Fever Dream
Ratings82
Average rating3.7
As soon as you realize the story structure, this is one of the quickest and fast-paced reads one might come across. The rapid-fire exchanges and short passages (despite the book being one long ‘chapter') mix really well to produce a story that has a bit of mystery and intrigue that keeps you engaged the entire way. The quality of the writing was also quite high, but the ending fell a little flat and even felt a bit unfinished.
Rating: 3.47 leaves out of 5-Characters: 3/5 -Cover: 4/5-Story: 3.5/5-Writing: 4.5/5Genre: Horror, Contemporary, Litfic, Magic Realism, Mystery-Horror: .5/5-Contemporary: 5/5-Litfic: 3/5-Magic Realism: 3.75/5-Mystery: 4/5Type: AudiobookWorth?: I suppose soHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked LovedFever Dream is indeed a fever dream. It was an okay story if you have no idea what the meaning behind it is all about. Without that knowledge it is a good mystery of sorts. But when I went looking, because I wasn't enjoying myself as much as I'd have liked, I found some rather... extremely sad news.The story was “inspired”, which sounds so shitty, from the use of harmful pesticides in Argentina. Finding that out made so much sense. On top of the how incredibly sad. The only horror in this how the deaths were a real life thing.
I had to read this slowly over 3 days because it was so incredibly tense, I was getting my blood pressure all worked up! Every time Nina wandered away from her mother! Anyway, it would require multiple rereading to truly see the genius of this work, but it was fabulous. Kudos to the translator who must have nailed Schweblin's tone and voice!
I was fascinated, and terrified and I have never read anything quite like it.
It really reads like a Fever Dream. Enjoyed it, in all its confusing and bizarre intrigue.
A fever dream of a novella with a nightmarish quality to it. It's short and incredibly hard to put down, partially because you need to know where the plot is going and partially because it's basically one long conversation that pulls you in and never gives you breathing space (in a good way). I really liked the flow of the writing and the flow and the haziness of the plot, as it weaves and loops between present and the past. It reminded me of Daniel Kehlmann's [b:Du hättest gehen sollen 32800965 Du hättest gehen sollen Daniel Kehlmann https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477673977s/32800965.jpg 53397104] as both are nightmarish novellas experimenting with storytelling.
This is a book you can read in a few hours, and if you like creepiness, you'll like it a lot. The story is told in a dialogue between Amanda, a woman who is dying in a hospital, and David, a neighbor's young son. David is trying to get Amanda to understand something important about how she got to where she is and what is happening to her, so he is coaching her through recounting her memories of the past few days. Those memories are full of mounting dread that seems at first to be out of proportion to the circumstances, but turns out to be entirely justified.
The writing is spare. There isn't a lot of description, but I had a vivid picture from the few words Amanda gave to her surroundings, and I came to some conclusions about what was happening from her observations. This book does a lot with little, and doesn't give anything away. If you read it (and I recommend it), let's talk about it.
Torn between 3 and 3.5 stars. It's such a fast read. It's surreal and interesting and sort of mystical in a strange way. It also has things to say about corporate pollution of the environment. Certainly worth the read.
Translated by Megan McDowell, this Argentinian novella is a creepy head-scratcher. It's the worms. We have to find the exact moment the worms come into being, or at least that's what the unsettlingly articulate child David believes as he whispers in the hospitalized Amanda's ear. How's that for an eerie setup?
From there several narratives unfold, from Amanda meeting David's mother Carla only a few days prior, to Carla's story about David nearly dying and the decision she made that changed her son. “David doesn't call me Mom anymore.”
It's an atmospheric and creepy story, superbly translated to maintain it's off-kilter, disoriented feeling of dread throughout.
