In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear.
Caught between his purpose and his heart, Noam must decide who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of the greater good. ~ Goodreads
Source: arc (& and finished copy) provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Review: I was immediately drawn to the characters of this book but the world/plot left me struggling to grasp things at first.
The Fever King is post apocalyptic/sci-fi that hits the ground running, while I was sputtering behind going huh? Our protagonist, Noam, is the son of Atlantia immigrants – living as a hacker, in Carolinia, and caring for his now despondent father. So far so good. I got that and to say that this plotline parallels our current political climate – would be an understatement.
There’s a virus that causes magic outbreaks mainly to immigrants seeking a better life in Carolinia. The infected die but a rare few present with magical powers. Something native Carolinians fear and try to protect themselves from by whipping themselves into a hysteria about immigrants and unleashing increasingly cruel methods to control them.
The children who present with magical powers, including Noam, who survives an outbreak, are brought in for training and are considered useful to the government. This is where I started to get confused.
The story bypasses the usual group training montages (although it does show how one channels their power and that was unique and cool) and I appreciated that . If you’ve read one training montage – you’ve read them all lol but it also kept me from getting to know the supporting characters and their struggles better and why people were being hurt outside the walls of the training facility but were treated well here.
There’s just a lot going on with the science/politics of it vs the personal aspect of the story. And teh personal side where The Fever King REALLY shines. This is a very character drive book.
Noam, Dara (another student and Noam’s love interest), and Calix, teacher/mentor, Minister, and Dara’s father have an extremely complicated dynamic and I was her for it!
It’s hard to get into without spoiling anything but the lines between hero and villain, savior and tormentor are frequently blurred. Lee does something really brilliant with her characters – presenting them as one thing but slowly revealing their past and an opposing view of their current actions so that it turns everything and on it’s head.
The morally grey areas are vast in The Fever King and while the first third made me feel confused and sometimes frustrated with the characters actions – it all came together beautifully and had me sprinting to the end to see how it would all turn out.
And boy was that an ending! I felt satisfied that it wrapped up the immediate story but it is kind of cliffhangery in that WHAT THE HELL IS GOING TO HAPPEN?? way.
To be honest, I’m baffled by most sci-fi/fantasy worlds – so your mileage may vary on that aspect (although it totally makes sense in the end!) but I was in it more for the complexity; of the characters and their actions/relationships, the portrayal of trauma, mental health, political activism and LBGQ rep. Everything was so well done.
I love when an author is able to walk that line between right and wrong and make you question things so I’m looking forward to The Electric Heir (Feverwake #2).
*Also – there’s a lot of darkness in this book and Lee posted a content warning list on her blog if you would like to check that first here.
