Today’s post was inspired by a famous writer, who advised me to delete references to COVID in my new book. The reasons for doing so were persuasive. Among them: Publishers won’t touch it. Readers will hate it. The political fallout from those years continues to, well, plague us.
Pandemics have a long history in literature. Albert Camus’ The Plague, Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, Robin Cook’s Contagion, and Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven all capture, in very different ways, the zeitgeist of their time and place. Disease becomes a metaphor for larger issues infecting individual characters and society as a whole.
Apocalyptic events fit well into speculative, dystopian, and paranormal fiction, but is there also a place for them in other genres? For cozy mystery readers, probably not. Plenty of writers stretch the bounds of these books, but it’s safe to say few people who pick up a cozy mystery seek a nightmare scenario. Traditional and cozy mysteries experienced an upswing in popularity during the pandemic, but not because the books helped make sense of a suddenly alien world. Pleasant escapism was the goal, and many of us dove in.
But does the same metric apply to other crime fiction genres? Should writers of thrillers and domestic suspense avoid the topic altogether? Or, if they decide to include the pandemic, should they engage a sensitivity reader for this new challenge?
Decisions about setting are, of course, more complicated than this. Scale and scope matter. If the pandemic is the story, then a writer has multiple paths to achieve that narrative goal. One is to tackle challenging content head-on. Another is to fictionalize it. The first ensures a ripped-from-the-headlines immediacy and, perhaps, a deeper connection for readers who relate to the characters and situation. The second gives writers greater latitude to frame events without adhering to (sometimes) inconvenient facts.
Other complications abound. In my case, if I change the timeframe of my new thriller, it isn’t a matter of moving the date a few years earlier or later. The book doesn’t take place during the pandemic, but the fact that it happened is central to the evolution of the protagonist. She gets sick before the advent of effective treatments, and her subsequent physical weakness sets in motion many of the decisions she makes later.
Life-threatening illness does that. It changes us, and when all of society is affected, the impact is profound. Other scenarios can take the place of COVID, but I’m not sure they’d resonate in the same way.
I’ll conclude with a question, since I don’t have answers. Would you avoid a book that integrates the pandemic into its story? (Asking for a friend)
Lori Robbins
Her experiences as a dancer, teacher, writer, and mother of six have made her an expert in the homicidal tendencies everyday life inspires.
You can find her at lorirobbins.com
Nope, doesn’t bother me at all when a book mentions Covid, lockdown, vaccines, etc.
I found it subtly inserting itself into my writing. Like my characters stopped shaking hands when they met someone new.
I wonder what romance writers did with it?
That’s so interesting–it didn’t cross my mind to do that in previous books. The pandemic was so hard on the dance community I skipped right past it and mentioned it only as a reference point in the past. Your comment about romance writers made me think of all the possibilities in one of those pandemic pod communities!
Thanks for your thoughtful, nuanced essay, Lori. It sounds as if the focus of your WIP, at least in part, is on the way a character’s recent physical weakness is affecting her decisions and the people in her life. That sounds like a character-driven story I’d absolutely want to read, irrespective of the reason for the disability. But a Michael Crichton-style medical mystery entirely focused on Covid or a Covid-like virus would have to be awfully special to entice me. It’s just not a subject I revisit for fun.
Camu’s book on a similar topic has lasted quite awhile, so I wouldn’t worry about it.
I recently learned it surged in popularity during Covid, along with other plague-related fiction. At the time, I was all in on escapism, but for others, vicarious chills, maybe?
I ‘m a huge fan of medical mysteries and sci-fi becomes real life stories and I loved your post Lori. Personally, I’m curious and fascinated by how writers, artists, filmmakers, interpret and create work that tries to make sense of current events. Tell your friend this: If a pandemic-themed book intrigues them, give it a shot. (pun intended). If it feels like too much, skip it.
Love your comment about creating fictional work that makes sense of current events. It’s the underlying theme of my Master Class mysteries, in which the protagonist is [unsurprisingly] an English teacher. And your advice is good–I think I will take that shot!
I avoid any book that has the pandemic as the central plot point. As in, there’s a lockdown and a serial killer goes to town. But, if it’s a book about something else and the pandemic is just part of what happened, then that’s fine. That’s our life. And, Lori, I’ve read other books where the main character is suffering from long covid or ramifications, and that’s also fine because it’s not about the lockdown. It’s reading about the fear and isolation of the lockdown that’s a hard no for me. Even if it comes from my favorite authors. Too soon! Plus, I think we as a society, are moving more and more toward escapism in literature at the moment. I’m happy to read a historical novel about the black plague, because it’s almost like science fiction or fantasy–it’s so far removed from my own experience.
Emilya, your comment about reliving the fear and isolation really hit home for me. Before writing this blog I researched readers’ comments on pandemic-related books, and this is very much in sync with how many of them felt. On a personal level: Books that take place in the distant past are fine–but I still have a hard time [re]watching movies like Outbreak. Although it released in 1995, it’s simply too close to what we went through. Worse, it’s not over. I’m already anxious about what may be coming…
Right now I have a lot of anxiety about the world we live in so I don’t have a high tolerance for tension in a book. So whether I would read a book that includes the pandemic in some way, depends on how it is used.
Personally, I’ve ignored it in my NYPD Detective Chiara Corelli mysteries primarily because I thought it would complicate writing the investigations. Of course, it could have added a lot of conflict like rage about vaccinations, and about wearing, not wearing a mask, among other things. Conflict is always good, of course, and could make for a great book. Maybe I’ll write a standalone.
However, I have read several romances where the lock down is used to bring the two main characters together. For example, the women are English and after a breakup, one of them accepts a job in the US, quits her London job and gives up her apartment. But the day she is supposed to fly to the US, the world goes into lockdown and all flights are cancelled. Left high and dry at the airport, she decides her ex is too kind to turn her away, and it will probably be just a matter of weeks, so she shows up at her ex’s door. Of course, she takes her in. Of course, they fall back in love, etc.
I’ve also read a few romances where the pandemic and the lockdown are past but referred to in terms of how it impacted the character’s business or relationship.
Great topic Lori.
The possibility of a COVID-related romance is the first thing I thought of after reading Lane’s comment! In the meantime: Like you, I’ve mostly ignored the pandemic in my writing. It devastated the dance community, so including it in my On Pointe mysteries was never going to happen. Too complicated and it wouldn’t add to the story. For the thriller, however, the pandemic is central to making the protagonist’s actions reasonable and believable.
I too am suffering anxiety about the world we live in. Honestly, if I were writing this post now, instead of scheduling it weeks ago, I would have chosen a different topic. For me, public health issues are more fraught now than at any time since the pandemic.
I’m intrigued by it I guess because it was so big and I haven’t processed it, so I probably would pick up a book about COVID, though I probably wouldn’t write one. I was a teacher in NYC right after 9/11 and that was another topic we were advised to ignore.
I was teaching on 9/11, in. a classroom with a distant view of the World Trade Center. I didn’t know what was happening, even after a frantic visit from the principal, telling us to close the shades. Despite the trauma–it was hours before I learned my husband missed his train–I wouldn’t hesitate to read a book that dealt with it. Though I still won’t watch a documentary on it. I can do without the real-life footage.
Lori:
I’m sure it may trigger some, so adding it to your trigger warnings might help. I’d leave it in because it’s integral to the storyline. (I’m really tired of people trying to rewrite history by leaving events out of books.)
As I recall, Michael Connelly talked a bit about COVID in Resurrection Walk, which came out in 2023, and the book did receive about 400 1-star reviews (or about 1% of the reviews), but it was more because he dared to say something negative about the previous president.
I like the idea of trigger warnings, which I don’t use but probably should. As for Michael Connelly’s 1-star reviews: politics is always going to be a minefield. Before writing this post, I read a ton of reader comments about books that included the pandemic. Interestingly, most complained more about the writer’s supposed soapbox than about COVID. What I think they were really saying, though, was that the writer presented the pandemic in a way that clashed with their views.
Interesting topic and discussion. My own experience: I used COVID prominently in my 2021 mystery A PLAGUE AMONG US. Why? It’s book #8 in a series set in Chautauqua, NY, a summer arts community that, for the first time in its 150-year history, shut down in 2020 due to the pandemic. Each book is set in Chautauqua the previous summer. So I didn’t see a way around it. Loyal readers didn’t seem to mind. But I think I probably scared off some newcomers not eager to be reminded of COVID.
You may have been boxed into writing about the pandemic, but if anyone could persuade readers to deal with COVID, it would be Mimi and Sylvia. I’ve avoided it so far–the protagonist of my On Pointe mysteries is a ballerina, and the dance world shut down. Addressing the fallout was so complicated and depressing [for me!] I just jetéd right past it.
I’m pretty much in sync with Emilya’s thoughts on this. I think I still have traces of PTSD from that horrible lockdown time. Reading for me is partly an escape. I get immersed in a good book, and I don’t want to immerse myself again in COVID, even if it’s fictionalized. Maybe it’s too soon. And everyone is different. Just look at the varied thoughts in the comment here. I can only speak for myself.
Connie, that sentiment was the one most often cited by readers in response to books that did include the pandemic. I wrote this post a few weeks ago, but I’m not sure, given recent headlines about public health issues, I’d write it today.
This is such an interesting topic, Lori! A mystery that references the pandemic wouldn’t be problematic for me at all, particularly since it sounds integral to your character’s development. In fact, it makes me want to read the book!
My first book features a protagonist who’s dealing with chronic illness, and I wrote it during the pandemic when so many people were dealing with long COVID. I didn’t reference the pandemic a lot, but it felt almost unavoidable to bring it in a bit since illness was a major theme in the book.
Yes–illness is a powerful tool for a writer. Like you, I’m more intrigued than wary about the possibilities.
It felt weird to omit any mention of COVID in my On Pointe and Master Class mysteries, but there wasn’t a place for it there. In the thriller, though, the lockdown enables behavior that wouldn’t appear normal in less fraught times. And thanks so much for this thoughtful take on the topic-
I’m conflicted about how/why to work COVID into a story myself, but I think it’s important not to ignore it as part of history. At the very least, in a contemporary plot, characters might mention it as something that had an impact on them. In researching London in the time between the world wars for my latest historical mystery fiction, I found very little mention of the 1918 (aka “Spanish”) Flu. It made me think that perhaps one reason why we were less prepared for COVID was because that 1918 pandemic was so buried and erased from our history. People didn’t believe it could happen because they didn’t realize it had already happened!
Great post by the way, Lori!
Several years ago [probably around 2020…] I read a book about the “Spanish” flu that you probably know but whose title now escapes me. It was terrifying. The number of mistakes, missed opportunities, and deadly consequences was staggering. And yes, it made me wonder how history would record our response to COVID.
I also really like your comment about how important it is that we not ignore the reality of the times we’re living through.
Great post! I mention the pandemic in passing when appropriate, because it happened. It’s reality. But I don’t dwell on it. The closest I came to making it part of the story was one novel in which I use it as a device. The bad guys used it as an excuse to keep someone in a mental institution who no longer belonged there. They could deny visitors (who might realize their loved ones were being kept against their will) from coming into the hospital because of the pandemic and thereby keep patients longer to milk their insurance.
That’s so interesting! And frankly, terrifying. Getting locked up in a mental institution is an automatic nail-biter.
I’ve put the pandemic to use in a similar way in my thriller. The first draft of it, anyway. The protagonist’s husband uses the lockdown to control her and to prove, when she tries to leave the house, that she’s an unfit mother.
My two series don’t deal with COVID, other than [again like you] in passing.
Lori, this is such a thoughtful, interesting post. I’ve read books recently that mention COVID in passing. It hasn’t bothered me. I haven’t read one that uses the pandemic as a primary plot point or circumstance. I think with time, both writers and readers may become more comfortable with stories that feature COVID.
Thanks, Suzanne! I agree that for many people, it’s too soon to grapple with COVID. I’m not one of them, but I have to wonder if it’s partly because we fear another pandemic on the horizon. I’m sympathetic to that–when reality feels like a nightmare, fiction offers the surest escape.
What a great post, Lori. I’ve read a few books where Covid is referred to as just starting or has just ended, and those timings affected the character’s story arc. Each felt integrated into the story. I chose to ignore it in my last Trudy Genova book for my own ease in telling the story I wanted to tell. In your book your character has a direct effect from it, so it had to be addressed. And it was done so well I never thought Covid overwhelmed the story.
I realized in reading all of these comments that I used to read people like Robin Cook and Michael Crichton but no longer seek those kinds of books out— but likely having a husband who developed severe heart failure after a booster and is now home on hospice has jaded me seeking out books written with Covid in mind…
When something hits home in so personal a way, we don’t want to revisit it. It’s a version of PTSD–subsequent events can trigger an unstoppable emotional reaction. Where COVID is concerned, there are things I won’t touch, either as a writer or a reader/viewer. Some have suggested that it’s too soon. I’m not sure, however, that time will change that. Twenty-plus years post 9/11, I still can’t watch footage of what happened. And anytime I see the Twin Towers, in a movie that predates their fall, there’s a whole other level of grief.
I used the period between pandemic alerts in my gay bodyguard book The Feet of Blue Pigeons, released last year. When everyone is wearing a mask, how can you tell who the bad guys are? So much of our awareness of others is in the face. Great question to consider!
I suspect readers will follow Aidan and Liam anyplace they choose to go! In re your comment about masks: With New York contemplating an anti-mask law, the issue feels more relevant now than ever.
I purposely set my NYC mystery in 1999 to avoid 9/11. Remember wigging out about Y2K? Innocent times.
Yes! I remember the panic over Y2K all too well. That time feels so far off now.
I’m locked into the present for my two series, but your comment made me think anew about choosing a time period for a standalone novel. There’s something truly liberating about that.