If I cannot provide a positive (or at least partially positive) review for a book, I will not post one.ĭisclosure: I never receive payment for book reviews. All opinions posted on my book reviews are my own, regardless of whether I received a free copy of the book. Books can be any category but must not be rated anything stronger than 'R.' Though I will make every attempt to accommodate requests for reviews, please note that due to high demand, I cannot guarantee a book review. If you would like your book to be reviewed, please email me. Options include a guest blog post, an author interview, an interview with one of your characters as well as Rafflecopter giveaways! Content should be limited to a 'PG-13' rating, and books promoted must be limited to 'rated R.' I feature authors on Wednesdays! If you would like to be featured, please email me. My next read by Anderson will be Forge, the sequel to Chains. This is a fast read-very plot-based-that I am putting on my daughter’s bookshelf for when she is just a bit older. I especially admire her actions when she comes across a young orphan and has sympathy, unlike most of the adults she encounters. She is realistic in that she does need help from time to time, but she is not helpless. Mattie goes against norms and perceptions. But for so long, women in stories and life were not portrayed that way. I admire Mattie for being a “strong woman,” though I in some ways resent that term. Worse for Mattie, with so many people fleeing to the country and/or dying from yellow fever, break-ins became common. In Philadelphia, food shortages became a common problem for survivors. Besides a lack of understanding about how to treat the disease (some doctors were still bleeding people, making their recovery much more difficult), there are other similarities. Mattie is caught up in the fever-related paranoia that has become all too familiar to us recently with COVID. The people did understand that the frost would kill the fever, and it becomes everyone’s goal to survive until the second hard frost. It’s clear the people in 1793 did not fully understand yellow fever (a quick Google search told me it wasn’t understood to be carried by mosquitoes until over 100 years later). Soon, that all becomes moot, as yellow fever breaks out. She resents her family’s limited vision for the business, and she also resents her mother’s attempts to arrange a practical marriage for her.

The protagonist, a young woman named Mattie, helps run the family coffee shop.

It takes place during the summer of 1793 in Philadelphia. I saw it while cleaning off a shelf to prepare for pandemic work-from-home and realized how timely the novel is. I had purchased it back when I read Chains, also about the early American time period, then shelved it for other things. I’d say this is a good early YA/advanced middle grade reader. This is not my first review of an Anderson book-I am obviously a fan.

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson