The Pharmacist: The most gripping and unforgettable debut

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A compulsive, claustrophobic but wonderfully compassionate read, beautifully written and set within a brilliantly realised world. Rachelle Atalla is a major talent and I can't wait to see where her mind goes next Beautifully written and utterly gripping, The Pharmacist will be a guaranteed conversation starter when it is published.

It comes down to character, and the kindnesses and cruelties that we impose upon one another,” she explains. I was left questioning the whys and how's of the people came to be in the bunker. I would have liked to know more about the Leader and his motivation. The story begins as Schneider, a Louisiana-based pharmacist, solves the murder of his son, discovering a major twist in the process. The people are identified only by their surname and allocated positions according to their professions in their previous life. The main character, Wolfe, is a pharmacist who is responsible for dispensing medicines prescribed by Dr Stirling and the two of them have a close association. Wolfe is also assigned an assistant to help during the day shift. More strange things begin to happen, and Alice struggles to separate reality from fantasy. Sometimes it takes a stranger and a detective to figure everything out!

Starting writing short stories

Dystopian novels can really vary in terms of quality, but I am pleased to say that I found this both engaging and realistic. Sarah Wolfe is a thirty-four-year-old pharmacist, who lives and works in a bunker. Those living in the bunker are the influential or have useful skills, such as Wolfe herself. Although where the novel is set is unnamed, that helps create a sense of dissociation, claustrophobia, boredom, and disillusionment. The Yellow Card Scheme allows you to report suspected side effects from a medicine, vaccine or medical device. They also have a Yellow Card app you can use. This had an interesting premise, similar in some ways to the brilliant Wool trilogy, let down by the unpleasantness of reading text devoid of quotation marks and paragraph breaks - it’s unclear how much of this is ARC formatting and how much was a deliberate style choice, but if the latter, it doesn’t work and will put off many readers who don’t appreciate having to read sentences multiple times to work out what’s dialogue, versus Wolfe’s inner monologue - or even who is speaking.

I would have liked to have known who chose the people who got the privilege of entering the bunker. No babies and no old people. And yet, there are the usual number of useless politicians and unnecessary soldiers.I liked the idea of the role-playing that went on within the bunker. Very clever and passed the time for what for some must have been arduous indeed.She says: “I qualified as a pharmacist in 2008 and started locuming. There’s a lot of responsibility with the job and I found it quite anxiety-inducing because I was worried I might make mistakes.