The Fever - Hardcover

Abbott, Megan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316231053 ISBN 13: 9780316231053

Publisher: Little Brown and Company, 2014

Synopsis

The panic unleashed by a mysterious contagion threatens the bonds of family and community in a seemingly idyllic suburban community.

The Nash family is close-knit. Tom is a popular teacher, father of two teens: Eli, a hockey star and girl magnet, and his sister Deenie, a diligent student. Their seeming stability, however, is thrown into chaos when Deenie's best friend is struck by a terrifying, unexplained seizure in class. Rumors of a hazardous outbreak spread through the family, school and community.

As hysteria and contagion swell, a series of tightly held secrets emerges, threatening to unravel friendships, families and the town's fragile idea of security.

A chilling story about guilt, family secrets and the lethal power of desire, THE FEVER affirms Megan Abbott's reputation as "one of the most exciting and original voices of her generation."*

*Laura Lippman

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

"Once again, Abbott makes an unforgettable inquiry into the emotional lives of young people, this time balanced with parents' own fears and failings. It's also a powerful portrait of community, with interesting echoes of The Crucible it's the twenty-first century, and, in many ways, we're still frightened villagers, terrified of the unknown. Abbott may be on her way to becoming a major writer."--Booklist (Starred Review)

"[Abbott] is a skilled storyteller, and The Fever is a gripping and unsettling novel."--Hannah Tennant-Moore, The New York Times Book Review

"[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

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: Little Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0316231053
• ISBN 13: 9780316231053
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320