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| The Fever |
Title: The Fever
Author: Megan Abbott
Publication Date: 6/17/14
Pages: 320
How I Found It: I can't remember
Date Completed: 4/6/16
Summary: When a mysterious illness begins taking down female students in a small town high school, the response is intense. Abbott examines how the potential epidemic affects parents, administration, and students while they search desperately for the cause and cure.
What I Thought: This book could have been good. It had the set up for it. Instead, I felt Abbott circled around and around unnecessarily.
I liked that she told the story from the perspective of three family members: Deenie, the young girls whose friends are rapidly falling victim to the unknown illness, Eli, her older, hockey-star brother who also attends the school, and Tom, her teacher father who represents both concerned parent and school administration. Abbott did a good job changing the voice of each character (of course, it helped that the audiobook I listened to for part of the book had three separate actors). I appreciated how she told the story from three unique points of view. It lent more gravitas to the story, particularly when Deenie's perspective felt so teenage girl - dramatic and socially-centered.
Still, Abbott relied too heavily on teenage sexuality and shock value. Rather than having genuine surprises and plot twists, she counted on scandal - and not even great scandal at that. While the drama felt authentic, it did not feel riveting. For me, this one was not a win. Of course, I did keep reading because I wanted to know, in the end, what was causing the illness. After Abbott's attempts at misdirection, the end result feels more Mean Girls than mysterious.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Will I Re-Read: Nope
A Reduced Review: Meant to be a thriller, this felt more Mean Girls than mysterious.
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