I finished the story last night and I'm still magnificently unsettled. As I read I was gripped by a suffocating sense of dread that never let up. The story is told in dialog, and neither of the participants in the conversation are fully connected with a rational world of cause-and-effect. Nothing is ever completely explained. The novel asks you to banish any thoughts like "what is going on?" from your mind as you read, and to yield to its unhinged and unexplained storytelling style. As in a real...

I couldn't put this down. It's a quick read anyway, but still the story draws you in from the first page. There's so much going on, and Schweblin's delivery is perfectly paced as the plot develops. There is an eerie, something's-not-quite-right tone which presides over the story, and subtle reminders of this pop up every once in a while. I feel that the ending was a little rushed; in a way it finishes the story, but also leaves the reader with a lot of questions.

That was weirdly fascinating. Absolutely worth a read. But confusing, very much so. But in a good way.My thoughts are all over the place for this one. While I really enjoyed reading this book, it still left me feeling fairly confused during and afterwards. Usually I try to write my reviews as quickly as possible after finishing a book but this time I couldn't have done that because I seriously needed some time to gather my thoughts.This is one of those books that isn't really "about" anything. I...

More like a nightmare than a dream. A perfect nightmare. You know how when you try to describe one but it always ends up sounding strange and ridiculous, and not scary to the listener?(I have to get out, I keep seeing a red circle spinning in front of me, a mouth at the centre going wah, wah, wah, wah... and I know if I don't get out I will DIE.)Well, Samanta Schweblin doesn't have that problem. She captures the concept of a nightmare perfectly, and put it to page. The grotesque, the way time st...

3.5 Strange, so very, very strange, but intriguing and unique. The title, Fever Dream, and indeed this reads like a disturbing dream. A young woman and mother is dying in hospital, a young boy David at her side, not her son but he wants her to remember how she got there and where her young daughter is, what append to her?First translated novel from this Argentinean author, it is a novel of sparse prose, but unrelenting tension. David tries to keep Amanda on point, to remember only what is import...

Have you ever had a dream where you are trying to run through something sticky and thick like mud, bubble gum or quicksand and you can’t quite get moving and you’re surrounded by misery, sadness and it’s all a bit murky and mysterious?Well reading Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin felt just like that.The story involves a boy called David visiting a woman called Amanda in a small rural hospital. It is essentially a conversation between the two of them. Something bad has happened or is happening to...

I was intrigued by many of the reviews I saw of this book after it was shortlisted for the Man Booker International prize, but I don't think I am the right person to review it. The whole thing reads like an extended nightmare, yet for me none of it was quite believable enough for it to affect me, and I suspect this is down to my psychological make-up rather than any fault of the writer or the translator, as dreams are very personal things. Interesting but not a book I can love...

(Full review 4/29/18)Freaky. As. Hell. At only 150-some large-print pages, this should probably be read in one sitting for maximum effect, the spell shouldn't be broken (I read nearly all of it last night and finished it just now). The momentum just keeps carrying you forward, making it hard to stop even if you wanted. Brilliant. Full review to come.----------------------------------------------A woman named Amanda lies feverish and dying in a hospital bed, and she has no idea how she got there....

1/6 from Booker International Prize Shortlist.Engrossing, Weird, Well written and amazingly structured, Dark, Confusing, Upsetting, Hallucinating, Intoxicating, Crazy, Surreal, Captivating, did I say Weird? I followed my friends’ recommendation to read this short novel in one sitting and I can confirm it is the best way to go through it. It is an essential requisite to enjoy the novel, to enter and remain in the intoxicating atmosphere the author weaves around the reader. The spell would have be...

Hmmm, how to review Fever Dream? I don't think I've ever read anything like it before. It has the most incredible sense of unease running through its twisting narrative. I had no idea what was going on for most of the novel and I'm still not entirely sure I do. But it's not a story I will forget in a hurry.Amanda, a holidaymaker in rural Argentina, lies in a hospital bed. David, the creepy son of a local woman named Carla, sits nearby and presses Amanda to recount the events that have led her he...

A fast read, and while I read it, I did find it compelling, but the ending is totally dissatisfying and very odd. Maybe I missed something crucial, however I felt there was such a build-up and such tension, I was expecting some great revelation at the end. A talented writer (and translator), but perhaps better suited to the short story, or even poetry. Her language is moving and lyrical, but the story feels incomplete to me.Find more reviews and bookish fun at http://www.princessandpen.com

Somehow I have already read two novels from Argentina and it's only the 41st day of the year. I kept seeing this one mentioned so I snagged it from the library. The entire novel is written in a conversation between a woman who is told she is on her death bed (it is unclear if this is true) and her friend's son, who appears to be on her bed, interviewing her about the worms.It is unclear to me what is actually going on. I don't mind some veils and smoke if it goes somewhere but this one really do...

This was a DNF for me. I guess I could call it fantasy or perhaps a paranormal story. I read the first ten pages or so and went back and re-read them trying to figure out who was who and what was happening. It starts out as story of a young boy who is seriously ill. A “healer” promises to cure him but warns his mother that some of the boy’s personality will be changed and shared with other kids. Apparently a young girl starts to take on some of the boy’s personality. By page 40 I was still so co...

Do you ever read two (or more) completely unrelated books, in quick succession, that seem – somehow, by coincidence – spiritually identical? This has happened to me recently with Iain Reid's I’m Thinking of Ending Things and Samanta Schweblin's Fever Dream. (I'm tempted to add Jen George's short story collection The Babysitter at Rest too, since it's insistently dreamlike and illogical, but it's too irreverent to be a true match for the others.) Both Ending Things and Fever Dream are ver...

Fever dream was interesting and original. When reading I felt the need to complete it in one sitting to get the full effect of the writing and the story. As it’s a fairly short book and easy to read, this was easy to do. However I was hoping for it to all come together and make sense at the end and unfortunately it just didn’t.

thoroughly enjoyed the way samanta schweblin took inspiration from the use of harmful pesticides in argentina,,,,using horror to explore current issues is truly where it’s at. i am also always down for a horror story revolving around a mother/child dynamic. however, despite all the arguably good things about this novella, i never experienced the tense, feverish (ha, bc title) feelings that others described going through while they read. soooo, would def rec, but wish it had fucked with me more i...

Seriously.......This little book is like a shotglass full of crazy.Bottoms up and brace for the effect.Amanda and her young daughter, Nina, are renting a cottage near a horse ranch. It's a very different place from their usual summer retreats. Both of them linger by the pool. The warm sun and the soft breeze lull them into a blissful state.But the presence of another female, Carla, causes them to turn their heads in her direction. She is barefoot and wearing a shiny gold bikini. Carla opens the

Chasing the Dragon on a Horse with No Name*Updated 4/21/17: Congrats to Ms. Schweblin on Fever Dream being shortlisted yesterday, 4/20/17, for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize.Nearly 3 months out from reading this brief novel, and I remain haunted every so often by visions of a horse's head and of squirming worms. REVIEW:Perhaps the ominous chevaline cloud over the novel, with certain players exposed to some undescribed toxin (maybe via the grass), is meant to represent the drug heroin gi...

WHoa. This was trippy. And I loved it.

* 2.5 * - which is "it was ok" rather than "I liked it"Not sure what to make of this book and that seems rather to be the point of it. I will acknowledge it does recreate the feeling of a fevered dream exceptionally well. I don't know if as a reader I particularly like being in this state, even for a book as short as this one. I am going to be obstinately old-fashioned and ruthlessly uncool by saying I find my books more satisfying if things are made slightly clearer. I was anticipating Fever D...