Think you can fair well in an apocalyptic pandemic?
Think again.
2020 may be tough but it’s nothing compared to the high stress environment portrayed in The Fear.
Jacqueline and Ashley, a married couple living in Texas, are trying to create the perfect life for themselves. A beautiful home, weekend activities like watching Jaws in the park, and good ol’ intimate fun. That is, until the pandemic hits. See, the thing about a stay-at-home order is that it can cause underlying anxieties to fester. Your enclosed room can become an incubator for paranoia, claustrophobia, and Fear. How long do you think you could stave off the anxiety before the Fear completely consumes you?
This book is EXCELLENT! Especially for this time and place of 2020--it reads like a psychotic homage to all the struggles we are all going through mentally. I know I’ve felt a less exaggerated sense of both characters psyches over my experience in this pandemic so it‘s wonderful to relate to horror characters at such a unique level. I’ll definitely have to read The Fear again in a few years once all this pandemic stuff / 2020 is far, far behind us to see how I process the story anew but it’s a perfect extreme display of our individual emotions when struck with an unprecedented situation. I’m sure you’ll see a little of yourself in this book as well. My one warning is that this book is heavily intimate with the psychology of paranoia and claustrophobia. If you have anxiety regarding these items, read cautiously. I had a reader who needed to take a break to properly absorb the content before breaking down herself. And in the end, it, too, became one of her favorite books.
That being said, this book is character driven. It’s an in depth dive into two peoples’ minds during an apocalyptic pandemic so there’s no action/adventure and there’s really only one scene. But listen to me, this book has so much going on, it reads like an action/adventure! Absolutely engrossing and fast paced. And as a psychology nerd, it was a treat to read. If you’re looking for an apocalyptic pandemic novel, this is the one.
