A review by librarymouse
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I'm really not sure what to think of this book. It's very consumable. I read it in just over an hour. At a few points, I wondered if this book is an allegory for the changes that occur when a child starts showing signs of autism, since both David and Nina are noted to line up things just before their poisoning becomes severe. I'm not sure that that is the case, but this book, as per the title, reads like a fever dream. There's definitely a commentary being made on the visibility of disabled children, how they're viewed when the disability is developed, and on a wealth disparity between the urban well to do and the rural poor. 

I'm sure if I were to read this again and again, I'd find a new understanding each time.

the confirmation of the migrations being done in the greenhouse being real, at the end, is an interesting twist (?). I don't know that it can be called a twist because David is co narrating, and were told by Carla that it is real, but Amanda's scepticism is infectious. Nina being in David's body at the end of the book, unrecognized by her father is heartbreaking. Carla saying that if she could have another child, she'd want one like Nina is made all the more unsettling and sad with the ending. Her tying knots, as if trying to reinstate the snapped, ineffable rope that connects her to her mother
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