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A review by peeled_grape
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
4.0
I read "Mouthful of Birds" first, and was told that "Fever Dream" wasn't as good, but wow. The horror work that Schweblin does here is incredible. It's not overwhelming, but there is something dark always there, so I can't quite describe it as subtle, though it does feel like it's not the focus. It's these individual details that are juuust dark enough to be creepy: not being able to fall asleep because the room is too big, the echo of a child's voice being deeper than the original, talking in the plural as a joke which is then repeated to the point of eeriness. I am still not entirely sure what happened, especially with the ending. I feel like I need to read it again for that. The urgency in this is amazing, and part of why I liked this so much. I'm still not sure the purpose of David's voice, not entirely, but it was his presence that was part of that rushed feeling. I got 40 pages in, and after that, could not put it down. I will note that part of the weakness of the story was that it was in dialogue form. It's not that it was a bad idea, but it was lazy in parts. Overall, it was a super fast, super compelling read.