The Fever King

Hmm... I liked it, I promise! But last night, I spent 30 minutes explaining to myself all of the problems I had with it, so...

Yeah. Definitely did not love it, but perhaps this was just because I was thinking too hard?

First of all, I am very very sorry that I did not love it. I actually did love it, up until page 290 and I started to rethink my entire experience for reasons that I don't think anyone else has pointed out before me. On one hand, I really really liked the first half of the book. But on the other hand, I've never finished a book and had so many negative things to say about it. I could make a list but I would not want to crush the spirits of everyone who gave this book 5 stars.

Chai, an ever-fantastic reviewer and blogger, has a great review for this book, and I think it also explains a lot of my feelings, so go read that review, too.

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The first half was great. I had very few problems, and I really liked the pacing of getting to know Noam, the other characters, and their world at that point. In those moments, the world building was cool! I liked the science magic. That was interesting. Everything was interesting to me at first! All of the makings of a great book!

Noam! I did like him. Nicely-written main character, most of the time. I also liked Dara. Some of the time. Overall, I appreciated these characters and their identities. I appreciated what they represent in the story, Noam as a refugee and both of them as queer POC main characters, teens trying to find their way in a broken world. A lot of the struggles they faced, and especially with Noam because he was The main character, were very real and definitely speak to immigration and general adolescent issues we have today.

But it's... becoming hard to explain anything else I did like about this book, so let's get into something else.

I think my main issue was the writing style. It was the root of most of my problems. It caused me to think too hard about what was going on, and it always felt like I was missing something, a bit of information that was left out or that was implied but not enough. (lol maybe i'm just dumb)

There was a scene toward the last third of the book which made me really question what the heck was going on with the writing. Without spoiling anything, Noam accidentally discovers that someone he knows is in a potentially abusive relationship, and his first reaction to finding this out is... off-putting and bizarre, especially considering how upset he is about this discovery a few pages later. In the most non-spoilery way possible, this would be equivalent to someone finding a youtube video of a person in a dangerous situation on the street and saying “that person looks like someone hot I know”. Like... ?????? That's a completely irrelevant and irrational thought to have??? Upon seeing potential danger???? I reread that scene 10 times and it never once made sense. I've read like 15 reviews for this book and no one is mentioning this, either.

And after that scene, everything felt a little off to me, and it had almost nothing to do with the previously described scene. The character movements and dialogue were stiff or strangely sudden. Sometimes my mind was just ????? for no good reason.

Perhaps I am too sensitive. Perhaps I am too critical. I will accept both of these criticisms, but... I implore you to read that scene I described and not have a problem with it.

Anyways! I guess I liked it and I will be reading the second book.

tl;dr If I tried to explain to you every single thing I had an issue with, we would be here for a while. I liked it. The first half was great, the second half was not. Try it for yourself, but read the content warnings first.

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CW: past suicide of loved one, sexual abuse, violence, statutory rape, intergenerational trauma/genocide, death and murder, death of a child, ableist language, drug and alcohol abuse, pedophilia.

At this point, I have no idea what's going on with my rating system.