Review – The Fever King by Victoria Lee

**Disclaimer: I was given a free e-book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.**

Title The Fever King (Feverwake #1)

Author Victoria Lee

Description from Amazon

In the former United States, sixteen-year-old Noam Álvaro wakes up in a hospital bed, the sole survivor of the viral magic that killed his family and made him a technopath. His ability to control technology attracts the attention of the minister of defense and thrusts him into the magical elite of the nation of Carolinia.

The son of undocumented immigrants, Noam has spent his life fighting for the rights of refugees fleeing magical outbreaks—refugees Carolinia routinely deports with vicious efficiency. Sensing a way to make change, Noam accepts the minister’s offer to teach him the science behind his magic, secretly planning to use it against the government. But then he meets the minister’s son—cruel, dangerous, and achingly beautiful—and the way forward becomes less clear.

Caught between his purpose and his heart, Noam must decide who he can trust and how far he’s willing to go in pursuit of the greater good.

Initial Thoughts

This is another book that’s been in my NetGalley queue for a while now. (Upwards of six months while.) Anyway, when I first joined NetGalley I went on a mad applying frenzy. Anything and everything that sounded remotely interesting got a request from my account. This book sounded cool, but sci-fi and futuristic settings are not my normal cup of tea. In the spirit of closing out 2019 [pause for dramatic effect because I can’t believe I’m talking about the end of the year two thousand and nineteen], I wanted to read and review everything I have outstanding. And, more importantly, I found this in audiobook form from Scribd last week.

Some Things I Liked

• Male main character. I don’t normally read books where the main or narrating character is male. I have no issues with it – it’s just different for me. So much YA is written from a female POV so this was a nice change. Furthermore, it was different to listen to an audiobook read entirely by a man.
• The magic system. I thought the magic system was interesting and well done. I liked the combination of magic and technology in abilities like “technopathy”. I also liked that magic didn’t overwhelm the storyline. It was more about the political climate and the magic was secondary.
• Villains. I have to admit, I really liked the villains in this story. Mostly because they were so ambiguous. You really aren’t sure who the villains are. Think President Snow and President Coin from The Hunger Games. Who’s the real bad guy? We’re fighting to choose the lesser of the evils here and I thought that was an interesting concept.

Some Things I Wasn’t Crazy About

• Too much going on. I thought there were too many things going on this book. There are a lot of themes and, in my opinion, this is a politically charged novel riddled with sentiments reflected in today’s society. I’m not a fan of politics. I don’t like reading about it and I thought this book felt a bit too familiar in that regard.
• Trigger content. There are a lot of dark themes in this book that some readers might not be comfortable reading. For example, a graphic depiction of suicide, rape, and sexual assault. I don’t enjoy reading about subject matter like that. I read for my own amusement. If I wanted to read about awful things, I could watch the news. But that’s just me. I didn’t like that about this book.

Series Value

I probably won’t read the next book in this series unless I receive it on NetGalley. This isn’t a series I’d buy for myself and I’m not really interested or hooked enough on the story to continue on my own.

Final Thoughts

This book was ok. I liked the characters, I thought it had a lot of themes (possibly too many), and it was thought provoking due to the timeline and similarities to the world today. I didn’t love it but I was glad I gave it a chance.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommendations for Further Reading

• Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte – if you enjoyed the blend of fantasy and sci-fi in The Fever King, give this book a try.
• The Glass Spare by Lauren DeStefano – again, if you liked the blend of sci-fi and fantasy and you enjoy themes of political intrigue, check out this duology by Lauren DeStefano.
• The Beholder by Anna Bright – if you liked the idea of alternate American history, give this book a try. They have totally different stories and themes, but if you liked the history aspect in The Fever King, you’ll definitely enjoy this one.