I was not quite ready to let October go, so I decided to go for a mini dose of horror with Meg Smitherman’s novella, Fervor. While it was not a strong endcap to my favorite month, it was such a short read that it didn’t do much to dampen my beloved spooky season.
Midonia finds herself back on her transport ship shortly after a traumatic event. She’s a little on edge, but the kind, elderly woman she is carrying appears harmless enough. The passenger is a little strange if only because she is so devoted to her deity, Anguish. When Midonia delivers the woman safely to her home planet, Midonia decides to stay the night in a real bed before the trek home. But that decision will prove to be fateful, as Midonia gets trapped, forced to become more familiar with the religious group and the dark figure they vehemently worship.
There are a lot of similarities between the two Smitherman novellas I’ve read. Both stories take place in sci-fi, space-faring worlds. Both protagonists are women who are drawn to an obsessive alien male-presenting entity. And because the stories have very similar threads, I found my second Smitherman reading experience to be subpar, especially after I didn’t love my first go around with Thrum. Fervor feels like it’s trying to hit all the same notes, but not doing it as well. Thrum was not a perfect story, but its mystery was more interesting, and it had a much stronger reveal at the end. Fervor just couldn’t make an impression, even with different settings and character motives.
My biggest issue with Fervor is that there is no atmosphere to heighten the story’s horrors. The story is a lot of tell and no show, which I think contributes to the lack of anticipation and dread around the plot as it “ramps” up. And everything is told to the reader a little too plainly, like Smitherman doesn’t trust us enough to read between the lines. So the horror feels sterile and isn’t able to rile up any of the uncertainty this story wants to convey.
However, Fervor should get points for being stronger thematically than Thrum. Between Midonia’s past trauma, the obsessive shadow figure haunting her, and the strange cult she ends up in, there is a lot of commentary around sexual assault—not only the horrors of it but also how hard it is to be taken seriously, believed, and supported when that violation occurs. There is also an interesting dynamic happening between Midonia and the mysterious shadow figure where she is afraid of him but also wants him in a way. I found this fascinating because it captures the strange dynamic where straight women desire men, who are oftentimes their biggest predators.
Fervor leaves a lot to be desired, even with some strong themes lurking beneath the surface. The more horror I read, the more I learn what I like, and with two Smitherman novellas on my shelf, I’ve decided her particular frightening flavor isn’t palatable to me.
Rating: Fervor – 4.5/10
-Brandee
