Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Fervor by Alma Katsu

20 reviews

jenlengland's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Alcohol

randeerebecca's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Forced institutionalization, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

deb_is_reading's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and War

jbosio's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

An enjoyable read and it kept my attention, but the ending felt a little weak. The author wrapped it up too quickly when the characters finally converged. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Xenophobia

alicelalicon's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, and Pandemic/Epidemic

eelizard's review

dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kt2e56's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This started out great but sort of petered out as it went on. I think once the characters’ stories begin to intersect is where the trouble begins. Things start to become a bit too convenient and eventually lead to a really rushed ending that feels a bit like a deus ex machina. I also feel like as the story goes on, the Japanese folklore (aka the most interesting bits) sort of becomes less and less important and the book goes from being a creepy historical horror novel to a quasi-political thriller which just wasn’t what I was in the mood for. Don’t get me wrong, this was still entertaining but it just wasn’t as spooky as The Hunger so I feel a bit disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Antisemitism, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

crabbytaco's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Xenophobia

Moderate: Forced institutionalization

wednesdayzombie's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

tigger89's review

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

The execution of this book just didn't do it for me. The true meaning behind the fervor infection was clever, but instead of dropping the bomb and moving on with the story, the author lingered on the point, repeating it over and over again. Maybe this was meant to be artistic, but the vibe I came away with was that she didn't trust the reader to get it. That said, I did feel like, at the core, the message behind the plot was not only timely, but actually pretty solid. Each character stood in for a different population, presenting their perspective and demonstrating the good(and harm) possible. I just wish it had been conducted with a lighter touch and less repetition, you know?

I also felt like, while the yokai and jorogumo demon were teased in the description, they weren't the ultimate focus. This was disappointing to me, because I'd been drawn to the book specifically to explore the folklore in a horror setting. Instead, I was bait-and-switched with a completely different sort of horror. It almost seemed like the characters of Meiko and (especially) Aiko were wasted, given their vast potential in the other book that this one was pretending to be, before the white characters came in and made it all about their own feelings. While poignant, somehow I doubt that was the artistic statement the author was going for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol

Spiders.