Blog Tour: Once Upon a Fever

Disease begins with a feeling…

Sisters, Ani and Payton Darke, live with their father who is a Methic at the hospital of King Jude’s. Since ‘the Turn’ when people’s feelings first started making them ill, Methics have worked hard to help those made ill by emotions- including the girls’ mother whose grief has made her succumb to water fever. Both girls want to find a cure for her sickness and are frustrated by their father’s lack of progress, but that’s where the similarity between them ends. When Ani finds an imprisoned boy who turns everything he touches gold, she is determined to help him, leading the girls on an unexpected and dangerous path…

Instantly engaging, ‘Once Upon a Fever’ is a breath taking story of intrigue, deceit and magic.

Sisters, Ani and Payton are very different personalities. Ani has to take medicine to control the anger that bubbles inside her whilst Payton is studious and far better behaved than her impulsive sister. Since leaving the Isles and coming to Lundain to seek treatment for their mother, the girls have grown apart, but the distance between them is never more obvious than when Methic Guild Master, Jenipher Blake comes into their lives. Having long admired Blake, Payton is sure that if she can learn under Blake’s guidance, she will find the cure her mother needs which leaves to a rift, further separating the sisters and taking them from King Jude’s.

In the girls’ world, controlling- stifling- emotions is seen as essential to good health, but only once she experiences the healing power of nature and gives in to her emotions does Ani really feel alive and in control. The importance of this ‘holistic’ approach, of finding balance and experiencing emotions is key to our well being and the story explores this beautifully. The clinical ‘methic’ approach upheld by Blake is in stark contrast to the beliefs of the last Wilders, one of the guilds disbanded after the Turn, who Ani meets having escaped from the medical attentions of the Methic Guild Master. Living in Hyde Gardens, hidden from the rest of society, Henrich, Tally and a young boy called Estlin, keep the traditions and knowledge of their guild alive. Tally tells Ani:

But we mustn’t forget other important, healing things. Things like diving into cold water, sleeping beneath the stars, eating fruit that’s grown warm under the sun. Lying on the grass and thinking of nothing except the shapes of the clouds. that’s what the methics have forgotten…’

Thought provoking and powerful, ‘Once Upon a Fever’ is a must read story, combining a skilfully crafted world with a compelling plot. Make sure you add it to your summer reading list!

Once Upon a Fever Angharad Walker

Chicken House ISBN: 978-1912626984

Many thanks to Angharad and Chicken House for inviting me to be part of this tour. Make sure you look at the other posts about this wonderful book.