“With her latest historical horror novel, Katsu delves into one of America’s most shameful periods, a darkness of the past that is painfully relevant today.”
In 1944, as World War II continues, Meiko Briggs and her daughter Aiko are taken from their Seattle home and sent to an internment camp. Even though Meiko’s husband is an air force pilot fighting the war in the Pacific and Aiko was born in America, they are Japanese, and the U.S. government considers them a threat.
A strange disease spreads through the camp. It starts as a cold, then morphs into aggression and violent fits, sometimes ending in death. The doctors that come to aid are possibly worse than the illness itself. Meiko and Aiko join forces with a missionary and a journalist to find out what’s really causing the disease. What they find is even more sinister than a nasty virus.
A mysterious demon, plucked from the stories of Meiko’s childhood, has infiltrated the camp, determined to make their lives a living hell.
Why we’re excited about this book:
When it comes to historical horror fiction, Alma Katsu has the market cornered. The author of The Taker Trilogy, The Hunger, The Deep, and Red Widow, Katsu’s short fiction has also appeared in such anthologies as Hex Life: Wicked New Tales of Witchery, Black Cranes, Other Terrors, Miscreations: Gods, Monstrosities, and Other Horrors, and Dark Stars. With her latest historical horror novel, Katsu delves into one of America’s most shameful periods, a darkness of the past that is painfully relevant today. Stephen Graham Jones (My Heart Is A Chainsaw, Mongrels) says: “The Fervor is set in 1944, but it’s about the world we live in now—and that’s terrifying.”, and Steph Cha (Your House Will Pay) calls The Fervor “A chilling, inventive supernatural thriller about a mysterious outbreak in a Japanese American internment camp during the frenzied nationalist days of World War II. The story is propulsive and dense with spidery scares, but the greatest horror comes from the deep resonance between this shameful episode of our history and the news we read every day.”
Forthcoming from G.P. Putnam’s Sons 26 April 2022, The Fervor by Alma Katsu is available for pre-order now.
BOB PASTORELLA
