Book Review: Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

This was an odd one for me. And, I suppose, it is meant to be. There are a lot of love-it or hate-it reviews, but I am very in the middle. I don’t think I can even consider a star rating. Did I read along, eager to figure out WTF was going on? Absolutely. Did I ever figure that out? Did anyone? Were we meant to? Ehhh. I don’t know.

For a short book, this one has a lot of layers and tons of moving parts, yet almost none of them are actually resolved. I like an open end, but I’m not really sure there was even an end at all? I don’t know.

The writing is good; the mystery is there and left me wanting to know so many things. On the level of what David was up to with the animals, what Carla was up to with Nina, and what the heck David was trying to get Amanda to realize/tell him in her story. I just don’t know.

Would I recommend it? You guessed it—I don’t know. It would depend totally on what you like to read. If you are there for an experience this one’s for you. If you are there for a tied up story, you won’t find that in these pages.

I know I didn’t say much about what this book is actually about, and that is because I don’t even know what might be considered a spoiler here. The story is told by Amanda. She is relaying it to David, the young son of her friend Carla. Odd things happen in their town, children become ill and desperate parents bring them to the woman in the greenhouse. Amanda and her own daughter Nina are with Carla one day when something happens, something important, and David urges Amanda to recollect the day and the moment in great detail. She tries, he presses more and more as time is running out.

I won’t say more than that, as I’m not even sure how much more than that I understood fully. Reading this book was certainly an experience, and if that is something you are after, give it a go.

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