“Fever by Deon Meyer is a gripping post-apocalyptic thriller set in a world ravaged by a deadly virus that has wiped out most of humanity. The story is narrated by Nico Storm, a teenage boy, as he recounts his journey with his father, Willem, who is determined to rebuild civilization from the ashes.”
The characters were fine. I liked them. I found them to be two-dimensional, though. They all had their roles and places in the story; there could have been a little more depth to them. Obviously, Nico is our most developed character, as this book is a fictional memoir of Nico’s life. This is a fictional character, giving his story something that is kind of new for me. It’s like a book within a book. Something that is unique about the story, though, is that we are seeing someone come of age in a sci-fi, post-apocalyptic setting. I think you could even relate that to the real world of somebody who is growing up in a hard situation, but this one is in a world ravaged by plague. I never really thought about what happened to kids in this post-apocalyptic subgenre, but this book really touches on that.
The atmosphere was something new to the post-apocalyptic subgenre, as this story takes place in South Africa. Those elements were really cool. When I think of dystopian settings, I usually think of America or a world that is so unrecognizable. I like to see the spin of the story set in a different country. However, by the end, I had a lot more questions about this world, and even though this book is over 500 pages, I wanted a little bit more.
I actually did fairly enjoy the writing style, even if it’s not my typical taste. There was a lot of wisdom and intelligence on these pages. I highlighted and tabbed many of the quotes so I could save them to think about later. There was a lot of telling rather than showing, and that did kind of bother me, but I have to remind myself that this is a memoir—someone looking back at their life rather than being in the moment with that person. Also, around the chapters in the middle part of the book, the transitions were fantastic, moving from the history project to Nico’s narrative. I keep mentioning that this is a fictional memoir, but that had a huge impact on my reading experience. I never felt too worried about our characters since I knew that they lived, as we have them looking back and telling the story. I never felt anxious or on the edge of my seat.
There is always going to be one part that is a little bit tricky, and with “Fever,” it is the plot, which feels somewhat surface-level. This brings nothing new to post-apocalyptic pandemic novels; it’s your typical story of a plague with only a select group of people alive, trying to survive in a world full of raiders and humans acting like monsters. However, there are some pretty good themes here, the main one being community. What makes a community? We see these people build a community after this tragic plague took over the world. It almost reminds me of the dawn of time when civilization was forming. I wrote in my notes that the story almost feels ancient. Yes, the author brings up Rome quite a bit, and even books like “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari. It just feels ancient in exploring what makes a community, what makes a civilization, and what makes a human, human.
Another big theme is the resilience of humans and how we will work ourselves out of these bad situations because, at our core, we are just trying to survive in this world. I really thought I knew where this book was going to go, but it became unpredictable towards the end, and I really don’t know how I feel about the ending. I don’t think it was bad, but I just needed more development with it, and again, this book is already over 500 pages. Did we waste some of those pages? I’m not sure. This is a fine book. I think if you haven’t read a lot of post-apocalyptic books, it could be a good place to start, but for someone who really enjoys a good plague novel, it didn’t bring anything new to the table for me. I’d recommend checking this book out from your library.
3.25 out of 5 stars.
Izzy Reads 