Small Review: Laurie Halse Anderson

Release Date: September 1, 2000
Publisher: Aladdin (Simon & Schuster)
Pages: 272
Received: Own copy
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Goodreads page

Summary

From Goodreads:

It's late summer 1793, and the streets of Philadelphia are abuzz with mosquitoes and rumors of fever. Down near the docks, many have taken ill, and the fatalities are mounting. Now they include Polly, the serving girl at the Cook Coffeehouse. But fourteen-year-old Mattie Cook doesn't get a moment to mourn the passing of her childhood playmate.

New customers have overrun her family's coffee shop, located far from the mosquito-infested river, and Mattie's concerns of fever are all but overshadowed by dreams of growing her family's small business into a thriving enterprise. But when the fever begins to strike closer to home, Mattie's struggle to build a new life must give way to a new fight-the fight to stay alive.

Review

Disease books!

I love historical fiction and I have a special (morbid?) interest in reading about plagues. So given that, I've had Fever 1793 on my TBR for a long time. Maybe it's the award or all the Laurie Halse Anderson fangirling I've heard, but for some reason I always shoved this book far down on my TBR priorty list. Hype scares me.

And then I didn't have a book to read and couldn't get to the library and figured I'd turn to my own shelves (finally) and read something I'd owned for years but still hadn't actually read.

Mattie can't hold a candle to Felicity*

The main character does grow by the end of the book, but the problem with character growth means they need to start out at a point in need of growth, and that starting point can be irritating to read about.

Mattie acts spoiled and lazy with shameful (and anachronistic) work ethic. She's so judgy and I had a hard time finding anything about her to like.

But then people start dying!

And Mattie's personality matters less because the focus shifts to the disease. It's still about her because she's living through the events, but her as a person matters less than what's going on around her at the time. I was mostly fine with this though because I wasn't a fan of Mattie and I did find all the disease stuff very interesting.

The yellow fever outbreak is described well and with lots of historical details. I learned a whole bunch of stuff, which is exactly the reason I love reading historical books. MAJOR points for this! I entertained everyone around me with all sorts of wonderful facts about disease and eighteenth century living (I'm sure they were very pleased with me).

Even better, all these little factoids weren't just dropped in randomly. They were woven into the storyline in a way that felt natural and fluid. It wasn't boring or "educational" or anything like that. I felt like I was there, living through the nightmare right along with Mattie and the others. The world around me felt entirely real.

Then the disease abates and suddenly Mattie has grown and changed into a (sort of) better person. Is my "couldn't care less" feeling showing through? Well, I really couldn't care less.

Bottom line

Huge, super big points for historical writing, but zero points for Mattie (and really all the thinly developed characters).

I'm glad I read Fever 1793 and I'm glad I own it, but I don't think I'd bother buying a copy now if I didn't already have one. It's just, yeah, I liked the book. But I didn't love it and I don't fully get the hype.