The Fervor
"Alma Katsu is the reigning queen of literary historical horror." --An NPR Book of the Year 1944: As World War II rages on, a mysterious, deadly fervor spreads across America, transforming people into monstrous aggressors, each provoked into fits of unthinkable barbarity. It's a contagion that, according to Meiko Briggs, might have dark, otherwordly underpinnings. But Meiko and her daughter, Aiko, have been forced into an internment camp in Idaho, where the disease rapidly unfurls, and nearly invisible, demonic spiders seem to follow. More dangerous than the illness are the doctors who swarm the camps as a result, increasing their control on those captured, and their violence toward them. When Aiko suddenly escapes, Meiko must race against the clock to find her daughter and untangle the secrets behind the fervor before it catches her first. With a keen and prescient eye, acclaimed author Alma Katsu crafts a terrifying story about the danger of demonization, a mysterious contagion, and a deep excavation of how we decide who gets to be human when being human matters most.
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Community Reviews
THE FERVOR is the very first book I've read by Alma Katsu. I've seen so many highly rated reviews for her previous novels, THE DEEP and THE HUNGER, but this is the one that snared me with its synopsis and demanded that I read it. I am ever so glad!
Our timeline is 1944, the midst of WWII and the setting is mostly Idaho, where our main characters Meiko and her daughter Aiko are interned in a (prison) camp for the simple reason being they are Japanese. Yes, if you were like me and NOT taught in school that the great country of America, Land of the Free (if you're white) and Home of the Brave (because you're the one holding the gun) ripped all people of Japanese descent from their homes and put them in internment camps because they suspected them of being spies. Even American-born Japanese were seen as threats.
The historical aspect alone is horrifying. If you think that's what makes this a horror tale, boy are you in for a ride because Katsu spices it up by including Japanese folklore inspired by the jorogumo spider demon. I was constantly checking my clothing and surroundings, let's not even talk about the number of times I sword I felt something feather-light on my hands/arms.
Meiko and Aiko lives peacefully with their neighbors in a camp in Idaho for many months as the war wages on.
Until.
It starts as a simple cold. No concern needed, right? Except the cold morphs into fits of rage and aggression, leading to fights and in some cases, murder. The disease runs rampant throughout the camp bringing with it a team of "doctors" to investigate its origin....or maybe something else?
I read this book in two sittings. I was enthralled by the historical aspect, learning things I had never heard before because it's not taught in our schools. My white parents and grandparents certainly never shared it with me. How sad it is to learn about our country's past from a fictional book? I loved that Alma Katsu enlightened me while also weaving in Japanese folklore, which has always fascinated me. I immediately secured her other two books and will be reading those very soon! This is one of those times where I not only loved the book, I fell in love with the storytelling ability and writing style and have a new auto-buy author on my list!
Our timeline is 1944, the midst of WWII and the setting is mostly Idaho, where our main characters Meiko and her daughter Aiko are interned in a (prison) camp for the simple reason being they are Japanese. Yes, if you were like me and NOT taught in school that the great country of America, Land of the Free (if you're white) and Home of the Brave (because you're the one holding the gun) ripped all people of Japanese descent from their homes and put them in internment camps because they suspected them of being spies. Even American-born Japanese were seen as threats.
The historical aspect alone is horrifying. If you think that's what makes this a horror tale, boy are you in for a ride because Katsu spices it up by including Japanese folklore inspired by the jorogumo spider demon. I was constantly checking my clothing and surroundings, let's not even talk about the number of times I sword I felt something feather-light on my hands/arms.
Meiko and Aiko lives peacefully with their neighbors in a camp in Idaho for many months as the war wages on.
Until.
It starts as a simple cold. No concern needed, right? Except the cold morphs into fits of rage and aggression, leading to fights and in some cases, murder. The disease runs rampant throughout the camp bringing with it a team of "doctors" to investigate its origin....or maybe something else?
I read this book in two sittings. I was enthralled by the historical aspect, learning things I had never heard before because it's not taught in our schools. My white parents and grandparents certainly never shared it with me. How sad it is to learn about our country's past from a fictional book? I loved that Alma Katsu enlightened me while also weaving in Japanese folklore, which has always fascinated me. I immediately secured her other two books and will be reading those very soon! This is one of those times where I not only loved the book, I fell in love with the storytelling ability and writing style and have a new auto-buy author on my list!
This is my first book by Alma Katsu, and while I felt The Fervor was a bit repetitive and dragged on at times, I still enjoyed what the author was trying to accomplish. Meiko and her daughter Aiko are being held at a Japanese internment camp in Minidoka Idaho while her husband is off fighting the war as a pilot. Things are horrific at the camp but everyone there does their best to be what they call âgood Japaneseâ in hopes of laying low and being spared the cruelty that the racist white peoples are capable of.
Despite being amicable, Meiko and Aiko are soon torn apart as a strange illness rampages through the camp, and it is soon revealed that this outbreak is not an accident. Katsu does an excellent job of tying in history and fantasy, while still managing to comment on the dangers of nationalism and white supremacy. Itâs devastating to see what Meiko and Aiko are forced to deal with simply because they are Japanese, and even more devastating to know that this kind of racism is still around. That people today are following disgusting rhetoric like this in todays age. If you donât understand why terms like âkung fu fluâ and other derogatory terms for Covid spread by the disease that is Trump are problematic and disgusting, then pick up this book and youâll see why.
While I do wish this was more supernatural and had more Yokai or Japanese lore, I do love that Katsu wrote a book thatâs not only historical, but interesting, and provides a marginalized perspective.
I look forward to reading more by Alma Katsu in the future
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