Victoria Lee’s The Fever King takes you on an unexpected journey of twists and turns. At the beginning, I thought I knew what kind of shape the plot was taking – I didn’t, and that was somewhat refreshing.
The Fever King follows the journey of Noam Álvaro, a son of undocumented migrants living in an alternative United States. He wakes the sole survivor of a virus that has killed his parents, and has left him with magical abilities, that are now highly sought after. Noam must navigate being a migrant, going from shunned to suddenly valued by the state of Carolinia. Noam must ask himself critical questions about how far he is willing to go for what he knows is right, and how to even begin doing that.
The pursuit of justice is difficult. Justice can also be bloody. It’s hard to know sometimes if the end justifies the means, or if we’ve lost ourselves in the process or merely just changed as people. I thought about this a lot for Noam. I didn’t want him to lose himself on the path that was set before him, and as the plot progressed kept coming back to a question: does the end justify the means to get there?
The Fever King explores trauma and how people react to it, in their current lives and in an intergenerational sense. I loved this aspect of the book, though it was also emotionally confronting at times. Trauma lingers, it can weave its way through our lives and into the lives of our children and our communities after we are gone. The way that Lee explores different types of trauma was admirable, with such delicacy and understanding of how trauma plays out in the lives of people, and while managing to make that part of a YA novel – was what pushed this book into a 5-star rating for me. You have to understand trauma in order to write trauma, and Lee showed a delicate and important insight to readers that can be lacking in some contemporary YA.
Being a fantasy-lover myself, I was quite interested in analysing the magical system used in this book. In some fantasy, the magical system just is , but as personal preference I like knowing the uses, limitations and development of that system so it can be well-grounded within its world. I found the design of the system in The Fever King to be well-rounded and used well within the progression of the plot.
Overall, I enjoyed The Fever King a lot more than I anticipated I would. I did um and err for a while as to whether or not to give this a 4 or 5 star read, but finally settled on 5 stars, due to the delicate nuance, understanding and exploration of multiple themes in this novel.
This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
