Unsettling Fiction: The Warlow Experiment & Fever Dream [Review]

The Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan

• The curious story of an eccentric bachelor (Herbert Powyss) who wants to leave his mark on science and decides the best way to do that would be to conduct an experiment on isolation by hosting and observing another man (John Warlow) living in pampered isolation for seven years..
• This quote from early on hints that Powyss is setting himself up for trouble, when you consider that Warlow is a labourer who is barely literate:
  • “A degree of melancholia was possible, he supposed, and could be tolerated. Yet the man’s life would be considerably eased without the heavy toil he’d been used to for years; the drudgery, cold and squalor. Of course, despite what Warlow had assured him, he might grow to miss his wife and companies. But with books he could surely find consolation. He resolved to send down further volumes in due course. With so much time on his hands the man would have to read.” (17)
  • Later on Powyss admits he never considred the possibility that Warlow would go stir crazy, angry, mad at his confinement. Hah.
• I enjoyed about the first third of the novel, as Powyss’s experiment begins. But I rapidly lost my vested interest as Powyss starts to covet Warlow’s wife, which then fuels much of the conflict throughout the story.
• Once Powyss acknowledges his feelings, the story tumbles down a dark hole with far more disheartening events than I hoped.

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

• In my 2020 End of Year Survey, I identified Fever Dream as the most unique book I’d read. (Yes, I read it in October 2020.) I could not tell you at this time what it was about. An eco disaster? Environmental terrorism? All of it very vague and unusual and unsettling? The following were my thoughts immediately after finishing the book.
• I saw this book (which had been on my TBR for about three years) was ‘available now’ when I launched up the Libby app to look for spooky stories. I read the sample… checked out the book… finished it in one sitting. It’s been a few years since I read a delightfully uncomfortable story like this. A story where you might not know entirely what’s going on by the end, but you think you can pull the pieces together if you just sit with the book for a little while after closing it. I need to remember to take a break from middle grade sometimes and read more stories like this!

What’s an unusual book that you’ve read recently? Do either of these catch your interest?