The Fear by Spencer Hamilton review: A pandemic horror that could be triggering

If you’re looking for a psychological horror, The Fear by Spencer Hamilton could be for you. However, keep in mind that it could be triggering for some.

I got a free copy of the novel via Voracious Readers Only in return for an honest review.

The Fear is set in the early days of the pandemic. Yes, the real pandemic. It was released back in August 2020, but I know I wasn’t ready to read a book about the pandemic back then. I’m still not 100% sure I was ready, but it was time to read and review.

Spencer Hamilton mixes a few genres and themes within the book. It’s not just about the fear of the pandemic, but general fear. It’s fear of not really knowing who we are and of what other people think of us. And then there’s the fear of literally being trapped in an apartment. I mean literally. There’s a point where the landlord barricades every single apartment door, waiting for the residents to die.

What is The Fear about?

The Fear follows Ash and Jack, a happily married lesbian couple. The lesbian part is important. They move to Austin, Texas where they run into a racist, homophobic bigot. This is where the story immediately starts for Jack. She struggles with the fear of running into The Cardigan Man again, sure that he lives in the same apartment building as them.

For Ash, the fear doesn’t really start until she loses her job at the start of the pandemic. It’s a job she’d only just got, and she’s the only earner in the house. That naturally brings on a lot of stress and worry, especially when her wife is struggling with paranoia and anxiety.

Everything starts to escalate as the two are trapped in their apartment together. We’ve heard of all sorts of stories of couples divorcing after lockdown because they realized how much they didn’t like each other. The Fear does go a little excessive at times, but it gives us a look at how the lack of communication, lack of trust, and the lack of honesty about mental health can affect a couple.

Read it when you’re ready

There are so many parts of this story that are going to be triggering for some. There’s the homophobia and the post-traumatic stress that Jack feels afterward. Of course, there’s the pandemic, including snippets of things Donald Trump said at the start of the pandemic. There are also the racist slurs against Ash, who is first-generation Chinese.

It starts off relatively light, but gets bad quickly. Not in a “bad book” sort of way. As in “bad for triggers” sort of way.

There are some who may view the novel as torture porn, and maybe part of it is. However, it’s more body horror than anything else. It’s extremely psychological in nature, showing how something can spiral quickly, especially when you throw in a pandemic and literally being trapped in your apartment.

Do Jack and Ash survive? Does their marriage survive? I’ll leave you to read the book for yourself when you feel ready for it. What I will say is that I was a little bit disappointed by the end. I did want to see the events after everything that goes down in the apartment.

It’s not my favorite psychological horror, and I think part of that is because the pandemic is still too fresh for me. Maybe in a decade I’ll be able to sit and appreciate this book for what it really is.

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5.

The Fear by Spencer Hamilton is available on Amazon now.