Fever

** I won this as a Giveaway on Goodreads**


Mary Mallon came to the America looking for a better life. What she got instead was a life-time of being sought after and hidden away from public view.

Mary started out her life as a laundress and worked her way up to a cook. A few people got sick, even fewer died, but eventually it was the deaths that caught up with her. Those that came down with a fever, which was Typhoid.

Mary herself never had the sickness, it was something that she carried in her blood, but how could that make people sick? What was it that she was doing that spread the fever? Dr. Soper linked it to her cooking, saying germs that she carried in her body was being spread through her cooking, although not everyone she cooked for got sick, enough people became sick to raise the suspicions of the Department of Health. After being fingered as the one who was spreading the disease, Mary was transported to a hospital where she was barraged by questions. Doctors who did not treat her as a human being, but as a specimen to be examined and something to be marveled over. How could one have the sickness but not be sick themselves??
Mary Beth Keane writes a fantastic book, from the view of Mary herself, as she tries to go throughout life, eking a living from the jobs that she is able to pick up. This book is a great read and one that is really hard to put down! I loved the entire book, from her trials with her boyfriend, to her friends trying to help her escape from that persistent doctor, to her eventual imprisonment on North Brother. Her life is fantastic, and one that has not been explored deeply enough. This book brings to light her character and breathes life into the person knows as “Typhoid Mary” once more!

Found this really hard to finish & it became a battle of wills between me and the book. The writing is okay but there seemed to be large chunks where not a lot of plot occurred. Also, I get that Mary was not necessarily a likeable character, nor was Alfred, but I never really felt any sort of connection or sympathy for them.