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keithlafo 's review for:
The Fervor
by Alma Katsu
I stumbled upon Alma Katsu's work, like many, when The Hunger was released. As someone who's held both a fascination with history and a love of horror, I couldn't pass up a twisted story about the Donner Party. The same was true about her next book, The Deep, which entwined the tragedy of the Titanic with a poignant ghost story.
The Fervor finds Katsu finishing off what is, in genre only, a spiritual trilogy of sorts. But this book is different, and Katsu says so herself in the book's Acknowledgments. The tragedy of this country's internment of Japanese-Americans is a blight on our history -- one of many -- and Katsu does not shy away from this atrocity. In fact, The Fervor is just as much focused on the inhumane treatment of Japanese-Americans as it is on Japanese folklore.
For that reason, The Fervor has a dark and intimate quality. Part of that is because Katsu's in-laws were directly affected by the internment camps. This story clearly is personal to her, and that comes across in the directness of her prose -- prose that navigates everything from fear, to anger, to despair, to hope.
In short, The Fervor isn't just Katsu's best book to date, it's also one of the best horror novels I've read. The mark of a great horror story, in my mind, is something that can authentically and truthfully devastate you. Katsu has done that, and more, with this book.
As always, I can't wait to see what she has in store next.
The Fervor finds Katsu finishing off what is, in genre only, a spiritual trilogy of sorts. But this book is different, and Katsu says so herself in the book's Acknowledgments. The tragedy of this country's internment of Japanese-Americans is a blight on our history -- one of many -- and Katsu does not shy away from this atrocity. In fact, The Fervor is just as much focused on the inhumane treatment of Japanese-Americans as it is on Japanese folklore.
For that reason, The Fervor has a dark and intimate quality. Part of that is because Katsu's in-laws were directly affected by the internment camps. This story clearly is personal to her, and that comes across in the directness of her prose -- prose that navigates everything from fear, to anger, to despair, to hope.
In short, The Fervor isn't just Katsu's best book to date, it's also one of the best horror novels I've read. The mark of a great horror story, in my mind, is something that can authentically and truthfully devastate you. Katsu has done that, and more, with this book.
As always, I can't wait to see what she has in store next.