The Fever by Megan Abbott

The Fever

by Megan Abbott

Her hands flying up, she grabbed her throat, her body jolting to one side.

Then, in one swoop, her desk overturned, clattering to the floor.

And with it Lise. Her head twisting, slamming into the tiles, her bright red face turned up, mouth teeming with froth.

"Lise," sighed Mrs. Chalmers, too far in front to see. "What is your problem?"

The Nashes are a close-knit family. Tom, a popular teacher, is father to the handsome, roguish Eli and his younger sister Deenie, serious and sweet. But their seeming stability is thrown into chaos when two of Deenie's friends become violently ill, and rumours of a dangerous outbreak sweep through the whole community.

As hysteria swells and as more girls succumb, tightly held secrets emerge that threaten to unravel the world Tom has built for his kids, and destroy friendships, families, and the town's fragile idea of security.

The Fever is a chilling story about guilt, family secrets, and the lethal power of desire.

Reviewed by Angie on

2 of 5 stars

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The Fever was strange, and mostly boring. One day, Deenie's best friend suddenly has what appears to be a seizure in the middle of class. Then her other best friend suddenly freezes up during a performance. Then a few more girls have random spasms. No one knows what's going on. At first they think it's something in the lake, then the HPV vaccine, but maybe it's Deenie. She's the only common denominator between the affected girls.

I think my main problem with The Fever was that the author started the suspense too early, so it felt like everyone was overreacting instead of being terrified at some strange occurrence. There was no reason for the community to freak out after Lise has her seizure. These things happen! It's not like anyone knew it wasn't a normal seizure at first, so why all the concern? It would have made more sense for the speculation and fear to start once the second girl was taken to the hospital. Or maybe even the third, since the first two were best friends so it wouldn't be too strange for them to both suddenly fall ill.

The Fever also seemed like a campaign against vaccines, the HPV vaccine in particular. Why would a school care if girls were vaccinated or not? Other airborne viruses, sure. But not a sexually transmitted one. That seemed very strange. It wasn't required to get the shots to be enrolled, but lots of girls got it. Then all of their parents are in an uproar because it's the school's fault that girls are getting sick because they forced them to get a series of unnecessary shots. First, no one forced them. Second, there was no evidence that it was the shot! One mom just latched onto it because her daughter had gotten the final shot a few weeks prior. But really it could have been anything! Again with the too early suspense.

The big reveal at the end was interesting. I really never would have guessed that, but it was a pretty out there cause. The blurb mentions a series of secrets coming to light. Well, that's not exactly true. There's really only one secret. It's pretty silly though. Also, it only explained why the first girl got sick. There's some kind of, but not really, maybe, sorta reasons why the other girls got sick, too. It was like the author was grasping at straws to wrap up that mystery.

The Fever was just okay. It was kind of intriguing at the beginning once more girls start being sent to the hospital, but the ending was very unsatisfying. I also found the multiple POVs to be distracting, since two of them didn't really contribute at all.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 25 April, 2015: Finished reading
  • 25 April, 2015: Reviewed