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zaphaire 's review for:
The Fervor
by Alma Katsu
This book does an excellent job eliciting a sense of sadness on how Japanese Americans were treated during WWII. I can tell Katsu did her research and, sadly, it parrots what a lot of racists say today in the name of nationalism. I also enjoyed the details about the Japanese fire balloons. Unfortunately, that's pretty much all I can appreciate.
There's a scene where a pregnant woman and five other children die from one of these balloons. This immediately becomes recognizable if anybody remembers the Radiolab episode "Fu-Go" that came out in 2015. However, Katsu wove these victims—Elsie in particular—into her story and didn't even change their names for the sake of the story. I found that a bit odd.
Specifically, It felt weird that she decided to paint Elsie as undoubtedly racist. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to educate people on attitudes towards minorities, especially in history, but it feels like there's a lack of etiquette to real war victims—no matter the "side". Dead people can't defend their name.
In terms of horror, I found it lackluster and underwhelming. I never felt a sense of dread that kept me wanting to turn the page. Ultimately, it was a struggle to finish. This is my first time reading Katsu and I keep hearing great things about The Deep and The Hunger so maybe I'll give those a try. I'm sorry The Fervor wasn't my cup of tea.
There's a scene where a pregnant woman and five other children die from one of these balloons. This immediately becomes recognizable if anybody remembers the Radiolab episode "Fu-Go" that came out in 2015. However, Katsu wove these victims—Elsie in particular—into her story and didn't even change their names for the sake of the story. I found that a bit odd.
Specifically, It felt weird that she decided to paint Elsie as undoubtedly racist. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important to educate people on attitudes towards minorities, especially in history, but it feels like there's a lack of etiquette to real war victims—no matter the "side". Dead people can't defend their name.
In terms of horror, I found it lackluster and underwhelming. I never felt a sense of dread that kept me wanting to turn the page. Ultimately, it was a struggle to finish. This is my first time reading Katsu and I keep hearing great things about The Deep and The Hunger so maybe I'll give those a try. I'm sorry The Fervor wasn't my cup of tea.