Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Fervor by Alma Katsu

5 reviews

georgiaaa's review

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adventurous mysterious reflective 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? Yes

3.0

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ten_telegrams's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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xlizabeth's review

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challenging dark sad 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

4.5

“The Fervor” was a solid 4.5 for me, and I’ll be adding the rest of Alma Katsu’s historical horror to my TBR. 

I’d recommend this to historical fiction fans wanting to dip their toes into horror, or horror fans not wanting blood & guts horror. 

It takes the approach that King’s “The Stand” does (multiple POVs that come together at the end — not a huge spoiler, its obvious that they will).

We follow a preacher (in Oregon dealing with loss), a reporter (crossing the country dealing with misogyny), and a mother and child (who are in a Japanese internment camp located in Idaho dealing with abuse). I was thrown off by these multiple storylines for a bit since I had surgery in the middle but I think this would be a 4.75 star read if I wasn’t rudely interrupted by my emergency appendectomy. 

This is a social commentary horror story which is my favorite type of horror to read. Anti-Asian rhetoric is the true horror but Alma Katsu has added Japanese Yōkai (supernatural spirits) to elevate the storytelling. Be warned, if you’re scared of spiders I’d stay away from this one. 

Written during a time when both white nationalism and a deadly virus are spreading, this is a truly terrifying read. 
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ohhthehorrors's review

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.0

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thesaltiestlibrarian's review

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-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? Yes

4.5

 Huge thanks to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Horror. One of the best ways to critique society in fiction.

A good chunk of this book takes place in the horrific Japanese internment camps during WWII, which (thank God) are having a massive resurgence in the public eye as of late. "AsIaN-tArgEtEd HaTe CriMeS aRe NeWw." Yes, hello? It's the 1850s calling. They'd like a word.

Anyway, we're introduced to a cast of characters who seem to be completely disconnected from each other, never having met before. There's Archie, the newly-minted pastor of a small Oregon town's church; Fran, the intrepid Nebraskan reporter fighting misogyny and trying to figure out what kind of explosives are falling out of the sky that also cause people to fall violently ill; Meiko and her daughter Aiko, unfortunate victims of anti-Japanese rhetoric stuck in an Idaho internment camp. Aiko is seeing ghosts everywhere. Archie is suffering a tragic loss. Fran is under scrutiny from a mysterious person.

I don't feel comfortable saying more, because you really need to go into this with as little as possible. The burn is slow, the action is packed, and the characters are just fantastic. This is my first Alma Katsu, even though I have a couple of her other books stashed in my admittedly enormous and unwieldy Kindle library. But I'll be coming for those puppies real soon.

I highly recommend reading this in low light, or with a single lamp on. Lately my reading has been on the infrequent side of things, so when I got to THE FERVOR, it was mostly as night was falling. The darkness intensified the claustrophobia of Katsu's atmosphere, and DAMN can she write atmosphere. Every horror fan should get their hands on this one ASAP. 
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