You know…I think the moral here is that realizing a problem isn’t enough.

Unlike last book, this one seems to be directly engaging a lot of the issues – kidnapping, imprisonment, survivor’s guilt. But the problem is the setting can’t actually sustain the weight of those things, especially after the first book was gothic romance (and it’s definitely not helped by the first third of this book being that too, with the carnival setting).(And actually the fact the final third is medical horror doesn’t help either, since that’s way more explicit horror than you can get near victim-blaming apologism.)

I’m not sure I’d say this book was filler, but that’s because I can’t tell if there’s any greater point for this to be pointless by comparison. Showing what the world outside looks like seems a valid goal…but the author doesn’t give us much there, it’s just a string of events. There’s the terrifying carnival, then mundane trucks and mundane evils with the first gen couple, a mundane bus ride and then a painfully mundane orphanage with lots of delicious food. It adds up to nothing. And Rhine spends the entire time bitching about her fucking sweater, so although she occasionally claims freedom is worth it, there’s absolutely no sense of this. Going by what we’re shown, she only ran away because she thought Evil Mad Scientist was creepy.

It’s like this book has all the bits of what it should be, but none of them work. Showing how hard Rhine struggled to run would’ve given more pathos to her eventual capture…instead, she mostly wishes she was back there, so how can I care?

In the end, it could have been skipped. The only plot-relevant part was discovering her brother was gone, and she’d already said that was possible last book, plus she finds out where he actually is at the end. They get off the boat, Evil Mad Scientist is waiting, she’s dragged back. This also serves to remove the stupid poison candy aspect where not taking poison candy then extra poisons you.

And the final few chapters of her being miserable? Also filler, just more torture-porny. They could easily have been condensed down into one, particularly when she’s supposed to be unconscious most of the time. The idea he’s torturing other little girls makes no sense, so it didn’t need to be there. It could end quickly with Cecily telling – Evil Mad Scientist is evil and thought Cecily would be happy to have Rhine out of the picture, so it never occurred to him she’d be a problem. Or Rhine escaping again, I’m not really sure where the plot is actually supposed to be going, so it’s hard to say what the resolution should be.

(Also I fear the resolution is going toward Rapist-chan realizes he was wrong in a way that makes it all about him.)

For that matter, last book could just have had one fewer chapters of her lazing about, then added in a final chapter where she ends up in the hospital after her now undeniable escape attempt and she and Rapist-chan have words. Nothing would be lost and we’ve have been spared a lot of stupid.

…

As to the book we got…

Well, of the ways it could’ve gone, I admit the answer to Was Rhine raped in Fever? was not what I was expecting. I thought either she would or wouldn’t. I knew it would be horrible somehow, but I thought at least it would be a horror that had to do with the main character. But it turns out the question is really Is Rhine one of the many rape victims in Fever? We have the carnival of rape followed by little girls getting violated in lots of ways including actual rape and ending in death.

That just shouldn’t have been there. The rape elements of last book are just barely…okay, no, it’s not even tolerable, but it’s, I don’t know, almost excusable if you’re viewing the whole thing as a very fucked up rape fantasy that’s all messed up with sex guilt and slutshaming on the author’s part.

But here at the end, Rhine tells him that his father is torturing little girls and in addition may turn on Cecily at any moment. And how does her kind and compassionate husband respond? That he’s not going to bother going back to make sure Cecily’s okay. Deirdre dying from forced pregnancies? That part is totally okay. Other girls? His dad could be out buying more as we speak? It’s like you expect him to care about people who aren’t his personal fucktoys. That’s just absurd.

It beggars belief that we’ve expected to believe he’s an innocent victim regardless, but at least the book otherwise does claim he doesn’t know about what’s happening. It at least cares that much. The horrible things are things happening to major characters. But it turns out forcing little girls to get pregnant until they die was only there to scare us with what might happen to Rhine. They don’t matter beyond this.