Fever 1793
by Laurie Halse Anderson
**** stars
Fever 1793 is set in Pennsylvania just a little over a decade after the Revolutionary war. Mattie lives with her mother and grandfather in their family coffee house. In the summer and fall of 1793 however, their quiet lives are interrupted as yellow fever breaks out across the area. At first, none of them think it'll be that bad; but that all changes when a good friend of Mattie's dies of the fever.
Panicked by all this commotion, Mattie's mother sends the rest of the family away to a far right as she gets sick to keep them safe. But because of the paranoia surrounding the fever, they can never make it to their safe haven.
Mattie has to find her way back to Philadelphia with her sickly grandfather after they get stranded, before they both pass out, nearly dying in the forest. They get nursed back to health though and get back to Philadelphia, but what they see when they get back is shocking. Dead bodies everywhere, everything broken into, and a baby that Mattie has to do something with.
Overall, I liked this book. It was historical fiction, which isn't something I had ever really been into before. This was a welcome change. I liked how Mattie rose up to the challenge of everything when the fever came, going from 14 year old girl everyone bossed around to her own woman in-charge of a business.
1 comment:
I really liked this book as well, George. I also was interested in the spread of yellow fever through the city and the residents' reaction to it. Talk about panic and ignorance! I do enjoy historical fiction as a genre and if it has a medical or disease angle, that is even better!
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