Title/Author: The Fever by Megan Abbott
Publication Date/Publisher: June 17, 2014/Little, Brown and Company
Series: No
Source and Format: Received advanced reader copy from publisher via Netgally in exchange for an honest review
Rating: 3.75 stars
From Goodreads:
The panic unleashed by a mysterious contagion threatens the bonds of family and community in a seemingly idyllic suburban community.
The Nash family is close-knit. Tom is a popular teacher, father of two teens: Eli, a hockey star and girl magnet, and his sister Deenie, a diligent student. Their seeming stability, however, is thrown into chaos when Deenie’s best friend is struck by a terrifying, unexplained seizure in class. Rumors of a hazardous outbreak spread through the family, school and community.
As hysteria and contagion swell, a series of tightly held secrets emerges, threatening to unravel friendships, families and the town’s fragile idea of security.
The Fever was not an easy book to start. We’re thrown right into it, and given three perspectives to keep track of. It’s not difficult. but it was a bit jarring at first. All three perspectives are important to tell the story:
Deenie: Arguably the main character. All of her friends are the afflicted girls.
Eli: Deenie’s brother – hockey star and general heart throb. His is an outside perspective to what’s going on: he knows the girls but they’re not HIS friends.
Tom: Deenie and Eli’s father – gets us the information and rumors from other parents.
It was interesting to think about, the slender filaments between the worry in your head, or the squeeze in your chest, and the rest of your body, your whole body and everything in it.
I did not expect to be creeped out so much by The Fever. Girls are getting sick at school, clawing at the things in their throats or having seizures or vomiting up neon orange. Is it related to Deenie and her friends swimming in the forbidden lake? Or is it a bad batch of the mandatory HPV vaccination? Something boring, like mold in the basement?
Everywhere he looked, there were long bands of girls in their colored minis and tights, like the friendship bracelets that covered their arms…
What The Fever seems to be about, underneath the mystery, is fear and teenage girls. The HPV vaccine becomes mandatory for entry to the school – society is so afraid of teenage girls’ sexuality that other people want to control them by any means necessary. It’s about the lengths teenage girls might go to, and why society SHOULD be afraid of them. But I did just finish listening to Gone Girl (a re-read in case I decide I want to see the movie, but I just don’t know how they’re going to do it) so I’m in an “everyone is horrible” mentality anyway.
Cool as Gabby and Skye were, with ex-boyfriends and birth control and complicated hair, maybe Lise and Deenie were cool too. Maybe they were lawbreakers. Rebels.
Once I was able to get into it, I really enjoyed The Fever. The ending is the only thing I wasn’t satisfied with – it’s not at all the direction I thought the story would go and just wasn’t what I was expecting.
