I’m a little bummed that this photo translated to a grainy shot on the computer. The cover of this book is so gorgeous in such a strange way…probably one of the best photograph covers I’ve seen in a long time.
Anyway, book 28 was The Fever by Megan Abbott. This is my second Abbott read, the first being Dare Me (you can read about my thoughts on that one here), and after reading my response to that one, it’s fair to say that Abbott hooked me the same way she did with the last book. She has a way of writing, dark, beautiful, and suspenseful, that makes you want to keep turning the page. This was just over 300 pages, so it only took a few days to complete, especially since I kept turning the pages and promising myself one more chapter.
The story is written from 3 different perspectives (third-person) much like The Leftovers, another quietly creepy book I read this year. Deenie Nash, a teenager just blooming into her sexuality, Eli is her older brother, a popular guy that most girls fawn over, and Tom, their father and a teacher at their high school. The book begins when Deenie’s best friend Lise suffers from a strange seizure before class starts. It lands her in the hospital, and tests aren’t showing why it happened. Then, Deenie watches as more girls start to experience similar symptoms without any explanation.
The parents are left searching for an answer while Deenie can’t help but feel like it’s her fault.
It’s the illness, and the unexplained and spreading nature of it, that makes this book hard to put down. Secrets are kept throughout the novel, throwing you off the tracks until it’s time to reveal them. I really enjoyed it. I will say that the end sort of felt like a cop-out, in a way. It wasn’t what I expected, and I was a teensy bit let down.
Still, it was completely engaging, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a little mystery.
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