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gittejump's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I read this book, a book about a pandemic in South Africa, while in South Africa and the COVID pandemic.
According to the book, most of the people in my area were wiped out.
Fever is the story of a fathers murder, told by his son many years later.
The story starts with a young boy and his father facing off a pack of wild dogs. There is nothing around them and no one to help. This will be the first time, Nico, the boy will have to pick up a gun to protect his father.
Nico's Father Willem wants to create a safe place for his son to grow up in. He is concerned that the devastation around them is raising his son on too much violence. He creates this settlement from the ground up near an old dam. Eventually, survivors from all over South Africa start congregating there. The story is told through interview recordings and anecdotes throughout the birth of their safe haven.
The best part of this book is how much focus was put into creating this settlement. It covers the practicalities of trying to rebuild an entire city. From government, security, food production and recording their history and stories. The short interview breaks were perfect to encapsulate the different casts of characters. It showed perfectly how differently people reacted to the start of the pandemic.
Fever was published in 2016 and I read this in 2020, however the fictional speculation on how South Africa would react to a pandemic was crazy accurate. The descriptions of South Africa as a whole were beautiful, I could perfectly picture whatever landscape the characters were in.
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain forever a child. For what is the value of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history.”
Fever is for anyone wanting a post-apocalyptic novel focused on rebuilding and a diverse set of characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Death, and Gun violence
Minor: Racism, Sexual assault, and Trafficking
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