Cabin Fever

Adult nonfiction 

     The setting for Michael Smith and Jonathan Franklin's Cabin Fever is a big old cruise ship replete with all the amenities the 1,200 luxury liner passengers expect.  The crew of 600 will labor seven days a week to satisfy their every whim.  With nothing to do but dine, drink, and be entertained they've got it made in the shade.  Right?

     Not exactly.  A microscopic hitchhiker has invaded their earthly paradise.  A virus with no known vaccine or cure.  Some of the passengers and  crew become deathly ill, in need of more intensive care than they can receive in the ship's infirmary.  But the nations in the vicinity, themselves terrified of the 21st century plague, are shutting their borders, refusing to allow anyone in.  

     Meanwhile in a bizarre form of denial the people in charge of entertaining the passengers are told to go full steam ahead and schedule all the amusements they believe their fully adult passengers could desire.  Keep them distracted from the grim reality at hand.  Keep them in the large groups viruses thrive in.

     Sounds like a collaboration between Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe, doesn't it?  The truth is even scarier.  You'll find it in your library's nonfiction section.  Holland America's Zaandam set out to sea March 6, 2020.  It became one of the many luxury liners trapped in an off shore limbo in the early months of the pandemic.  Now you get to see what went on behind the scenes.

     You'll see the narrative unfold from a number of diverse perspectives including those of:

*Captain Ane Smith trying to manage a crisis his navigational experience could not quite prepare him for;

*Claudia Osiani, an Argentinean psychologist celebrating her birthday;

*Erin Montgomery, the sanitation officer who realized early on that something was not right;

*Carl and Leo who are celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary;

and *Wiwit Widarto, a man separated from his family in Indonesia for decades in order to provide for them.

     With a roller coaster plot and characters you'll come to root for, Cabin Fever is a must read for suspense lovers.

On a purrrsonal note, I have never wanted to go on a cruise ship.  I knew a little too much about the mistreatment of all but the upper echelon crew members, the large amount of pollution emitted, and the lies and other deceits rampant in the industry.  Plus it sounds super boring: older people being entertained by stuff like trivia contests. Seriously. (Jules)

I don't want my people going on a cruise ship. (Tobago)

A great big shout out goes out to all who try to regulate the cruise ship industry.

Tobago and Jules Hathaway 

     

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