To me this book encompassed everything that is wrong with a Stephen King novel and I could not get into the book or stay hooked to the plot

This book came out of nowhere for me, but I’m glad it made its way to me.

Characters make or break a story for me. The characters in The Fear are fantastic; the descent of both their mental states felt real and raw. Relating to this was the LGBTQ+ representation which all too accurately demonstrated the everyday anxieties, fear and discrimination faced by the community.

Hamilton's descriptive writing is beautiful and made the story vivid all the way through. Despite other opinions, I wasn't really surprised, disappointed or relieved with the final outcome of the story. This didn't take away any stars off of my final rating as it was just an overall satisfiying and original story. I will absolutely be on the look out for more from this author! The pace in the middle was a little bit slow, but things really picked up in the last third, and I had a hard time dragging my attention way from the screen during class: definitely recommended

What could be more topical than a book about the situation we are all in? So I was more than a little disappointed about how this panned out. I liked the style of writing and how it began, at first, but then it became just weird plus I didn’t take to any of the characters or their situations. Not saying this was a bad book, just not to my taste.

This is a claustrophobic horror about a couple quarantined together during a pandemic. An okay read but I felt that the book relied a little too much on gory violence. I would have liked a little more actual story, difficult perhaps for such a sort novel. I think maybe I'm done with pandemic fiction (and non-fiction for that matter) for a while.

This is just not good. It feels like the male author wanted to write a book where he could just put lesbians in horrific situations. Jack’s parts were pretty much the same thing repeated over and over. It just did not hold my interest and I couldn’t wait to be done with it.

A couple gets stuck in Texas in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. Without many groceries left and the world going crazy in the streets and the supermarkets.

The character and pschychological exploration in this book is definitely one of its best assets. What is fear? We fear the things we do not know, anything that is different, we fear. Our two main characters have to face homophobia daily and now trapped in their new apartment in the middle of a pandemic they will start to lose touch with reality.

The author adds some imagination, gore and extra violence to the times we live in. This was a great commentary on society, what we believe in, the media, the fear...

Hamilton’s book The Fear seems to be a book that deals with two lesbians who start a new life in Austin so they have distanced themselves from what they know and friends and family. When COVID-19 hit, the desperation, mental issues and tests in loyalty and relationships are put to the fore.

The story starts out as a politically woke charged book that looks like it is going to tick all the boxes as it tries to reflect the year 2020 which probably go down in history as COVID19, the new normal. The plotting tends to be a little all over the place and we never really get a good understanding of this couple’s relationship or the strong bonds of what they are. We do have an understanding that they are mentally unstable and a little paranoid to start with but beyond that, we are thrown into their own psychosis.

The characters are ok and maybe if a little bit of pathos could have been added or likability could have lifted them up to make them relatable. Their inner voices make them feel like they are victims in the world around them which makes it hard to relate as they do play this card over and over. One does wonder if they left for a better life to Austin what did they leave behind?

The political background and understanding that Hamilton is trying to portray falls a little flat and seems part of Facebook social media agendas with sofa politics playing in the foreground. We have self-victimisation, characters who feel that the world is against them and flaws aplenty with nothing really likeable to relate to. The COVID-19 media probably should have played a larger part in the breakdown with this flu virus which would have given the story a more interesting twist and dimension.

Overall, the book feels like it was quickly written to cash in on the current situation and would have probably been better routed through hindsight. It has that Coronavirus Zombie vibe which is a film thrown out quickly to cash in. There are some really good ideas but they do get bogged down and although lockdown did exist, people still went to shops and went out especially in America. As both of these two women did not suffer from immunosuppressive disease or on immunosuppressive drugs, were elderly or did not fit the high risk groups, you kind of wonder why they were so isolated. One also questions that through their lock down, they could have got out and helped the community and been an asset instead of drowning in their own self-worth.

Unfortunately, I did not like this book. The characters fell flat, the plotting was all over the place but there are some good points to be made but feel this kind of gets lost. Also, if more time was taken to write and digest the book, it might have been a true winner. Interesting but left me very flat.

I have such mixed feelings about this book, hence my review of 3 stars because I felt that was the middle ground for me.

The Fear is very befitting of the current times, as it centres around our two female protagonists living through a global pandemic and heavily features how these two gay women are harassed and as such one becomes mentally ill.

I thought the representation of these various aspects would be too much, but Hamilton wove them all together to create a novel so exceptionally different to anything I'd read before.

I loved Ash and Jack right from the start, and I feel this only helped develop the bond I had with them further as Jack becomes more and more deranged and paranoid, leaving Ash to decide between saving herself or her wife. This was so well done on Spencer's part, I could feel the emotion pouring through the pages and there was a clear differentiation between Jack and Ash and how they were dealing with the pandemic.

You could feel Jack's paranoia and Ash's frustration in the writing.

Around 65% of the way through I felt that The Fear started to lose it's way and began to drag, I struggled to keep up with the plot and I grew increasingly frustrated with how I just felt lost.

For me this really brought the rest of the book down, which is a damn shame.

The ending really spoiled this book for me, I know it's survival instinct or survival of the fittest but it frustrated me so much that after everything we had been through we were lumped with that ending.

On the whole, the majority of this book was excellent, incredibly well written and provided a look into how our mental health can be impacted during the current pandemic. However, around 65% of the way through The Fear lost its way and I started to grow frustrated and confused.

P.S. the cover of this book is just wicked! It looks amazing!

Unfortunately this book is not for me. It wasn't so much a horror book as I expected, but more a dialogue of current events with a person dealing with a mental breakdown. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review.

The Fear is a story of PTSD and paranoia set in the current COVID-19 quarantine lockdown. A married couple, Jacquline and Ashley, move to Texas to get away from family and to start life fresh. One of their first nights in town “Jack” is assaulted and it throws her into a bad spell. Lockdown hits and the girls struggle to survive as things get out of hand in their apartment complex.
I kept singing a line from Nirvana “just because your paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you”
This was a repetitive story and Jack’s delusions got old quickly.
I really did not like any of the characters except Mo and he was there for about 2 pages

Jacqueline (“Jack”) and Ashley move to Austin in order to start a new life together, away from their toxic families. But after Jack is attacked by a homophobe and begins to see him everywhere, Ashley is unable to tell if her wife's sightings of him are real or caused by her trauma. Just as it begins to seem that Jack is able to cope again, the coronavirus shutdown happens—and Ashley begins to see the attacker, too.

The strength of this book is that it gives a very frank, warts-and-all depiction of trauma. Jack’s severe response to being brutally attacked while defending her wife doesn’t depict her as a saint, and it’s only with gradual steps forward that she’s able to get slightly better. The amount of disassociating, trouble focusing on work, and difficulty relating to her wife is absolutely realistic to her condition. In her more lucid moments, she also is able to realize that her response is hard on her wife, and feels guilt for not being able to do more, which creates adownward spiral, borne out of fear that Ashley will leave her.

These are all very familiar traps and patterns of someone suffering severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and Ashley’s side, which is also common but also not often talked about, is also realistic. Ashley helps Jack selflessly but stretches herself to a breaking point in order to do so, while also enabling Jack’s illness – getting her concrete help isn’t brought up until far after it’s a possibility. The combination of factors here leads to a nightmare situation in their apartment. The psychological horror of the mental prison they find themselves in is compelling, and I finished the book in one sitting due to wanting to know how much worse it could get.

As for weaknesses: I felt that the ending of the book was much stronger than the beginning – the pacing of the first few chapters is extremely slow, and the dialogue feels less genuine than it does by the end of the book. I think that, in trying to be sensitive and not fetishizing of a lesbian relationship, the author used phrases like “the hottest sex ever” to describe the two love scenes between Jack and Ashley, while later scenes are more graphic. It comes across as a little crass and borderline pornographic, and I think that a classic “fade to black” may have come across better.

There are also quotations from the news and political figures at the beginning of each chapter, and a throwaway line that criticizes an American political figure. While I also find the people and situations referenced absolutely atrocious, I think that these took away from the message of the book. The racism, homophobia, paranoia, and the absurd 1984-like situation that caused Jack and Ashley’s difficulties in the first place to speak for themselves about the political situation in the United States with coronavirus. Many of the chapter introductions felt unnecessary and distracting, rather than adding value and context to the story.

All in all, I felt this was a solid addition to the genre, as well as being interesting for its two sapphic lead characters and setting during the coronavirus. If the few problems I mentioned were not there, I would have rated it a 4.5, but there is solid talent on display within this work. I would recommend horror fans who like apocalyptic leans to their books, or especially those who like body horror, to give it a try, and I would gladly read subsequent works from Spencer Hamilton.

Main mood after finishing this book: what the fuck did I just read.

I did NOT enjoy this book at all. It edges on torture porn and I feel like it sexualizes and fetishizes trauma. NOT my kind of thing. That aside, it gets a little too repetitive and descriptive for my taste. Furthermore I expected to be able to relate to this book a lot considering the ongoing pandemic we're living in but I found it to be mostly disturbing, confusing and weird.

I did not like the ending at all either, it was just way too fantastical for my liking.
I don't know, maybe this book went over my head or something, but it wasn't for me.

The Fear is a pandemic based story, hugely inspired by the Covid-19. I was inspired to read this book as it would be fitting for the current time that we are in.

This book is on emotional horror and is centered around Jack and Ash who are quarantined together in a small apartment. Jack is afraid of the Cardigan man who turns out to be a fragment of her own imagination, who seems to be constantly haunting her thoughts.

The descriptions in this book are expertly done and held my interest throughout, although at some points I did struggle to keep up with the plot of the book.

As the story develops, Jack becomes more deranged, putting Ash in a difficult spot. She is left to choose between protecting herself or her lover.

Summary: Befitting of our time, story of two gay women, harassed and mentally ill. Dealing with issues surrounding the pandemic.

I figured this book would be fitting for the time that we are in, and it mostly is, but it is also extremely weird.

*warning* might contain spoilers!

Ash and Jack have just moved to Austin. On their first day in town, they go to see Jaws at the river. When they are walking home they get harassed by a guy, later dubbed the Cardigan Man. Jack has always had fragile mental health and this is the last straw. They move again and this all happens when the US goes into lockdown due to the virus. More harassing and fever dreams ensue. Ash tries to hold her own, but they get locked into their building by their crazy landlord who shoots people who try to break out. Turns out Cardigan Man lives in their building and is helping their landlord. Jack has a full mental breakdown and Ash is trying to make the best of living on the food they have and being confined to their small living room.

I mean I honestly don't have clue what I actually just read. At first, I thought this seems fitting for the time, two women being harassed for being gay, mental issue, the pandemic, all seems logical and the making of an ok story. But it was hard to read, hard to follow, and the ending? Did I just read a weird fantasy novel? I have no clue. This book has me so confused I have a hard time formulating a review, and not in a good way!

I'll be honest and say that the cover of this drew me in and the idea of a "Pandemic" horror story was all I needed to know to download this. I was worried that perhaps this would be too scary, too realistic, in these current times we're living in but I needn't have worried. Ugh.

It has a strong start and I was excited to see where the author was going to take us. Unfortunately it's a repetitive ride. Page after page after page of the same thing. Ash (Ashley) and Jack (Jacqueline) are under quarantine. Jack suffers from mental illness which has been exacerbated by being recently attacked by a man they refer to now as The Cardigan Man rendering her nearly agoraphobic. Due to Jack's instability she has cocooned herself in the bedroom while Ashley tries to keep it together in the living room - and that's the plot.

Jack's craziness drove me bonkers and if I had to hear about "The Cardigan Man" one more time I was going to throw my kindle at the wall. The ending was pretty disappointing with a fantastical twist that made no sense whatsoever. I'm sure some folks will probably dig this but I'm not one of them. 2 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Nerdy Wordsmith for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.