The Cure by Eve Smith BLOG TOUR #TheCure @evecsmith @OrendaBooks #BookReview #SpeculativeFiction

 

Living forever can be lethal…

Ruth is a law-abiding elder, working out her national service, but she has secrets.

Her tireless research into the disease that killed her young daughter had an unexpected outcome: the discovery of a vaccine against old age. Just one jab a year reverses your biological clock, guaranteeing a long, healthy life.

But Ruth's cure was hijacked by her colleague, Erik Grundleger, who hungers for immortality, and the SuperJuve – a premium upgrade – was created, driving human lifespan to a new high. The wealthy elite who take it are dubbed Supers, and the population begins to skyrocket.

Then, a perilous side-effect of the SuperJuve emerges, with catastrophic consequences, and as the planet is threatened, the population rebels, and laws are passed to restore order: life ends at 120. Supers are tracked down by Omnicide investigators like Mara, and executed…

Mara has her own reasons for hunting Supers, and she forms an unlikely alliance with Ruth to find Grundleger.

But Grundleger has been working on something even more radical and is one step ahead, with a deadly surprise in store for them both…

The Cure by Eve Smith was published on 10 April 2025 by Orenda Books. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of this Blog Tour 

This is Eve Smith's fourth novel.  I have read and adored her first three books, she's become a favourite author of mine and I've been looking forward to The Cure for a long time now. 

Speculative fiction is my favourite genre. I do love the fact that this is not 'science fiction', this is not something that is totally implausible. Speculative fiction concentrates on things that could happen, one could even say, that they are likely to happen. Whilst the plot lines are often terrifying, the reader can really see that these things are possible .... it's very frightening. 

It is sometime in the near future and the population is growing out of control. Despite that fact that poverty and hunger still exist, people seem to want to live forever ....  and some people can. Those who have enough money can become 'Supers'. It is against the law, and there's an army of Omnicide investigators whose job it is to track the Supers down and make sure that they make their transcendence day ..... the day that they are terminated, the day that they die. 

Our two main players are Ruth and Mara. Ruth is a woman who has obeyed the law throughout her life. However, it was Ruth that discovered Rejuve; the drug that means that humans can now live forever. Ironically, she discovered it as she searched for a cure for the illness that killed her young daughter. Mara is an Omnicide investigator, seeking out those people who have accessed the SuperJuve version of Rejuve. Both Ruth and Mara especially want to track down Erik Grundleger - the scientist who stole Ruth's discover and created the Superjuve. 

It is so easy to write reams and reams about this book. We can look at the exquisite characterisation that Smith never fails to deliver, we can talk about the science and the potential for the things in the novel to come true. We can look at the world in its current state and compare it to the author's creation in The Cure. 

The perfect book for a Book Group read, so much to dissect, to pick over, to debate. It is a chilling yet powerful story that is also very frightening. A thriller, an in-depth look at humanity, at greed, at power. Original, frank and very perceptive. Highly recommended by me. 

Eve Smith writes speculative thrillers, mainly about the things that scare her.


Longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize and described by Waterstones as ‘an exciting new voice in crime fiction’, Eve’s debut novel, The Waiting Rooms, set in the aftermath of an antibiotic resistance crisis, was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize First Novel Award and was a Book of the Month in the Guardian, who compared her writing to Michael Crichton’s.

It was followed by Off-Target, about a world where genetic engineering of children is routine, and ONE, about survival in a world ravaged by climate change.

Eve’s previous job at an environmental charity took her to research projects across Asia, Africa and the Americas, and she has an ongoing passion for wild creatures, wild science and far-flung places.

She lives in Oxfordshire with her family.

www.evesmithauthor.com

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