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A review by maketeaa
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
there are some books that, as soon as i finish reading them, i know what i'll rate them. this is not one of those books. unlike a lot of other horror i've read this one nails the sense of eeriness, of foreboding, of genuine horror at some moments, but getting closer to the end i sometimes didn't quite understand what was happening. but then i have to ask myself, isn't that the point for a book called fever dream?
the story starts in a hospital room where our protagonist is speaking with a young boy on her bed. she's recounting the story of how she first met the boy's mother, carla, who transmigrated his soul after he was poisoned after drinking water from a stream. throughout, we see (and FEEL, viscerally feel) carla's own anxiety with her daughter, nina, vividly represented by the 'rescue distance', the feeling of a rope between the two of them, the constant attachment between a parent and child to make sure they're okay.
it is after her meeting with carla that this anxiety appears to worsen. she is nervous around carla, around david, about what might happen to nina, unawares, if she's with them. and heartbreakingly we see that her efforts to protect her are fruitless, because what gets nina in the end isn't carla or david, but the grass she's playing with and poisons herself with. it's carla, then, who steps in when the protagonist herself cannot, and leaves the protagonist to feel the rope of their rescue distance break while nina's soul is transmigrated.
upon reading some other reviews i gained a new appreciation for the theme of poisoned nature, given argentina's use of pesticides. however, the ending still remains slightly confusing, like maybe i missed something. was amanda, the protagonist, poisoned by the grass too? is that what 'the worms' are? and in terms of literary structure, it feels a bit unsatisfying for carla to have taken nina to the greenhouse without amanda being able to do anything about it. would it not be a more interesting reflective moment if it were amanda forced to make that decision for nina, to choose which way she'd prefer the rescue distance rope to be broken?
however. this is still a great book. creepy, foreboding, and highlights what seems to be nature's most visceral horror story: parenthood.
the story starts in a hospital room where our protagonist is speaking with a young boy on her bed. she's recounting the story of how she first met the boy's mother, carla, who transmigrated his soul after he was poisoned after drinking water from a stream. throughout, we see (and FEEL, viscerally feel) carla's own anxiety with her daughter, nina, vividly represented by the 'rescue distance', the feeling of a rope between the two of them, the constant attachment between a parent and child to make sure they're okay.
it is after her meeting with carla that this anxiety appears to worsen. she is nervous around carla, around david, about what might happen to nina, unawares, if she's with them. and heartbreakingly we see that her efforts to protect her are fruitless, because what gets nina in the end isn't carla or david, but the grass she's playing with and poisons herself with. it's carla, then, who steps in when the protagonist herself cannot, and leaves the protagonist to feel the rope of their rescue distance break while nina's soul is transmigrated.
upon reading some other reviews i gained a new appreciation for the theme of poisoned nature, given argentina's use of pesticides. however, the ending still remains slightly confusing, like maybe i missed something. was amanda, the protagonist, poisoned by the grass too? is that what 'the worms' are? and in terms of literary structure, it feels a bit unsatisfying for carla to have taken nina to the greenhouse without amanda being able to do anything about it. would it not be a more interesting reflective moment if it were amanda forced to make that decision for nina, to choose which way she'd prefer the rescue distance rope to be broken?
however. this is still a great book. creepy, foreboding, and highlights what seems to be nature's most visceral horror story: parenthood.