Ms. Hen reviews Fever Dream

 

Fever Dream

Samantha Schweblin

Riverhead Books

2014

Translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell, 2017

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because it was recommended to her. She had recently read a book by the same name, but she believes it was recommended to her because she read TENDER IS THE FLESH, which is a horror novel translated from Spanish.

This novel is like a long short story. It's about a woman named Amanda who is on vacation, and meets a woman named Carla. Amanda is afraid something will happen to her daughter, Nina. Carla tells Amanda a story about her son David, and how he got sick the same way one of the horses that was on their property got sick. Carla tells Amanda about the horrible things that David did after he got infected. Amanda speaks with David simultaneously while she is talking with Carla. This book is creepy, because even though it takes place in a summer vacation town, Ms. Hen got the feeling that something horrible was going to happen, and it did.

This book is a very quick read, but Ms. Hen found herself distracted while she was reading it. Not because it isn't good, but because she had other things on her mind, and she couldn't concentrate. She didn't find that she was scared reading this, even though she should have been. Sometimes she find novels and stories about motherhood tiresome, because she cannot relate to this. Amanda is obsessed with keeping her child safe, and Ms. Hen is not interested or compelled by this subject or this state of mind.

Ms. Hen thinks that this book should be read all at once, in one gulp. She did not read it like this, and she regrets it. She thinks it would be a good book to read if you are a mother and are scared that your children would be hurt, because it would be more frightening than it was to Ms. Hen.