Reviews with content warning for Forced institutionalization - The Fervor

This started out great but sort of petered out as it went on. I think once the characters’ stories begin to intersect is where the trouble begins. Things start to become a bit too convenient and eventually lead to a really rushed ending that feels a bit like a deus ex machina. I also feel like as the story goes on, the Japanese folklore (aka the most interesting bits) sort of becomes less and less important and the book goes from being a creepy historical horror novel to a quasi-political thriller which just wasn’t what I was in the mood for. Don’t get me wrong, this was still entertaining but it just wasn’t as spooky as The Hunger so I feel a bit disappointed.

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crabbytaco's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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sidneyreads_'s review

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

felt like there was a bit of heavy handed copaganda toward the very end but otherwise a spooky and adventurous historical horror!

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magellen's review

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challenging dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Timely and well tied to our present, The Fervor echoes our current denialist attitude about illness, othering, and white nationalists in america. Katsu turns a historical mirror on us and demands we look, be uncomfortable in our complicity and our ignorance, and do better.

<spoilers>the supernatural elements drop off sharply towards the end in a way that's somewhat disappointing, but ties in to the fact that while the illness is exacerbating rage, the real monster is intolerance and racism and white fragility. On one hand it's sort of mask off the fear to it's real source, on the other damn dude I wanted a spider demon.</spoilers>

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honeyvee's review

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adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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