Q&A: Alma Katsu on THE FERVOR: “Horror is very truthful. Terrible things happen in real life.”
Author photo by Patrick Milliken
The author talks about how horror fiction helps readers, reveals the inspiration behind her brand of storytelling, and explains the inspiration behind her award-nominated book.
“It’s surprising and a bit unsettling how the problems of the past continue to be problems to this day.”
Historical horror author Alma Katsu wrote the Bram Stoker Award-nominated book The Fervor, in which she turns her psychological and supernatural eye on the horrors of the Japanese American internment camps in World War II. In our exclusive interview, Katsu tells Monster Complex about the origins of the book, talks through why horror fiction is important, and reveals what inspires her unique angle for horror fiction.
Table of Contents
About the book The Fervor
About author Alma Katsu
Interview with Alma Katsu about The Fervor
More about Alma Katsu online
More interviews from Monster Complex
More great horror fiction articles on Monster Complex
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About the book The Fervor by Alma Katsu
The Fervor is nominated for the Bram Stoker Award AND Thriller Writer award for Best Novel.
1944: As World War II rages on, the threat has come to the home front. In a remote corner of Idaho, Meiko Briggs and her daughter, Aiko, are desperate to return home. Following Meiko’s husband’s enlistment as an air force pilot in the Pacific months prior, Meiko and Aiko were taken from their home in Seattle and sent to one of the internment camps in the Midwest. It didn’t matter that Aiko was American-born: They were Japanese, and therefore considered a threat by the American government.
Mother and daughter attempt to hold on to elements of their old life in the camp when a mysterious disease begins to spread among those interned. What starts as a minor cold quickly becomes spontaneous fits of violence and aggression, even death. And when a disconcerting team of doctors arrive, nearly more threatening than the illness itself, Meiko and her daughter team up with a newspaper reporter and widowed missionary to investigate, and it becomes clear to them that something more sinister is afoot, a demon from the stories of Meiko’s childhood, hell-bent on infiltrating their already strange world.
Inspired by the Japanese yokai and the jorogumo spider demon, The Fervor explores a supernatural threat beyond what anyone saw coming; the danger of demonization, a mysterious contagion, and the search to stop its spread before it’s too late.
The Fervor
Alma Katsu
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Categories: Horror Fiction, Historical World War II
Reviews:
“Horror readers looking for sharp social commentary should snap this up.”
—Publishers Weekly“A haunting, harrowing slice of historical horror conjured by a masterful storyteller.”
—Chuck Wendig, author of Wanderers“An absolute must-read… a triumph that thrills and entertains.”
—Locus Magazine“Sharp social commentary in a feat of pure storytelling”
—NY Times“A must read”
—Library Journal (starred)“A stunning triumph”
—Booklist (starred)NPR: one of the best books of 2022
About author Alma Katsu
Alma Katsu is an author who writes novels combining historical fiction with supernatural and horror elements. The Hunger (2018), a reimagining of the story of the Donner Party, was named one of NPR’s 100 favorite horror stories, was on numerous Best Books of the Year lists, and continues to be honored as a new classic in horror. She is also the author of The Taker Trilogy (The Taker, The Reckoning, and The Descent) as well as The Deep. She also published the WW2 horror story The Wehrwolf about monsters among men—and the thin lines that divide them.
Alma Katsu’s books have received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Library Journal, been featured in the NY Times and Washington Post, been nominated and won multiple prestigious awards, and appeared on numerous Best Books lists including NPR, the Observer, Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Goodreads, and Amazon. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and published in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain, and Italy.
Katsu has also had a 29-year career in the US federal government working in a number of positions dealing with intelligence and foreign policy, with an emphasis on technology issues. Red Widow is her first spy novel, the logical marriage of her love of storytelling with her 30+ year career in intelligence. As an intelligence officer, Ms. Katsu worked at several federal agencies as a senior analyst where she advised policymakers and military commanders on issues of national security.
Interview with Alma Katsu about The Fervor
Q: What inspired your Bram Stoker Award nominated book?
“The Fervor is set during the end of WWII in the American west and mostly set in one of the internment camps. I’m half-Japanese. My mother came from Japan after the war.
“My husband’s family were all interned at Topaz, and so we learned a lot about what it was really like inside the camps. It’s a shameful but important chapter in US history and an important civics lesson, but it’s something that’s taught less and less in schools.”
Q: What inspires your unique angle for horror stories?
“To write historical novels, you have to dig down into the minutiae of history (you don’t have to use it all, but you should be aware of it). And once you get past the tiny bit they teach you in school, you find the most amazing things. It’s also surprising and a bit unsettling how the problems of the past continue to be problems to this day, even though you’d think we’d gotten over them. In my small way, I try to tell stories that will make us think.”
Q: What are your favorite things about horror fiction?
“Horror is very truthful. Terrible things happen in real life, things for which there is no rational explanation, and usually you just get a bunch of platitudes to try to ease the pain. Horror helps readers investigate that pain and hopefully learn something from it. It helps us face our fears.”
Q: What are the best ways that readers can connect with you or keep up with your author news?
The best way is to subscribe to my newsletter. You can sign up at my website, almakatsubooks.com. I’m on Twitter and Instagram but algorithms make it hit-or-miss. Also, I give away books most months, so it’s a win-win.
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