Claustrophobic dystopian post-apocalyptic thriller, set in an underground bunker where a select few shelter from the nuclear fallout above ground, surviving in harsh conditions while they wait until the time is right to resurface and re-populate the world once it has healed.

Sarah Wolfe is a pharmacist, providing a valuable service to the residents she lives with. She has no family with her and doubts whether she deserves to be there.

When the bunker's leader calls on her to assist him, she is reluctant but powerless to object for fear of reprisals, and soon discovers a secret side to life in the bunker.

3.5⭐ rounded to 4

The Pharmacist is a gripping post-apocalyptic thriller set in a claustrophobic bunker following a nuclear disaster. Narrated by Sarah Wolfe, the bunker’s pharmacist, the novel delves into themes of survival, power, and moral dilemmas as Wolfe navigates the oppressive control of the bunker’s leader. The book’s fragmented timeline and lack of speech marks intensify the sense of isolation and desperation. While the vivid, unsettling atmosphere and thought-provoking scenarios are compelling, the abrupt ending and challenging formatting may detract from the overall experience. Despite these drawbacks, the book's bleak and intense narrative offers a unique and gripping take on dystopian fiction.

I'm a sucker for a post-apocalyptic story, so I don't know why it took me so long to read The Pharmacist.

Set in an underground bunker following a nuclear event, the book is narrated by Wolfe, one of the bunker's pharmacists. She's alone in the bunker, with no family, and we see the connections she makes with some of the other (quite unusual) inhabitants. Wolfe finds herself facing challenges and moral dilemmas, and the book makes you question what you might do in her place.

Well written and descriptive, the book has a heavy sense of desperation and emptiness that draws you in and gives a real taste of what this dystopian future may be like to live in. The timeline is fragmented, skipping ahead in often unknown increments, which really helps to emphasise how time is experienced inside the bunker.

The ending arrived abruptly, and it didn't feel satisfying to me. Perhaps because I wanted more answers.

The style and formatting was challenging - tightly packed paragraphs and no speech marks. This may have been a stylistic choice by the author to enhance the claustrophobia of the book, but I found it off-putting. Although I had an ebook version of this book, I switched to audiobook and it was a much better experience.

Overall I enjoyed this book, as bleak and dark as it was, and I would happily have read more about Wolfe and life in the bunker. I'll be looking out for more from this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

If you lived in a bunker following a catastrophic nuclear event, what would you do to gain a few extra privileges? What would you do to keep those closest to you safe? What would you do to keep yourself safe?

These are the questions that face Wolfe, who is The Pharmacist. She was allowed a place in the bunker but is there alone with no family. Life is full of routine and very little pleasure. After a particularly nasty event, she asks for assistance at the pharmacy and teenager Levitt is brought in to help her. But favours in the bunker always come with strings attached and Wolfe finds herself dragged more into the corrupt world of the bunker’s leader.

I really enjoyed this book. It was very easy to read and the pacing was terrific. As others have already recognised, it has tones of 1984 and I also found myself comparing aspects of it to behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic.

My one criticism is that the ending wasn’t totally satisfying for me. I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoil it for people but it all felt a bit quick. However, I would love to read a prequel/sequel/side story should it be a subject the author ever wants to return to.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Set in a post apocalyptic future where survivors live in bunkers waiting for the outside world to be safe again.

Sarah Wolfe a young woman is the Pharmacist who dispenses medication and deals with minor ailments until she becomes unwillingly involved in the leaders paranoid schemes to eliminate rivals and maintain control. She lives a life of comparative luxury in an isolated part of the bunker.

The walls that keep her safe also have her trapped. How much more is she willing to give to stay alive?

This was such a thrilling read that had me gripped from the start.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

This looked interesting, but I was unable to read it before it was archived. Apologies - I’ll be looking it up elsewhere now.

deliberately detached from strong emotions or sensations, which i respect and recognize, it just made it a bit tough to fully invest in. bleak but competent.

An incredibly effective, claustrophobic and gritty post apocalyptic thriller. It was a bit unrelentingly grim in places but generally a very strong debut!

It's time to tidy up my shelf and I have tried several times to read this book but, sadly, I am just not feeling it. Not every book works for every reader and I guess this is not one for me.
Thank you for the chance anyway.
3 Stars as picking the middle one!

Reading The Pharmacist is kind of like wondering whether you turned the oven off. You have this unsettling feeling underlying the events in the book, but then sometimes you get this sense of calm.
The book follows a pharmacist (Wolfe - everyone goes by last names) living in a small community in a bunker following the end of the world.
We are following Wolfe, so we never really get the full scale of the bunker.
There is, as you would imagine in a book about a post-apocalyptic bunker, a Leader, who takes a shine to Wolfe and starts to ask favours of her.
This is where the unsettling yet calm feeling comes from. We are never really sure how anyone is going to act.

This book feels it could be set in the not too distant future, i loved the characters in the book although sometimes i felt i wanted more from them, its a thrilling book a little scary at times
I really enjoyed it it kept me gripped to the end, although i finsihed it asking lots of questions.

This book wasn't for me. I found it very difficult to follow the story and I wasn't keen on the characters. I think if I had found out more about them from the start, I would relate to them more and enjoyed the book more.
I am sure that other fans of dystopian thrillers would enjoy this despite it not being for me.

This was an unusual read for me, but I enjoyed it. A dystopian setting that felt so claustrophobic, at times it was very unsettling. Interesting concept and highly recommended.

This novel is set in a dystopian world, where nuclear fumes have made Earth uninhabitable. But like the cockroaches humans are, they don't accept their end - instead, they build a futuristic bunker underground, and select the lucky few who get to survive in this new reality that is run almost like a dictatorship, with one man ruling over everyone in his secret lair, from which he never emerges. Unfortunately, that's really all I can tell you about this society - we aren't really given any more details. And even more unfortunately, that is a theme that runs throughout the book.
(Before I get into the nitty gritty criticism, I should perhaps explain why I am giving 3 stars, as opposed to 1. There are positives - for example, the pharmacy is an interesting setting, acting almost as a microcosm of the wider bunker. We get to see a whole host of characters, presented to us through their ailments, and it is interesting to see that this element of modern day society - access to medication - is valued so highly, when other things that we would count as basic human rights - privacy, family, individualism - are denied to the inhabitants.)
Unfortunately, we are back to the negatives. There are moments that are almost fully developed, that teeter on the edge of a well-rounded presentation of dystopia, but they never quite reach the realisation that they are working towards. Everything feels just a little bit too undeveloped. This is most apparent in the conversations between Wolfe and Stirling - there is always something unsaid, some end that has been set up but never reached. After a while, this gets frustrating.
This lends the book a sense of 'never-endingness', which I'm sure isn't a real word, but fits so perfectly with the frustration of this novel that I'm going to use it regardless. There is no future to look towards (despite the miraculous birth of baby Eleanor that should, but doesn't, give us a sense of hope for any potential future). There are no plans of escape, no growing rebellions, no sense of building unrest (except right towards the very end, and even then, nothing comes of it). To be honest, even though there is a linear story, I couldn't find much by way of a plot. Usually I don't mind this in books - in fact, some of my favourite novels focus on developing interesting characters, bypassing any sense of plot at all. The authors of such books aren't taking us on a journey filled with adventure and happenings, but instead a journey inside the minds, a journey filled with allegories and asides, but no real action. The thing that makes that work, however, is well-developed characters, which alas, we do not have here. It becomes increasingly difficult to be on Wolfe's side, despite her being our narrator, and in fact I was whole-heartedly not on her side, and even rooting for her downfall. The only character that I felt any emotion towards whatsoever was Levitt (and, I should say, Canavan - but only in the last 2 chapters). Other than that, I really couldn't care less.
SPOILERS ahead.
Now let's talk about the bit that frustrated me the most - Wolfe's mission to steal Levitt's baby and give to ND. It's first mentioned about 88% of the way into the book, and it's just not enough to make me care about this group of people that is meant to represent the future of the human race. We aren't led on a journey of rebellion, of survival, and of futuristic dystopia - instead it's just a bizarre group of people fighting over a baby. (And 90% of the action happens in the final 10% of the novel - I've already switched off). So she gives him the baby, stays with them for a while, goes back to the main bunker to make amends, and decides she's made a terrible mistake and so brings the baby back. Okay? In other words, nothing really has changed.
Unfortunately, despite the potential of this dystopian situation and the room that this novel has for character growth and plot development, it's nothing particularly special.

I love a post apocalyptic story, throw in a locked bunker and a power hungry leader and you have the makings of a gripping (and chilling) tale!

Wolfe is the pharmacist from the title and works in the pharmacy within one half of an underground bunker where a community of people shelter from an unknown event. Her position within the hierarchy has always been secure until the leader becomes increasingly paranoid/erratic and his sights zoom in on Wolfe to carry out observations on her fellow bunkers. His requests escalate and I can understand why Wolfe was so complicit, she was stuck between a rock and a hard place and after living on basic rations for so long the luxuries the leader offered would be irresistible!

Wolfe has few friends she can trust, Dr Stirling, her assistant Levitt (a gift from the leader) and Canavan. Her every move is observed and her circle of trust grows smaller by the day.

I really enjoyed this book and the questions it raised

The Pharmacist is an absolutely stunning debut, taut with tension, the claustrophobic atmosphere of the bunker and how the characters feel and react to the situation really jumps off the page.

The Pharmacist is the kind of book that I find I have to ration. I love it, but frankly the concept is terrifying. I read a lot of books about End Of Times, apocalypse, dystopia - I’m addicted, but I find I can’t stop thinking about them, and I even dreamt about The Pharmacist!

This isn’t a light read, and the dread isn’t even underlying: it’s constantly there, glowering in every paragraph, every sentence. The reader doesn’t know why these specially chosen people are all holed up in a bunker together, but something terrible, world changing, has happened.

And the claustrophobia! I could imagine the close living quarters, the smell of the not-quite-clean inhabitants, the fear of doing something to incur the wrath of the bunkers leader. Now, he’s quite some character: power mad and more than happy to use anyone to get what he wants. And although the pharmacist, Wolfe, is supplying him with ever greater supplies of drugs, she is the one who is at his mercy.

Whatever is outside the bunker is worse than what’s inside (I debate this, and would be much happier taking my chances on the outside!). And the tasks that the leader demands that Wolfe undertakes, get worse and worse.

This is an unrelentingly grim read, and I’m sure it says a whole lot about me when I say that I loved it.

Another apocalyptic novel, this time a community living in a bunker after a cataclysmic event that is never explained. Our narrator is Sara Wolfe, who works as a pharmacist in the highly regimented and controlled world below ground. The setting is claustrophobic and the growing desperation and neuroses of the enclosed population grow, as illustrated by the patrons of the pharmacy who depend on tranquillizers and anti-depressants. There's an underlying frisson of violence that breaks through in flaring tempers, attacks and rape, a constant fear for the women.

The repetition of Sara's life is disturbed following one of these violent episodes when she requests protection for the pharmacy. Instead she is given a young assistant. This new addition brings Sara into the orbit of the mysterious and charismatic leader Nathan Douglas, who rules over every aspect of the bunker.

It's a fascinating concept but the story is ultimately unsatisfying, there are too many gaps in the narrative. What happened to drive people underground? How were they chosen? How did the "Leader" get his position? What is happening in the world above? These are the most pressing question for the reader, corruption and deception are clear in the structure of the bunker and there are hints that above ground may not be quite destroyed. But there is no resolution of any of them. The ending is sudden, leaving frustration.

I loved this book. A dystopian future full of twists and turns and loveable and believable characters

The book seems to explore how people behave when in an enclosed environment and I think it has it spot on. How people feel when they are confined, unable to leave. The disturbing part of the story for me was the fact there was no real food just puréed cold sachets of so called food, but the leader had all sorts of food available such as steaks, alcohol, chocolate, however this didn’t help him in the end.
I wish there was more of the background story as to why they needed to be the bunker in the first place. However this is me being nosey and it does not affect the story at all, in some ways I suppose it makes it more interesting, being given little bits of information as to the background of how a person secured their place in the bunker.
I struggled slightly with the lack of punctuation, however this is one of the things that makes the book so unique. I also found at times, mainly in the middle that the fact things changed so quickly for example, one parargrah they were in the pharmacy and the next they may be in the sleeping quarters, a bit of a struggle. This made the book seem fast paced when it’s actually quite a slow burner of a book, leading slowly but wonderfully into the main event.
The ending of the book is very nicely tied up which I do enjoy from a book. One moment you are upset and the next you are intrigued and thankful. 3.5 stars