The Fever - Softcover

Abbott, Megan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316231045 ISBN 13: 9780316231046

Publisher: Back Bay Books, 2015

Synopsis

"THE FEVER holds true to its title: It's dark, disturbing, strangely beautiful and utterly unshakeable" -- Gillian Flynn.

In this impossible-to-put-down "panic attack of a novel,"* a small-town high school becomes the breeding ground for a mysterious illness.

Deenie Nash is a diligent student with a close-knit family; her brother Eli is a hockey star and her father is a popular teacher. But when Deenie's best friend is struck by a terrifying, unexplained seizure in class, the Nashes' seeming stability dissolves into chaos. As rumors of a hazardous outbreak spread through school, and hysteria and contagion swell, a series of tightly held secrets emerges, threatening to unravel friendships, families, and the town's fragile sense of security.

A chilling story about guilt, family secrets, and the lethal power of desire, THE FEVER is "a potboiler in the truest, best sense" and "a great novel, full stop."**

*Jodi Picoult
**Slate

About this title

Review:

"With The Fever, Megan Abbott has created a mesmerizing, modern portrait of teenage life today: Brutal crushes, competing allegiances and first-bloom sensuality, all magnified by the rush and crush of technology. The Fever holds true to its title: It's dark, disturbing, strangely beautiful and utterly unshakeable."--Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

"The Fever is a potboiler in the truest, best sense of that devalued word: Its ingredients are expertly combined, patiently agitated, and heated to an inexorable boil. But it's also a great novel, full stop, without any of the usual genre caveats, and I can think of no higher recommendation than that you'll want to read it twice: First insatiably, speeding through to find out just what's going to happen, and then again slowly, to savor the sharp, dare I say literary, insights about her characters that Abbott effortlessly scatters throughout."--Adam Sternbergh, Slate

"The book to beat...in the 'Is it the next Gone Girl?' sweepstakes.... [Megan Abbot has] exceptional gifts for making nerves jangle and skin crawl.... It's the book's constant throb of horror that keeps it gripping."--Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"If the phenomena that led to the Salem Witch trials were to revisit the world today, it might very well look like the scenario in Megan Abbott's engrossing, disturbing, panic attack of a novel, The Fever. In a time when suicide and pregnancy pacts can go viral, this story of mass hysteria in a high school is not only completely plausible -- it's impossible to put down."--Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of The Storyteller

"No one understands the social dynamics of teenage girls better than Megan Abbott...settling into The Fever, one realizes that Abbott is setting a rhythm, one that's measured and paced with the brilliance of one of the best living mystery writers."--Kevin Nguyen, Grantland

"This smart thriller about the dynamics of panic keeps you guessing till the last scene."-- Good Housekeeping

"[Megan Abbott is] a unique talent with a signature style that gets stronger with every book. With its confident plotting and lyrical prose, The Fever may be her best novel yet."--Los Angeles Times

"Abbott is able to render the texture, ambivalence, and confusion of the inner life of a teen, coupling it with sparse, plain dialogue that highlights the disjunction between the way a teen experiences the world and how he or she can actually articulate that experience. And the plot! It's like a riptide! I was hooked by Page 4. Seriously, Page 4 - the end of the first, highly ambiguous, totally tantalizing mini-chapter that begins the book. I knew, four pages in, that I was ruined for the rest of the day . . . It was delicious."-- BuzzFeed

"a chilling new novel set in the emotional world of teenagers...In many ways, the message of THE FEVER is about how these things--ambivalence about sex, insecurities about their appearance and navigating the intensity of female friendships--affect the girls and their families, and how a traumatized community stumbles through a crisis."-- Elizabeth Blair, NPR

"Stunning....Nothing should be taken at face value in this jealousy-and hormone-soaked world except that Abbott is certainly our very best guide."-- Kirkus (Starred Review)

Book Description:

For fans of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, The Fever is Megan Abbott's dark and thrilling novel about a mysterious illness that sweeps through a high school.

About this edition

• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0316231045
• ISBN 13: 9780316231046
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336