A dark and poignant tale about isolation and devastation. Somehow the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. And there’s a fine line between memory/nostalgia and the mindlessness of the Fever.

Candace Chen is living in New York when an epidemic strikes. A fever that leaves people in a zombie like states. But she continues to live her life, almost oblivious of the city collapsing around her. When it finally becomes too much for Candace, she strikes out and finds a group to travel with. Candace’s life has changed dramatically and the secret she’s keeping could make things worse. How can she keep herself safe on a group run by a controlling, power hungry former IT specialist?

There’s a lot of timeline hopping. Each chapter follows Candace at a difference point in her life pre/intra/post epidemic. There’s no chapter titles to indicate which point of her life is being discussed but after a few sentences it becomes clear.
I didn’t really like the ending of this book. It felt to me more like a beginning than an ending. I was left with questions. Especially once Candace started to live more in memory than reality. It is definitely open to interpretation.

I picked this book up because I was drawn to the cover. And damn is my judgment spot on. I LOVED it. I had to force myself to put it down. The characters are one you can totally identify with and the story moves along at a pace that has you turning pages nonstop.

Korede has always watched out for her younger sister Ayoola. And Ayoola needs it. She doesn’t make the best choices. Men are drawn to her like a moth to the flame and she has no problem using and discarding of them. Sometimes literally. So when Ayoola’s latest beau ends up dead, naturally her first instinct is to call big sister Korede to clean up the mess.

I found this book spellbinding. I would have finished it in one sitting if I didn’t have to work the next day; and even then it took every ounce of self control to stop

Holy twists and turns Batman