Fever Dream Ghost Book

by Kevin Fanning (Goodreads author)

book data

10 ratings, 4.90 average rating, 4 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		90%
4		10%
3		0%
2		0%
1		0%

edit

published

2005 by self

binding

chapbook, 36 pages

url

http://www.whygodwhy.com/2005/fever-drea...

description

A collection of 15 short stories (with footnotes) about ghosts.

find at: Amazon | Half.com | Abebooks | Audible |

new topic
discuss this book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

friend reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

lists with this book

This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists. Add this book to your favorite list »

other reviews (showing 1-15 of 15)

sort: default (?) | date
filters: all | text-only

07/01/08

Pierce rated it:

Read in June, 2008

Okay, I know people have concerns about "Vanity Publishing." Or whatever term we wish to use for independent publishing. Self-publishing. Whatever. And they are legitimate concerns. I do not want the bookshops to fill up with spelling errors and even worse fantasy. I would never really buy a book off some random dude on the Internet. But Kevin Fanning is not a random dude.

Perhaps an overlooked value of publishing short fiction online is that it becomes an introduction to ...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

add a comment

05/09/09

Jim Bennett rated it:

Read in May, 2009

I'm going to ramble in this review. Just want to warn you all up front.

I didn't think I'd ever get to read Fever Dream Ghost Book.

I don't remember when exactly I started reading Kevin Fanning's work - I don't remember a lot of things, and maybe that's why I identify with his work so much, or maybe it's the fact that he has roots in Connecticut, where I've lived my entire life, or maybe it's just that kfan's a phenomenal writer. I don't know. I do know that when I got into...more I'm going to ramble in this review. Just want to warn you all up front.

I didn't think I'd ever get to read Fever Dream Ghost Book.

I don't remember when exactly I started reading Kevin Fanning's work - I don't remember a lot of things, and maybe that's why I identify with his work so much, or maybe it's the fact that he has roots in Connecticut, where I've lived my entire life, or maybe it's just that kfan's a phenomenal writer. I don't know. I do know that when I got into Kevin Fanning, he had released three of these little chapbooks. It was only possible to buy one of them (Twelve Times Lost, which I still don't own a physical copy of, unfortunately - an issue I'm going to fix in the next few days), and I didn't think I'd ever get a chance to reread them. At that point, I honestly didn't mind - I loved his fiction, but I didn't really expect something wildly different in his chapbooks.

Then I read The Location Scout and I fell in love.

In my GoodReads review of TLS, I came off as something of an irrational fanboy, and maybe I am, because I am just in love with what kfan does in these chapbooks - the intertwining, linked narrative presented in the separate sections of The Location Scout grabbed me.

Today my mother (I'll mention here that I'm 16, so I have a good excuse to be living at home, thank you very much) looked at me quizzically and asked me if I'd ordered anything from Illinois. I hadn't, and was puzzled until she handed me an envelope. The sender's name was "kfan." I was not expecting this.

In the chapbook he sent me, kfan wrote "Hi Jim - Found this lying around recently. Enjoy! KF" This is 2009, mind you, and FDGB was released in 2005. Unless Fanning did a reprint, I never expected to get a chance to read this book - and now here it was, sitting in front of me.

An hour ago I turned my computer off, turned my music off, and read Fever Dream Ghost Book. Then I read it again, and I read the endnotes this time. Then I read The Location Scout again, just for posterity.

So with that, I have to say - while I think I prefer The Location Scout, Fever Dream Ghost Book is brilliant. At it's best, FDGB is better than anything in The Location Scout - specifically, #47 spoke to me more than I'm willing to admit here, and when I read the endnote to For If You Had Lived, I nearly cried. I don't know Kevin Fanning, but even then, his writing speaks to me.

One of the things I love about kfan is the fact that, as fantastical as some of his stories are, I still wonder if they're true - his creative non-fiction is nearly indistinguishable from his fiction, and that makes everything he writes have this almost magical quality to it. I can't describe it, I guess, but it's there. The endnotes in this book were nice - they let me peek behind the curtain to see what was real and what wasn't, and that's a unique privilege with kfan.

I feel like I'm gushing a little bit - and hell, you know what, I am, because, in the end, I don't know how else to write about something like this. It's just great.(less)

Like this review? yes

add a comment