Book Club Book Review - March

The book club book for March was Fever 1793.  It chronicles the life of Matilda Cook during the Yellow Fever Outbreak in Philadelphia in, you guessed it, 1793.  She, her mother, grandfather, and friend Eliza run a very successful coffee house until her mother contracts yellow fever.

While Eliza cares for her mother, Matilda and her grandfather find a way out of the city - they plan to go to a friend's farm.  They are abandoned by the wagon driver when he finds out they have been around the fever, and they must find a way to get back home.  Both Matilda and her Grandfather get yellow fever, and both survive.  They go back into Philadelphia to look for Matilda's mother and try to move on from the terrible ordeal.  Matilda and her grandfather find their beloved city completely abandoned, except for looters, and can find no food or provisions.  It is a struggle for Matilda to survive and a struggle to pick up the pieces of her life. 

This book has man real life characters, and the notes in the back give a very historical point of view of the outbreak of the fever.  The young girl is truly a role model - she is persistent, hard working, and you see her transformation from girl to woman throughout the book.  It is a quick and easy read, and I liked it because of the factual nature of the setting and secondary characters.

Happy Reading!