This Vicious Cure is the third and final book in Emily Suvada’s This Mortal Coil trilogy and it is a fantastic gene-hacking based book that is set in a post-apocalyptic world. This Vicious Cure certainly cured the need to know how the characters ended up fairing at the end of this series!
Before delving into why I loved This Vicious Cure, let’s recap book 1 (This Mortal Coil) and book 2 (This Cruel Design). In This Mortal Coil, we meet Catarina and Cole, who live in this future world where the virus Hydra has forced many people into bunkers run by this corporation by the name of Cartaxus. Cole is a soldier from Cartaxus who has delivered a message to Cat that her father, Lachlan Agatta, is dead. This sends them on a gene-hacking and butt-kicking journey to uncover the truth behind Lachlan’s death. In This Cruel Design, we meet Jun Bei, Cole, and Anna, who are lab-made humans and they work with Catarina to attempt to make a vaccine for the Hydra virus, whilst on the run from both Lachlan and Cartaxus. In these books, there is a bit of gore, and a slightly weird romance, but I loved it, so obviously I read This Vicious Cure!
Ultimately, This Vicious Cure was 100% a strong finish to the series. I enjoyed the alternating dual perspectives between Catarina and Jun Bei, who are seemingly rebuilding their lives after the events from This Cruel Design. I loved seeing all the characters I loved back in this third book (including one of my favourites from book 1 and Lachlan Agatta- someone you’ll learn to love to hate!), as well as seeing them all work together to again try to beat the Hydra virus.
Whilst I did appreciate the dual perspective, I felt that it was lacking a little bit more from the other characters that were important across the first two books, such as Cole and Lachlan; they both were portrayed as more insignificant characters. However, I think the limitations from Cole could’ve been because Catarina was locked into a virtual simulation and couldn’t have in-person contact with anyone.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading all the technical terms that were used throughout the book, as I could actually see how it all worked together, as I am currently studying gene editing myself at the moment, however I feel like this could pose a problem for people who have forgotten all the terminology between books. It was enjoyable how the revelations throughout were not just conveniently there, instead, the characters had to dig around and figure out what was actually going on! The action and the gore was also still super consistent in this book, and kept me thoroughly gripped and wanting to know why these things were happening. The descriptiveness of the events that happened in this book were surreal, and in the world that has been clearly so delicately built, it feels like things like that could actually happen in real life. I mean hello, we already have the CRISPR/Cas gene editing technique that’s taken the world by storm, close enough, right?
Whilst I totally did not expect the ending of This Vicious Cure to be what it was, I’m quite satisfied with it, and as a whole, I’m totally satisfied with the series and now one of my favourite dystopian sci-fi series.
This Vicious Cure is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers.
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Cat’s hacking skills weren’t enough to keep her from losing everything – her identity, her past, and now her freedom.
Meanwhile, the person who’s stolen everything from her is close to realizing a hacker’s dream: the solution to humanity’s problems in gene form. Or so she thinks…
But now a new threat has emerged – a threat that could bring the world to the brink of a devastating war.
Both sides will stop at nothing to seize control of humanity’s future, and that the centre of this war is Cat, and a race against the clock save millions of lives . . .
