The Fervor

By Alma Katsu

Book Overview

The acclaimed author of the celebrated literary horror novels The Hunger and The Deep turns her psychological and supernatural eye on the horrors of the Japanese American internment camps in World War II.

1944: As World War II rages on, the threat has come to the home front. In a remote corner of Idaho, Meiko Briggs and her daughter, Aiko, are desperate to return home. Following Meiko's husband's enlistment as an air force pilot in the Pacific months prior, Meiko and Aiko were taken from their home in Seattle and sent to one of the internment camps in the Midwest. It didn't matter that Aiko was American-born: They were Japanese, and therefore considered a threat by the American government.

Mother and daughter attempt to hold on to elements of their old life in the camp when a mysterious disease begins to spread among those interned. What starts as a minor cold quickly becomes spontaneous fits of violence and aggression, even death. And when a disconcerting team of doctors arrive, nearly more threatening than the illness itself, Meiko and her daughter team up with a newspaper reporter and widowed missionary to investigate, and it becomes clear to them that something more sinister is afoot, a demon from the stories of Meiko's childhood, hell-bent on infiltrating their already strange world.

Inspired by the Japanese yokai and the jorogumo spider demon, The Fervor explores the horrors of the supernatural beyond just the threat of the occult. With a keen and prescient eye, Katsu crafts a terrifying story about the danger of demonization, a mysterious contagion, and the search to stop its spread before it's too late. A sharp account of too-recent history, it's a deep excavation of how we decide who gets to be human when being human matters most.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593328337
• ISBN13: 9780593328330
• Release Date: April 2022
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Fervor is a fast paced thriller!

The Fervor is a horrific look at the historical internment camps during WW2. The story is sad, infuriating, shameful, and has horrors of many kinds. The biggest being the frank look at what America did to an entire group of people, for daring to exist as their own race in the same space as anyone else. Katsu does a great job with the character writing here. Meiko and Aiko are intelligent and likable characters, strong, resilient, well written, and relatable. Fran is an excellent example of a conflicted but independent woman in that time period. She supplies countless other historically accurate personalities and traits, all of which fit nicely into the story. The ending is a bit lackluster for me, but it does leave open the possibility for more, which is always exciting! Overall, the book is well written, and enjoyable. Solid four stars!