Dreamfever (Fever, #4)

Dreamfever (Fever, #4) - Karen Marie Moning [Spoilers from book 4 are hidden.]

I will be so glad when I finish this series. These books are addictive in a super evil way.

If you let a random clueless spoiled girl solve a murder case, you would get the Fever series. Five books, with each novel containing approximately 1000 questions, no research, no progression, and you will get the feeling that MacKayla is just tossing you around and teasing you by giving small pieces of chocolate instead of the whole damn bar.

First of all, there should be a database for authors where various delicate topics are filed. Under the entry of rape there should be mentioned: Caution! Proceed with extreme vigilance. Dear authors, you might piss readers off if it’s not handled well.

So according to Jericho Barrons you should heal rape victims with more rape and mockings? That would sound ok if I was an arrogant misogynistic sociopath (I hope it sounds bad enough). I was more than disappointed by those chapters. I didn’t really expect Barrons coming to the rescue of the damsel in distress as a knight on a black horse (white wouldn’t suit him); he is a complete abusive jerk after all, but this:

Towards mindless priya Mac:
Bloody , woman, I think a part of me wants to keep you that way.
(I think Jericho that what you seek is a doll. And now that she turned priya, she’s a woman and not a girl anymore?)

If you’d just fight like you fuck, you would have walked out of this room the day I carried you in!

Fuck. I understand why they do it. (JB) – Who does what?(Mac) – The Fae. Turn women Pri-ya .(JB)

Maybe you thought if you were more like me, she’d fuck you, too. (JB towards V’lane)


Now, try to say such things in the faces of victims in real life. Cruel isn’t it? But hey, that’s alpha male for you.


And V’lane’s reaction isn’t better. At this point are we supposed to even like those two love interests? I can’t. I will go with Christian MacKeltar.

Maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe this story is just about a woman who enjoys rough sex and being treated badly afterwards.

Up till now there are many aspects of this series that are bothering me. I will just discuss a few.
I think it’s important to say that I did try my best to appreciate this series. And I completely understand the hype around it plot-wise. The Fever world is mysterious and dark although the ways to achieve that mystery were very cheap.

- Each Fever book could easily be cut down by half. The books contain: series of questions, paraphrased information the reader already knows to give an illusion that Mac is adding new information (which she actually doesn’t), and afterwards there are more questions, just in case you didn’t notice that there were many questions left unanswered.

- The Fever series is not really action-packed. Again it’s an illusion; the fight scenes for example are skipped or glossed over. Btw my turn to ask questions: How does Mac turn into a ninja every time she wants to kill Unseelie? And how could she and Dani possibly kill over a hundred Unseelie in one night? I assume the Unseelie are staying immobile, kindly waiting for their slaughter? That brings me to point 3.

- The Unseelie and certainly the Lord Master, the infamous murderer of Alina, left me unimpressed. Not spooky enough. The fact that K. Moning depicted the LM so simple and weak bothers me. In book one I was waiting in anticipation for the identity of the murderer and then when it happened: a complete let down. He was a weak character to begin with. But then at the end of book 3 we supposed to believe he’s the big bad mean guy again? Sorry, that didn’t work for me.

- The fact that Mac eats Unseelie at a convenient time to nullify her Sidhe-seer powers. That gang rape might actually never happened had she not eaten Unseelie. She would have sensed with her powers that the ‘fake V’lane’ was in fact an Unseelie fae (just like Dani did). Besides eating Unseelie was unnecessary at that moment. After all she only moved a bookcase with her superpowers. And then it turns out those Unseelie princes aren’t that strong because […] Kat and the others went in, kicked ass, snagged Mac’s spear and backpack, and found the pink helmet inside. Tadaa, easy. And then MacKayla supposed to be a special sidhe-seer?

Those bothered me so much that I regretfully had to admit that the Fever series didn’t work for me as much as I would’ve liked it to work. I would choose K. Moning’s Highlander novels anytime over a Fever book. But considering that I’m a masochistic (only regarding books) I will read the final installment Shadowfever. (After all, it would be very stubborn of me to stop now). I must admit the cliffhanger is doing a pretty good job here.