Review Detail

Once Upon a Fever is a novel that reads like part middle-grade as well as part young adult with the topics and themes explored in this dystopian world. The novel follows the story of two sisters, Payton and Ani, who know nothing outside of the world of hospitals. Living within the walls of King Jude they seek to find a cure for their mother’s water fever along with their physician father. However, when things go array everything the sisters have ever known comes into question and they are forced to seek out the truth separate from the sheltered lives they led.

What drew me to this novel was the overall concept of emotions as illnesses. Things like heartbreak, anger, and grief are deemed as dangerous emotions leading to great sickness. The world Payton and Ani live have doctors that seek to rid the population of feelings for people to be healthy once again. This world contradicts everything we’ve ever known and taught about leaning into our emotions and the caution against suppressing them for too long which comes into play throughout the novel’s narrative.

At times the concept felt a bit jumbled, and I felt some aspects weren’t as clear which left me a bit confused as the story ended. But if the novel were perhaps a bit longer the execution of the plot may have been smoothed out more clearly. The reading experience is wholly immersive and though it’s a dreary dystopian world the fantasy elements within the characters used make the novel feel a bit more magical. It was so cool to see how emotions translate into action physical action scenes. I won’t spoil them for you, so you’ll just have to read the book!

I enjoyed their characters and though they were complete opposites they worked through their individual obstacles (and reservations) to come together as a duo. The changing of the perspectives for each chapter gave the reader insight into their personalities and helped their character development as well. All in all, I feel like the ending of the novel was solid and I feel like Walker could definitely write a sequel to see what the sister’s journey is next.