Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs posits that when base needs are met, then your desires become more refined. Which usually means that your fears probably work on the same level. If you’re not risking death every single time that you give birth, then you’re worried that they will live to be healthy adults and when they’re healthy adolescents, you’re worried about any number of factors. Within the haunted house of parenthood and adolescence, Megan Abbott knows where the ghosts live and shows them to you.
The Fever ably captures the beauty and passion, the terror, the contradictory desire for freedom and privacy, the secrets that women keep from themselves and one another. She uses social media and how it intertwines and defines the worlds of young people subtly and effectively. In the iconography of the modern world, the online video is the sermon, the blowing of the whistle or in this case, the further descent into collective hysteria and projection of deeply held emotion. The projections, the hypocrises, the tribal nature of modern american youth and their parents, the narcissism and the drive to make an issue about them have harnesses thrown upon them and made to drive Abbott’s story home. She has a tight grip on her prose and her plot, suggesting in a few words, a cauldron of primal emotions and poignant agonies.
There’s a breathless sensuality to her work so that you are compelled and appalled, drawn to the memories of your own adolescence and either grateful or in mourning for your own spent or misspent youth. Read it, it’s a powerful and graceful book.
MB Blissett 
Reblogged this on KURT BRINDLEY and commented:
In my last post “Hey Reader, What’s Your Angle” invited you all to share a link to a book that you’ve reviewed that provides some insight via your writing as to how you apply your critical thinking strategy towards the books you read.
I’m so happy that MB BLISSETT was kind/brave enough to take me up on the offer for, not only did he introduce me to THE FEVER by Meg Abbott with his interesting and insightful review of her work, he introduced me to a new eclectic world and creativity and intellect that can be found all throughout his website.
After reading his review that I introduce here, I strongly urge you to then head straight to his About page as it is most interesting and entertaining – I read it and I feel a strong kinship with his outlook toward writing and his literary taste.
Comments are closed here so that you can share your thoughts directly with MB at his website.
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