My first book to begin this will be:
Fever (Laurie Halse Anderson)
Ok, I know what some people are going to say, "Ohmygoodness, you're 21, and finishing university education and here you are STILL reading young adult books. Seriously?" Seriously. I always justify this by saying that I read lots of dense stuff in school and sometimes my brain just wants a nice plot that I dont have to dissect and think about themes and messages and whether the author was sexually repressed or not. (Kidding. That only happens sometimes.)
Moving on to the book, its contextualized in the yellow fever period in Philedelphia, America. Hence the title, Fever 1793. It tells the story of this girl, Mattie Cook, who is your average teenage girl, working in a cookhouse with her mother and grandfather, with daydreams for the future. Until one day, when the fever breaks out and she must leave the city to escape the epidemic. Even as she is confronted by this outbreak at all turns, she grows up throughout the course of the book, doing what she must and being filled with a determination to survive and get past this period.
I really liked this book a lot. I think the simplicity of the book really appeals to me nowadays, especially what with the deluge of supernatural stuff we get unloaded upon us these days (not that I don't enjoy that.) But this book just brings a lot of nostalgia for the past for me; I'm always fascinated by how people lived in the past. I liked Mattie alot as well, she was a believable character-- I see alot of myself in her, how she likes to sleep in (guilty!) and tries to think of ways to get out of her chores. I like how the crisis caused her to grow up, in fact as much as our world is a so much better place than in the past, I think I always long for a kind of event. Something difficult to undergo to make me a better person, to make me work hard and help others. And of course, being a huge fan of the determined-to-survive genre, I felt that intensely in the book.
As I read the book, I looked at all the characters who helped others during the epidemic, Eliza to name one. She's the coffeehouse cook. Won't spoil it anymore. But she went around helping others during the epidemic, refusing money or thanks for her help. It just made me wonder, would that be my first instinct? I mean, I always think, if war comes, I would like to volunteer to be a nurse. (Of course, I hope it doesn't but that's another story.) But if such a desperate situation occurs... would I be the first in line to help others, at the risk of falling sick and dying myself? And just that question alone, made me feel ashamed of myself.
Overall, a pretty good read. Simple, thought provoking, interesting in terms of the hardships she had to go through. I would definitely re-read it again.
4/5
