothe her while waiting for her fever to break. But that’s when he and his partner are ordered out by his NYPD bosses to investigate a massacre in Central Park. It might effect the pandemic and give humanity a chance to survive. The reason is an eleven year-old boy named Mateo. But word has leaked out somehow, and Mateo is on the run from the team of mercenaries who’ll murder anyone trying to protect him. The two meet up as Jake and his NYPD partner race for their lives, trying to protect both children as the novel rockets to its astonishing conclusion. Mr. Holm, a real microbiologist, blends accurate facts with great writing, believable characters and wicked plot twists into a spine-chilling page-turner!!

A fascinating and sometimes horrorifying look at a potential future, this book was captivating. Examining a future in which antibiotics are rendered obsolete and one kid has the ability to completely change the course of medicine and with it the future of mankind, this novel was fast-paced and entertaining- all while making a point. The author clearly cared about the science and presenting the science in such a way that was realistic without going completely over our heads. I was very impressed by the way in which the author told the story and the care he took in telling it. A very, VERY good book.

In the aftermath of antibiotics failing against new, aggressive strains of bacterial infections, New York becomes ground zero to the world's single largest and deadliest act of bioterrorism. Detective Jacob Gibson lost his wife in the 8/17 attack, and is now called away from caring for his sick daughter to investigate a new possible act of terrorism - this time against the indigent immigrants living in a makeshift shantytown cum concentration camp situated in Central Park. It's a scene of gross, indiscriminate slaughter with one startling peculiarity in this new age of medical catastrophe: all of the victims were remarkably healthy. And one of them, a 12-year-old boy named Mateo, is missing, on the run, and hunted by the mercenaries that perpetrated this mass murder.

Chris Holm's Child Zero is roundly situated in scientific plausibility and grounded in America's harsher realities of racism and xenophobia. Holm paints a rich, and frightening, view of the near-future wherein our last line of defense against sickness, infections, and plague have completely collapsed. A simple scratch can lead to amputation, or even death, and despite mankind's other technological advances, like electric cars and high-speed internet, medicine has been taken back to the Dark Ages. To top it all off, a group of endtimes cultists are hellbent on finishing off humanity, once and for all.

It's a heady mix of regressive forecasting for humanity's days ahead, and all the scarier for its plausibility. Couple all that with the nature of the guarded, fenced-in, concrete-barriered Park City housing much of New York's immigrant population and travelers who found themselves stuck in the Big Apple in the aftermath of 8/17 years earlier, and things get darker all that much faster. Although it's set just a few years ahead, Child Zero holds a potent familiarity thanks to our post-Trump, COVID-19 present, not to mention the book's fictional Department of Biological Security and the draconian, authoritarian laws that have been swept into place in the wake of bioterrorism, which makes the Patriot Act look downright quaint.

Holm's world-building is top-notch, and richly compelling. It all blends together with some smart characters, a nice dose of conspiracy and paranoia, and plenty of action to seamlessly create a frenetic thriller. On the paranoia front - we're not just talking about Jacob not knowing who he can trust or who to turn to. The paranoia is so much more pervasive and existential here! If somebody is caught on the streets past curfew, or, worse, maskless, what do you do and what can happen? If somebody is unmasked and coughs in your general direction, in a world where medicine has been all but curtailed, it takes on much more significance and concern, even beyond what we've grown accustomed to during these last couple years of the pandemic. The fact that Child Zero is dealing with much broader systemic failures, presenting a world once again rife with literal plague, well, reading this at a time when quarantines and lockdown are still very much a part of our reality, the tension here is real, and Holm makes his characters, and by extension his readers, squirm.

Child Zero is an achingly effective thriller, and one that some readers may not be entirely ready for given the last two years. Despite our having a reliable vaccine to fight against COVID-19 infections, we are still in the midst of an on-going pandemic, which can make certain sections of Child Zero a little uncomfortable to read and bring issues of loss and fear very close to home. It also paints an uncompromising picture of what the next pandemic could look like, based on our current abuses of antibiotics in agriculture, unnecessary prescriptions, and lack of novel antibiotics and vaccines. It's scary stuff, made all the scarier for its plausibility.

Jake and Amy? Is the author a Brooklyn Nine-Nine fan? (at any rate, it’s what I’m choosing to believe.)

I really don’t like sci-fi as a rule - I despise Star Trek and Star Wars, I don’t like superhero movies (although I guess those could/should be more classified as fantasy / action), I’m not watching Dune for any other reason then that I like spending time with my family, all of whom are sci-fi appreciators. I’m in my 40’s and I’ve lived this long without gaining an appreciation for Bladerunner, much to my husband’s dismay. It can therefore come as no surprise that my sci-fi books-read-over-the-course-of-my-life list has maybe two or three titles on it. But the synopsis for this was just so intriguing that I bit and I'm really glad that I did.

Despite the serious nature of this book (which is a seriously terrifying prospect), this well-plotted story was such an enjoyable (albeit, frightening) read.

A near-future dystopian nightmare set in NYC. All bacteria have become antibiotic resistant and once-vanquished diseases are now potentially fatal. The main character is a NYPD detective with a deceased wife and sick daughter who is called to the site of mass murder in Central Par, which has been turned into a quarantine zone. The action and mystery are engaging, while the science is well-explained and seemingly quite plausible. The comparison to the old Michael Crichton novels I read in the 80s is very apt.

Child Zero by Chris Holm is a scary, thought-provoking story about what our actual future could hold in terms of vaccines, diseases, and the division of classes and race.
I really liked the characters, and they were all quite different.

In the middle of the story, I noticed myself skimming some of the pages to get to the meat of the story. It was a bit slow in places. The story was told well, though, and I really liked the book's premise. Mateo was quite brave for being only 12.

I would read more from this author.

I received the book for free from Mulholland Books for my honest review.

#NetGalley @mulhollandbooks

This is my first book that I've read by Chris Holm, and I have to say I am a huge fan! "Child Zero" is an incredibly thrilling story set in an all-too realistic near-future world. In this world, all bacterial pathogens have been infected by a virus (known as the Harbinger Virus), which has made all bacteria resistant to all antibiotics. People now die of what have long been very treatable illnesses. Chemotherapy and Organ Transplants are no longer part of medical treatment because of the risk of having to lower ones immune system. Within this world, new bioterror threats have come to light, and doomsday cults who believe humankind is the greatest threat to the world have cropped up everywhere. Our protagonist Jake is a NYPD detective who finds himself in the middle of all of these controversial groups as he tries to help a remarkable young boy, Mateo, stay safe from many who want to exploit and harm him. You won't be able to put down this exciting thriller! Pre-order now, out May 10th 2022.

"Child Zero" is a very good action and adventure novel that takes place in New York City during a near future when antibiotics no longer work and everyone is again at risk of death or grave illness from infectious diseases. As its promotional materials state, "Child Zero" is perfect for fans of Michael Crichton.

Jake Gibson is an NYPD detective who lost his wife to a bio-terror attack, leaving him alone to raise a young daughter, Zoe, who at the beginning of the novel is running a fever and may have caught an infection. Summoned to a case, Jake goes to Central Park, which has become a sprawling tent city/quarantine center for those trapped in Manhattan at the time of the attack. There, Jake finds charred bodies stacked like cordwood. Autopsies later reveal all the dead were perfectly healthy. Why did they die? What does a twelve-year-old boy—Child Zero—have to do with it? And who or what is behind the various violent groups now hunting for that boy?

Author Chris Holm has given us a well-written tale that is strong on world-building. I found his descriptions of New York City in the coming years, and the various inventions and conditions that will be abroad in the world--including a new Federal government agency rivaling the Defense Department-- very interesting and not overstated. He hasn't created a nightmare world as in, say, the movie "Escape from New York" Instead, he’s given us a quite foreseeable picture of what could be in store for us.

His characters are interesting, if not particularly unique. He makes really good use of New York, including places such as One Polica Plaza, the Upper East Side, Morningside Heights, and various East River islands. The mystery, the various conflicts between characters, and the dangerous situations they find themselves kept me turning the pages towards climactic scenes I found pretty exciting.

All in all, a solid four-star performance.

My thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. The foregoing is my independent opinion.