The Fever King by Victoria Lee

The Fever King

Author(s)	Victoria Lee
Published	March 1, 2019
Publisher	Skyspace
Genre(s)	Fantasy
Age group	Young Adult

The Fever King by Victoria Lee is a young adult fantasy novel, originally published on March 1, 2019. It is the first book in the Feverwake series.

Trigger Warnings

The following content warnings can be found on the author's website. To view more details about a given item, click the "Expand" button beside it. Please note that these details may include spoilers.

• Ableist language
  There is some ableist language surrounding mental illness (e.g., use of the word “crazy,” etc.) and other disabilities (e.g., use of the word “blind” to mean “ignorant”).
• Abuse
  Child abuse: there are references to physical abuse and sexual abuse of a minor—this is off-screen and not described in detail. Bruises are visible on screen. There is a reference to a character encountering child pornography involving a teen. This is not described in detail. Family abuse: there is a reference to a man who killed his family, but it is not described.
• Animal death
  A bird is killed off-screen. Some disturbing descriptions involving the bird’s corpse.
• Description of dead bodies and of illness
  Multiple characters are infected with a virus. Some symptoms, like hemorrhaging and vomiting, are only mentioned in passing. Other symptoms, like fevers, seizures, delirium, are described in detail. References to some characters being intentionally infected with a virus that will likely kill them but has a remote possibility of giving them magical powers.
• Death of a child
  A child dies from a virus on screen
• Drug and alcohol abuse
  Characters drink underage. One character is a confirmed alcoholic and addict. A character uses cocaine on-screen. Three characters are coercively injected with a drug that suppresses their ability to use magic.
• Emetophobia
  Three references to vomiting, not described in detail.
• Immigration
  A character is the child of undocumented immigrant parents, and there is discussion of anti-immigration policies, refugee camps, deportation, human rights abuses against refugees. Some expression of anti-immigrant sentiment, which is challenged.
• Intergenerational trauma/genocide
  The Holocaust, being child of refugees, a fictional genocide).References to the Holocaust, references to a fictional genocide against magic-users in the past.
• Mental health and suicide
  There is some gaslighting of a character with mental illness. Depiction of mental illness involving paranoia and mood swings, as well as possible (unconfirmed) suicidal ideation. The main character’s mother died by suicide, and there are two references to him finding her body (not in great detail). Another character died in circumstances which may or may not have involved suicide; this is not described. The main character’s father has catatonic depression.
• Parental death
  The main character’s mother died prior to the start of the story. The main character’s father dies in the first chapter (off-screen, but the main character learns of his death in chapter two). Several side characters have at least one dead parent, from the virus. This is mentioned in passing. One character’s parents died in a genocide a hundred years before the start of the story.
• Slut-shaming
• Torture
  There is a scene describing an adolescent being tortured in the context of the fictional genocide. Details are scant; it’s a transcript of a video recording from fictional archival material. There are further passing references to torture.
• Violence
  A character is electrocuted on page; a character is shot in the head at close range on page and this is described. There are riots which are violently subdued, and political prisoners are shot (this is mentioned in passing but not described). A girl is beaten during a protest; this is not described in great detail. A boy is punched during the same protest.

Additional Trigger Warnings:

• Incest
• Murder
• Pedophilia
• Sexual abuse
• Statutory rape

Representation

An asterisk (*) indicates that the author openly identifies with that identity.

• Bisexual main character*
• Gay side chracter
• LGBT* - M/M (the author identifies as bigender)
• Jewish*
• Persian/Middle-Eastern
• Latinx
• Black
• Disability* (autoimmune disease)
• Disability* (mental illness)

Tropes

• Dystopia
• Found family
• Hate-to-love
• Magical academy
• Pandemic