Summary and Reviews of The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley

The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley

The Things That Keep Us Here

A Novel

by Carla Buckley
  • Critics' Consensus (7):
  • Readers' Rating (30):
  • First Published:
  • Feb 9, 2010, 416 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jan 2011, 432 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

How far would you go to protect your family?

Carla Buckley’s poignant debut raises important questions to which there are no easy answers, in an emotionally riveting tale of one family facing unimaginable stress.

How far would you go to protect your family?

Ann Brooks never thought she’d have to answer that question. Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see. In this chillingly urgent novel, Carla Buckley confronts us with the terrifying decisions we are forced to make when ordinary life changes overnight.

A year ago, Ann and Peter Brooks were just another unhappily married couple trying–and failing–to keep their relationship together while they raised two young daughters. Now the world around them is about to be shaken as Peter, a university researcher, comes to a startling realization: A virulent pandemic has made the terrible leap across the ocean to America’s heartland.

And it is killing fifty out of every hundred people it touches.

As their town goes into lockdown, Peter is forced to return home–with his beautiful graduate assistant. But the Brookses’ safe suburban world is no longer the refuge it once was. Food grows scarce, and neighbor turns against neighbor in grocery stores and at gas pumps. And then a winter storm strikes, and the community is left huddling in the dark.

Trapped inside the house she once called home, Ann Brooks must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where opening a door to a neighbor could threaten all the things she holds dear.

Carla Buckley’s poignant debut raises important questions to which there are no easy answers, in an emotionally riveting tale of one family facing unimaginable stress.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

Suspense Magazine
The Things That Keep Us Here is without a doubt one of the most powerful and realistically frightening books I have ever read... Readers will find themselves inevitably swept into the lives of this family; sharing their fears, heartbreak and success while watching helplessly as the systems meant to better everyone's lives breakdown. With staggering intensity, Buckley's writing will leave you speechless.

The Straits Times, Niki Bruce
This is one of the scariest books I've read recently, and there's not a single zombie, vampire, genetically modified creature or mass murderer in sight.

The Dallas Morning New, Joy Tipping
[A] chilling, engrossing debut novel

Booklist
...her story gradually gains depth and momentum, operating both as a psychological profile of a family under duress and as a scary, gripping look at the effects of a pandemic. For fans of Robin Cook, Michael Palmer, and Daniel Kalla.

Library Journal
Despite structural flaws, this vivid depiction of suburban America gone bad is riveting. It has the potential for broad appeal and could attract fans of authors as diverse as Jodi Picoult, Robin Cook, and P.D. James.

Publishers Weekly
Although Buckley raises important questions about trust, loyalty and forgiveness, the narrative flaws detract from the overall effect.

Kirkus Reviews
Mawkish prose and blatantly contrived plot developments make this a disappointing debut.

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Read-Alikes

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