Review of Fever 1793

KEYWORDS: Historical Fiction, Yellow Fever, Epidemic

When I first found this book in the library, it reminded me of multiple things: Yellow fever? Hmm that sounds like Covid 19; Oppressive mother? Hmm that sounds like Eugene, the female version; Fourteen-year-old ambitious, adventurous Mattie Cook? Hmm that sounds like that little delightful girl from Anne of the Green Gables. 

In short, Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson circles around Mattie, a teenage girl living in Philadelphia, the capital of the new United States, fighting to survive one of the deadliest epidemic outbreaks in US history – yellow fever. 

This book vividly reminded me of COVID-19 (POV: I read this book while feeling miserable from my booster shot). While today, with all the technologies and the astute scientists, it still took 3 years, and the world still hasn't completely eradicated the virus yet. It is interesting, however also almost daunting to see how people of the 18th century fought against their diseases. One of the ways to cure a patient depicted in the story was to bleed them. Doctors will extract ounces, and ounces of blood from the sick because it is believed that the pathogens run in their blood.

Fortunately, not all doctors in Mattie’s town were charlatans, or just inexperienced I guess; They also have French doctors, who have a more sophisticated way of treating because their country suffers from the fever annually. However, 1793 was a time when America was a fairly newly established country – the redcoats were defeated, but the government was still precarious. Most people felt no security about whom to trust; therefore, although with the French offering help, most people decided to follow the local doctors' directions – in other words bleeding themselves. 

Mattie is the kind of lovely character you’ll typically meet in historical novels. Similar to Anne from the book Anne of the Green Gables, Mattie was also once a carefree, delightful, and maybe somewhat rebellious girl who would complain about the chores and the constant nags from her strict mother. However, everything around Mattie took a decisive turn upon the arrival of the fever. Following her grandfather’s death and mother’s disappearance, young Mattie is forced to mature overnight. Moreover, because she had been a former victim of the fever, most relatives and once close friends secluded her. No one would extend her an olive branch. Will she ever survive? Read the book to find out :)

Fever 1793 was my 4th book by Anderson. I generally love her style of writing and her arrangements of plots. So if you also enjoyed any other books by her, or are just curious about how people from the past treat their diseases, I highly recommend checking out this book.

Thank you for reading,

Ruijing