Alma Katsu possesses a distinct talent for infusing historical fiction with a supernatural twist. With this expectation in mind, I eagerly approached her latest work set against the backdrop of Japanese folklore during World War II. Anticipating an extraordinary and enchanting tale, I found myself unprepared for the inclusion of bloodthirsty spiders that drove individuals to madness and violence. It is not that this element is inherently problematic, but rather that it deviates from the anticipated spookiness, peculiarity, or visceral horror that one would associate with the supernatural. Instead, the narrative predominantly serves as a historical lesson, shedding light on the treatment of Japanese settlers in America during the tumultuous year of 1944, their persecution, and the racial abuses they endured. While this aspect of the story is commendable, the attempt to promote the book as a paranormal, spooky, supernatural experience falls short, with only a fleeting moment truly embracing that theme.

Disappointingly, the anticipated prominence of the jorogumo—a spider demon from Japanese folklore—fails to materialize in a satisfying manner. Instead, the concept manifests as an infection caused by spider eggs, leading to madness, with white Americans unjustly blaming the Japanese for their affliction. The shifting timelines and perspectives of each character within the chapters further contribute to the confusion, often leaving readers uncertain of the direction the narrative will take until the characters are introduced.

Despite these criticisms, it is crucial to acknowledge the brilliance of Alma's writing, which consistently captivates and compels readers. Her ability to interweave historical facts with imaginative twists remains a hallmark of her storytelling. Although this particular book may have lost its grip on me at times, the allure of Alma's prose never wavered, and I found myself compelled to continue reading. This testament to her writing prowess is what continues to draw me back to her works time and time again, as the blend of factual history and imaginative reimagining is an expectation that she consistently fulfills.

Whilst I ramble incoherently here, I have to add that I’m really unsure how a written review will do this book justice. Please just trust me when I say – THIS IS A MUST READ.

A unique, history-focused horror novel exploring Japanese internment during WWII. Alma Katsu is such an inventive and underrated author!

Katsu uses the backdrop of WWI and the Japanese internment camps in the US as the setting for this unsettling horror/mystery about an unsettling illness that may or may not be linked to a Japanese demon.
As always Katsu's blend of historical setting, rich character and mythical horror is impeccable, even if this one does move a little slower, and take on more of an investigative feel, than The Hunger and The Deep.
Well worth a look.

A chilling story that combines the supernatural, Japanese folklore and WW2 historical fiction. WW2 rages on and Meiko Briggs and her daughter Aiko are desperate for news of her American Air Force Pilot husband to return home. However, whilst he is away both are sent to an internment camp; however, whilst there strange things begin to happen, fights break out with spontaneous aggression and an illness sweeps the camp. When a reporter arrives Meiko must look into her past for a solution; is this a demon from her childhood stories hell bent on destruction?

This was a chilling novel not only in the horror and supernatural elements as well as the folklore but also with the details about how Japanese people were treated in America during WW2 and the internment camps that they were sent to. An interesting but eye opening read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

This was my third time reading a full length novel by Alma Katsu and this is definitely my favourite of the three. I found the writing a lot more accessible here than in her previous works, maybe because the book is set in the latter part of the second world war and therefore, the dialogue was more natural to my modern sensibilities. Dealing with the troubling history of Japanese internment during the war, the novel can be a difficult read at times, but it is supposed to be as it discusses an era of history that too often gets swept under the rug. There is a lot of racial tension at play in the novel and this, coupled with the horror elements of a disease which causes rage and aggression, led to some thrilling scenes and set pieces. Overall, this was not a scary book in terms of horror, but definitely a disturbing one nonetheless.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

“The memory came to her in her sleep, of a drawing in a book her father had shown her … The drawing was of a beautiful woman in a fine, fancy kimono, holding a baby in her arms. Crying at a man as he passed by, Please save my baby. This is the jorogumo, her father had told her.”

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Fervor’ by Alma Katsu.

In this excellent historical supernatural horror, Alma Katsu establishes three plot strands around the central theme of the jorogumo, a Japanese spider demon that can shift into the form of a beautiful woman.

It’s 1942. Meiko Briggs is married to an American fighter pilot. However, this doesn’t prevent Meiko and her daughter, Aiko, from being shipped to an internment camp. In order to distract Aiko from the horrors of the camp, Meiko shared the eerie stories from her childhood of yokai and malevolent demons.

Then a contagion breaks out in the camp. What initially appears to be a cold quickly leads to fits of violence, and even death. A government medical team arrives at the camp, setting off a sinister chain of events.

In the outside world strange things are also happening. Archie Mitchell, a minister, has taken a group to the woods for a picnic. He sees a beautiful Japanese woman dressed in a kimono. She smiles and whispers a strange word. His attention is momentarily distracted and when he looks back, she has disappeared. Moments later a downed balloon is found and explodes. Six people are killed, including Archie’s pregnant wife.

In Nebraska Fran, a reporter on a local paper, and her married boyfriend are staying at a remote cabin. They witness another balloon explosion. Fran hears of the other explosions and seeks answers. Over time Meiko, Archie, and Fran are drawn into a world of conspiracies and impossible creatures that lurk in the shadows.

I was very impressed by ‘The Fervor’ and how well Alma Katsu integrated her various plot threads. It was genuinely chilling.

Alma Katsu’s Afterword proved an enlightening read as she outlines her reasons for writing this novel, which includes her family’s experiences of the internment camps during WWII and the increased violence in the USA towards Asian Americans in recent years.

She movingly writes: “This book was written to hold the mirror of history up to the reality of today, to show that the self-deception we were guilty of in the past is back with a sickening vengeance.”

She also provides some background information about the phenomenon of the Fu-Go, Japanese incendiary balloons deployed during WWII.

Overall, I found this a superb supernatural horror, with a powerful message at its heart.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

I really wanted to love this after devouring (bad pun) The Hunger but this just didn't hit as well; it felt very slow, and although I was interested in the plot, it just didn't keep my attention. I hope to try to read it again when I'm more in the mood for it.

I really enjoyed this historical/horror/supernatural novel set in 1944 and much of the early part involves the internment camps for Japanese Americans. Japanese mythology , including demons and Kitsune, a spirit guide fox, are important parts in the story. Large mysterious balloons are falling and causing death and disease to anyone who comes in contact with them. Tiny spiders seem to be everywhere or is it an hallucination?
I was aware of the internment camps but had no idea that Japan had sent balloon bombs that reached the American continent. The level of racism shown in the novel is something that has never really gone away unfortunately.
I found this book really hard to put down but the latter parts aren’t as good as the beginning for me. An excellent read.

I saw recently someone try to argue (online of course) that horror is only supernatural. I don’t agree - horror is the response. There is plenty with of course wonderful creatures from outside but for me there is also horror is the response. Writers such as Shirley Jackson or Penny Jones use explore how our minds can shape or warp reality with devastating effects. In Stephen King’s Misery Annie Wilkes just has obsession cranked to the max. Hell indeed can be other people. In Alma Katsu’s fascinating historical horror thriller, The Fervor we explore how our hatred of those we class as not us can destroy us and often the causes behind that don’t just need a demon pulling the strings (although can help make things worse).

The USA in 1944 is now at war in Europe and the Pacific. The continent’s location has meant for many the war is a distant concept. But that does not mean there have not been consequences. Since 1942 circa 125k American Japanese citizens. The vast majority born and raised in the country have been interned in camps viewed with suspicion and hatred. In Camp Minidoka in Idaho Meiko the wife of a US airman fighting abroad has now found herself in such a camp alone with her daughter Aiko. Increasingly the internees are being mistreated by the authorities; and now Meiko’s camp is starting to suffer from a disease that is either fatal; increases violent tendencies or wipes away memories. The authorities say they want to help but seem more interested in containing and observing. Meanwhile in Oregon Archie Mitchell and his wife are planning a nice picnic in the countryside but the sight of a strange woman in a kimono heralds a explosion that will destroy Archie’s world and plunge him into the murky world of white nationalism. Elsewhere in Nebraska Fran Gurstwold is having an affair with her editor but a strange explosion in the night is witnessed and the wreckage afterwards creates a cascade of incidents of sickness and violence. Slowly these three characters are drawn together to explore what is happening and who is really behind something that could destroy the world.

I was hugely impressed by Katsu’s re-creation of life in 1944 creating an unusual mix of conspiracy thriller and demonic horror. From the internment camps to the small towns of the US we get a sense of a country that is viewing its citizen’s and especially it’s non-white populations. Katsu recreates what it would be like for people who have settled into US life, relationships, schools, and jobs all suddenly forced to relocate to camps and treated as an enemy. Katsu explores how the racism that has always been there has risen to the surface and of course once you separate people into groups you start to view people as not human and then we note the suspicious deaths and people very interested in the disease’s progression. Meiko’s scenes and later on we also get to see Aiko’s life too brings a sense of an danger caused by authority; no one you complain to can help as you are their prisoner and viewed with suspicion bordering on hatred.

With Archie who we find out has connections to Meiko’s past we meet Archie. The bible-fearing man of God who we soon see has feet of clay. While what happened to his family is terrible; we see Archie get quickly introduced into the groups who view anyone opposed to internment as the enemy. What starts with sharing his story becomes more slowly revealed as preludes to violence. Archie is the person we see swept up into events. Letting their prejudices guide them deeper and deeper into radicalism and most horrifying of all – its all without any influence of outside forces. In these scenes Katsu really captures the way people can so clearly separate each other and think one group deserves persecution. The question is can Archie realise what he is into before its’ too late. Evil here is not dressed in black uniforms with flags and marches but banal and yet very dangerous and insidious.

Fran’s scenes are in some way a classic 1940s plot of the hard of nails journalist seeking the truth but of course Fran is a single woman and although smarter and more tenacious than any other reporter in her paper; her gender means she is always second class. She can be forced at will and yet reporting is her life. She is the glue between the plots working out that these explosions are releasing something into the country and changing people. This brings her across Meiko’s and Archie’s paths culminating in a race in the empty countryside of the US where there is very little help around when you’re being pursued by people who want you dead.

It’s a classic style conspiracy where the authority figures seem to be clear that no one should know what is going on and take ever increasing dangerous steps to hide the truth. I was very impressed with the plotting and sense of isolation that each character receives and how you can feel the walls of their worlds getting tighter and the only hope is the sharing of knowledge to work out the truth. Even without any supernatural overtones this was an impressive read but just to add to the mix we get some Japanese demonic folklore thrown in and a sense that some external presence has sensed that this time of paranoia and suspicion is perfect for it to play. Ghostly sightings and the simple use of tiny spiders brings a uncomfortable sense that our capacity to hurt others could allows forces from outside to get involved and make things even worse. The casual racism, violence and sexism of this period is however not brought about by demons just getting exploited. In fact, as the mystery gets explored there could indeed be a rational exploration for everything, but it creates an unnerving sense that if we are not careful we could soon find ourselves toys…or prey.

The Fervor is a very powerful and thoughtful novel putting the reader into these character’s shoes and making us feel oppression and also what it can be like to oppress those we hate just because we don’t see them as part of our community. Excellent use of paranoia, tension and yet also optimistic that we can do better. Katsu’s sobering afterword explaining the motivation for the book is very powerful though and reminds us that internment camps are just part of a long and continuing road of racist, violent and often deadly actions against Asian Americans going on for centuries. The true horror is that we know these events do happen again and again and ultimately humans have only ourselves to blame for not tackling this properly. A great read and well recommended!

Unfortunately this one didn't really work for me. Although the setting and atmosphere were really compelling and interesting - an internment camp during WWII and invoking folklore, ancestral deep seated terrors, I felt it lacked a little in execution.

I think the main problem is that this just tries to take in too much. There's a lot of different point of view, places and times that just overwhelmed me as a reader. As a result the plot is really bogged down in too much of everything , which means that although the atmosphere and tension creeps along and builds slowly, the story was a chore to get through at times.

This is a very mindful horror in execution, weaving in historical facts and social commentary and is undoubtedly well researched and written, but it just didn't work for me.

This historical horror novel from Alma Katsu deals with the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Meiko Briggs is a Japanese woman whose husband is a pilot fighting in the war; however, she and her daughter cannot avoid the internment camps that were set up for Japanese Americans during the war. Whilst imprisoned there an outbreak of an unknown disease occurs, people hallucinate and claim they are seeing demons from Japanese folklore. Meiko realises that she and her daughter Aiko are in peril, but how can she escape. Outside the internment camps people are reporting strange occurrences spotting what some thinks are weapons coming from Japan, again spreading the disease, witnessing a supernatural being who seems to control small white spiders which maybe the cause of the contagion.

I really liked how the narration was told through multiple characters and although set in World War II the attitudes are still witnessed today making this a very relevant horror novel indeed.

I have never read anything else by this author but I will be now for sure. It was a well written and compelling storyline infused with supernatural and horror elements and I just couldn't put it down.

This is my second Alma Katsu novel and I like that she uses real historical events and turns them into works of fiction in order to add a supernatural horror element.

This story was good and was told from different points of view which helped keep it interesting.

I never knew anything about Internment Camps before this book, I'm not the best with History, especially WW2 so learning about the camps they made the Japanese population in America stay in was shocking to learn about and made me feel really disgusted frankly to learn that that really happened.

The horror in this book was mild in my opinion, which is why I am scoring it lower. Its not to my taste but I am still glad I read it. Its main focus is highlighting how history repeats itself. This book is about a kind of pandemic which the Japanese were blamed for, and its easy to say the past is in the past, but the same kind of racism flared up against the Chinese during the Covid outbreak and the author makes a comment regarding this at the end of their book- Amongst a lot of other good points. We have a lot to learn and change still or history will repeat itself.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of The Fervor but that has in no way influenced my review.

Alma Katsu is the author behind one of my favourite reads of 2021. The incredibly dark and atmospheric The Hunger which reimagines the journey the Donner Party took from Illinois to California in 1846. The author takes historical events, gives them a supernatural twist and presents them in a highly compelling way. I loved what Katsu did with The Hunger. So much so that I immediately purchased the author's next book, The Deep (which I plan to read very, very soon). So when the opportunity to read The Fervor presented itself I, of course, leapt at the chance to immerse myself in this author's world once again.

Meiko Briggs was sent by her parents from Japan to America as a young woman where she met her husband, pilot Jamie Briggs. Now America is at war with Japan and life for those with Japanese heritage, which includes Meiko and Jamie's young daughter, Aido, has changed significantly. Whilst Jamie is off overseas fighting for his country, his wife and daughter have been moved to an internment camp where everyday life is tough. When a mystery illness starts to spread throughout the camp and internees become violent before some die a painful death, Meiko knows there is something sinister going on. Particularly when victims report seeing entities that remind her of Japanese folklore tales from her childhood. Meiko knows she and Aiko are in danger but exactly who (or what) poses the biggest threat to their lives...?

The Fervor is a well-written tale full of intrigue and suspense which I enjoyed. There is a lot for the reader to get their teeth into as the story is told from four different points of view; Meiko, her daughter Aiko, preacher Archie Mitchell, and Fran Gurstwold, a news reporter who is out to make her name with a big story. There is an ever-present sense of threat throughout the book which I thought was handled incredibly well by the author. It doesn't really matter where the reader looks, there's danger at every turn! But who or what poses the biggest threat? I have my theory and it doesn't bode well for humankind. It was shocking to read how Japanese people were treated at the internment camps of the 1940s. How misinformation and fear drove people to act in the most despicable of ways. How the white supremacy groups preyed on the insecurities of average people to amass armies ready to hurt, maim and kill without a moment's thought. The author builds an uncomfortable picture for her readers and rightly so. It should be uncomfortable; it should make us think. But most of it, we must learn from the atrocities of the past and make sure they never happen again.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. The Fervor is a well-written, unsettling novel full of suspense which I found uncomfortable reading at times but hard to put down. Despite being set in the 1940s during WWII it felt a very current story with overarching themes of racism and an unknown prevalent virus with no cure, at the heart of the novel. There's no shying away from the cold, hard truth here. Katsu is a skilled writer who brings her characters and their stories to life. The lead characters were interesting and engaging throughout. I enjoyed the way in which the author tied everything together in the end, bringing the separate strands of the plot to a believable and tense conclusion. All in all, I found The Fervor to be a compelling novel with a beautifully crafted sense of threat running throughout the pages. Recommended.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of The Fervor. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

I really enjoyed The Fervor. The books reminds me to the TV series, The Terror: Infamy in that the show is also set at the Japanese camps and also features demons and Japanese myths and a strange illness. The two are very similar and my knowledge of the period and the TV show helped me enjoy the book a lot more. This is the kind of horror I enjoy the most, subtle, unsettling and skin-crawling. I thought this was a terrific read.

Set during WWII, The Fervor looks at real historical events and puts a supernatural horror twist on them. This book focuses on internment within WWII, with a particular focus on the violence against the Japanese.

I loved reading about the historical elements revolving around the war and internment camps. Despite being fictionalised, it was so intriguing and yet horrifying to read about events that actually happened during the war. The historical detail in this book was so rich that I could imagine myself as a fly on the wall, watching over these events happening.

I also enjoyed the sections exploring Japanese folklore, including the protection of the kitsune and how these come to be. I found this to be especially touching and such a lovely cultural belief, and it really added so much emotion to an already heart wrenching story.

Alma Katsu was able to write a book set in 1944, whilst also subliminally mirroring events of today. It is a scarily accurate depiction of violence against Asian-Americans across two periods almost 80 years apart. Whilst there are supernatural horrors in this book, it leads us to the conclusion that the real horrors lie within humans themselves.

I highly recommend this book to any horror or thriller readers, and to those who enjoy historical fiction with sharp social commentary littered throughout. This book was so cleverly written and it’s one I’ll be thinking about for quite some time.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this frightening book

do we ever learn.....

and did it have to be spiders.....

this is partly based on fact, internments happened after pearl harbour when thousands of american asians were transported from their homes into camps with the claims that they could be spies

their treatment was as bad as the death camps in poland

its a fascinating read and though some of this book is fiction it is based on fact....

this author has a way of writing that frightens you

Well, never have I read a book set in WW2 that is just as relevant now as this! Whilst this book is a piece of fiction it’s very much rooted in truth. We have all endured the pandemic and it’s very easy to draw parallels with that in terms of the isolation, the divide, the frustrations, the paranoia and the fear from lack of knowledge. Between that and the authors clear passion over the setting and situation, It makes for an emotional read at times. Despite the heavier topics addressed throughout there is a mystery story in there, laced with Japanese folklore and culture which I really found fascinating. There are some horror elements in this book, with some lovely creepy moments but I’d say this is more of a thriller overall. I could get into a huge discussion about it but that would just give everything away! Instead I am saying, go read it. You won’t regret it!

For the most part gripping and fast-paced, Alma Katsu presents a cautionary tale disguised as plot-driven, supernatural horror. Set in late WW2 America, Katsu’s multiple, intersecting storylines blend fact with fiction to highlight the brutal treatment of Japanese Americans, a subject that has personal resonance for Katsu whose mother was Japanese and whose in-laws among the thousands forced into camps across America. Katsu draws too on Japan’s Project Fu-Go, an attempt to flood America with firebombs transported by air balloons, building on meteorologist Wasaburo Oishi’s research into jet streams. The project was largely unsuccessful but in May 1945 a civilian group in Oregon was killed by one of these devices. A fictionalised version of what happened, and of sole survivor Archie Mitchell, plays a pivotal part here.

Mitchell is the entry point for Katsu's vivid exploration of the white supremacist groups who revelled in demonising Japanese Americans. Their activities aided by a flood of official, wartime propaganda featuring deeply offensive, inflammatory caricatures of the supposedly dangerous, Japanese enemy within - even mainstream magazines like Time ran articles on “How to tell Japs from the Chinese.” Another major figure’s Fran, an intrepid, heroic, Jewish journalist hot on the trail of the Fu-Go incendiary bombs and a possible government conspiracy.

But at the heart of Katsu’s narrative are Meiko Briggs and small daughter Aiko, imprisoned in Idaho’s now-notorious Minidoka Camp. In Katsu’s imagined version, Minidoka’s Japanese internees are succumbing to an unknown disease, marked by violent outbursts and, for many, a painful death. Fran and Meiko are both attempting to solve the puzzle posed by this bizarre illness. One that involves mysterious sightings from Japanese mythology, yokai demons and the sinister, shapeshifting, spider-like yurogumo. Katsu’s characters’ experiences also contain echoes of the real-life history of racist, scientific experiments like Tuskegee.

The segments featuring Meiko and Aiko were frequently fluid and atmospheric, but Katsu’s writing felt quite unbalanced, veering between brashly commercial and eerily intense, often more intent on getting a message across than on subtleties of setting or character. The supernatural elements could appear awkwardly grafted onto the factual, and several scenes appeared to exist purely to hammer home Katsu's points about the similarities between America then and America now. It’s a reasonable comparison and, although Katsu originally planned this in response to Trump, the Covid pandemic and the horrifying increase in attacks on Asian Americans makes it even more timely. I appreciated Katsu’s inventiveness but aspects of her style and staging of her central themes were just too heavy-handed for me. I also struggled with the ending. But, in general, this has had a very positive reception, so for fans of writers like Stephen Graham Jones or anyone looking for socially aware, seasonal reading it’s definitely worth considering.