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Once Upon a Fever by Angharad Walker – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
‘Disease begins with a feeling, Miss Darke. It has been that way ever since the turn – when people’s feelings first started making them ill …’
Since the world fell sick with fantastical illnesses, sisters Payton and Ani have grown up in the hospital of King Jude’s.
Payton wants to be a methic like her father, working on a cure for her mother’s sleeping fever. Ani, however, thinks the remedy for all illness might be found in the green wilderness beyond the hospital walls.
When Ani stumbles upon an imprisoned boy who turns everything he touches to gold, her world is turned upside-down. The girls find themselves outside the hospital for the first time, a dark mystery unravelling …
• The new novel from Angharad Walker, author of critically-acclaimed The Ash House
• Angharad’s writing evokes the clever, unique world-building and philosophical themes of Pullman’s His Dark Materials while remaining startlingly original
• The story follows two sisters in a London-inspired city full of fantastical illness and sprawling, gothic hospitals where dark secrets linger beneath the surface
Published by Chicken House as a flapped paperback 7th July 2022 | £7.99 | Ages 11+
About the Author
Angharad Walker grew up on military bases in the UK, Germany and Cyprus, where stories were often being told about far-flung places, past conflicts, and friends and family. She studied English Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Warwick and the University of California Irvine. Her fiction has been published in Structo and A Mil- lion Ways, and her poetry has made it into Agenda broadsheets and Ink Sweat & Tears. She lives in South London. When she’s not writing, she works as a communications consultant for charities and not-for-profits. Follow her @angharadwalker on Twitter and Instagram.
What I Thought
It’s a heatwave in the U.K. today and what other than temperature rises in a heatwave. Emotions!
In Walker’s Lundain, feelings lead to fevers and sickness so people are taught to suppress their emotions, ever since the mysterious “Turn”.
Feelings are to be:
“Observed. Treated. Never Felt.”
The comparisons with His Dark Materials are well made with Jenipher Blake’s blood measure and blood purification the new evil in town. It also reminded me vibe wise a little of The Death House by Sarah Pinborough, What’s Left of Me by Kat Zhang and even Divergent by Veronica Roth.
Sisters Ani and Payton haven’t always seen eye to eye but the one thing that they both want is to cure their mother of the water fever that keeps her comatose and away from them. Their father Neel Darke is a methic who they believe might not be trying as hard as they’d hoped to find a cure.
Payton believes in science and wants to be a methic too so when separated from Ani gets trapped in the shadow of the pedestal she’s placed Jenipher on. Payton has been keeping a secret about her ‘blood phobia’ too.
Ani is intrigued by the lost guild of Wilders – who focus on nature and in feeling what needs to be felt. There she meets a trio who begin to help her trust herself.
This book is very topical with pandemics and global warming very much in the here and now.
It says for 11+ and it does read a little more on the middle grade side but only because Ani and Payton are 11 and 13 respectively. I also got Anna and Elsa vibes from them. The themes included cross across age boundaries. In fact I looked back to the email which called it the perfect transitional read for 11+ year olds who aren’t quite ready for YA books.
I really enjoyed this book and devoured it quickly. The over medicalisation of emotions is a very interesting topic to me and I thought it was handed excellently. The only bad thing about the book is that I was left hoping it would be part of a series. It left me feeling that although it was concluded that there was more that could be said so if you like the sound of this please pick up a copy so we can get more.
Thanks to Laura and Chicken House for the gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. Check out the rest of the tour stops to see what everyone else thought too.
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Simple by Dena Nicotra – Blog Tour Book Review
Author: Dena Nicotra
Narrator: Kendra Murray
Length: 7 hours 31 minutes
Series: Simp Series, Book 1
Publisher: Dena M. Nicotra
Release date: Jul. 1, 2020
Genre: Science Fiction
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The Book of Koli (The Rampart Trilogy) by MR Carey Blog Tour Book Review
MR Carey, author of The Girl with All the Gifts, returns with the first in a post apocalyptic trilogy.
About the Book
The first in a gripping new trilogy,The Book of Koli charts the journey of one unforgettable young boy struggling to find his place in a chilling post-apocalyptic world. Perfect for readers of Station Eleven and Annihilation.
Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable world. A world where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly vines and seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don’t get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.
Koli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He knows the first rule of survival is that you don’t venture beyond the walls.
What he doesn’t know is — what happens when you aren’t given a choice?
About the Author
Mike Carey is the acclaimed writer of Lucifer and Hellblazer (now filmed as Constantine). He has recently completed a comics adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, and is the current writer on Marvel’s X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four. He has also written the screenplay for a movie, Frost Flowers, which is soon to be produced by Hadaly Films and Bluestar Pictures.
He writes as both Mike and MR Carey
Early Thoughts
I’m 56% in and here are my thoughts so far.
Do you remember the children in the film Mad Max beyond Thunderdome, and how they speak? The boy narrator – Koli – from The Book of Koli reminds me of that voice. Because the story is written in “dialect” I think your enjoyment may hinge on whether this is something you like generally. Koli is also one to go off on a tangent when telling his story but he actually brings himself back round to the point, and so the effect is to build tension and keep you reading.
I’m really enjoying it so far and to me the first half very much has the feel of a number of Young Adult dystopians that I have read. Although, this is written from the perspective of a future Koli so there is a certain hindsight that comes with his telling. So far the story has all taken place in his village of Mythen Rood, in Ingland, and has been setting up everyday life. From the somewhat carefree childhood, with friendships and crushes, to the mysterious Waiting year and its culmination in the Rampart ceremony. There are hints of diversity in terms of race, gender and sexual identity.
Ramparts are held in higher esteem in this society. They can command the technology of old and as such are responsible for the village security. The village feels very much like a Walking Dead settlement. Koli wants nothing more than to join their ranks, but it seems that one family above others are destined to become Ramparts – the family of his best friend.
A travelling doctor lets Koli into a secret that throws his life into turmoil – can he control tech too and will it earn him his longed for place? I love the tech and hints at the old times, there seems to be some advances on what we know but then a throwback to a more rural way of living. Koli thinks his village of just over 200 people is big!
Outside the village we are told lies only danger, with nature fighting back and the danger of shunned or faceless ones and a host of savage beasts keeping them isolated especially in the summer months. The – don’t go outside – message may be a little close to the bone for some readers at the moment although it’s trees rather than a virus that seem to pose the biggest threat. We haven’t seen much of what they can do yet so they are a scary unknown threat so far.
This is where Koli, and us, are about to head now and I’m intrigued to visit the wider world and to see what other secrets get spilled. I’m guessing that we might be left at the end of book one with lots more questions. Book 2 is (was?) due out in September and I already know that I’m going to want to know what happens and if/how Koli comes back home again.
If you enjoyed The Girl with All the Gifts and Melanie’s voice this definitely has a similar feel. The Book of Koli is out now. I’ve listened to the sample of the audio version and I think that would be a great way to read this story.
Do check out the rest of the tour stops. Thanks to the publisher and Tracy at Compulsive Readers for the e-ARC for the purposes of an honest review.
kirstyes 