Fangirl Friday: Life Lessons from The Fever Series
As you know, Karen Marie Moning's Fever series is one of The Wenches' very favorite book series. We love those books, and the author who pens them, beyond measure. We can easily lose ourselves in the story, and often get sucked in whenever we go looking for quotes. It's easy to do with so many stunning events and with quotes that live in our hearts and minds, years after we first read the books.
One of the most amazing things about the Fever series is that it is so much more than just a fantasy saga. Karen Marie Moning laces her tales with life lessons, with quotes and ideas that resonate on a soul-deep level, showing us the way decent, strong, capable humans beings should, do, live. I find a new lesson every single time I read these books, something else that speaks to my heart like nothing else can. It's no wonder that fans of this series routinely have Ms. Moning's words tattooed on themselves--what better idea to carry with you every day than a mantra like Hope Strengthens, Fear Kills?
Come with me through the jump, and I'll share with you some of the best life lessons that the Fever series has to offer?
The line that runs throughout all of the books, that every KMM fan recognizes instantly...“Hope strengthens. Fear kills {snip} That simple adage is master of every situation, every choice. Each morning we wake up, we get to choose between hope and fear and apply one of those emotions to everything we do. Do we greet things that come our way with joy? Or suspicion?” ~~Shadowfever
A main theme of the Fever series is the idea that words are easy but actions truly tell you a person's story. When Mac talks to Ryodan the first time, bitching about how terrible Barrons is to her, Ryo tells her to look at his actions. It's not the first or last time someone would say that to Mac but he makes an excellent point we would all do well to heed:
"Words can be twisted into any shape. Promises can be made to lull the heart and seduce the soul. In the final analysis, words mean nothing. They are labels we give things in an effort to wrap our puny little brains around their underlying natures, when ninety-nine percent of the time the totality of the reality is an entirely different beast. The wisest man is the silent one. Examine his actions. Judge him by them. He thinks you have the heart of a warrior. He believes in you. Believe in him." ~~Bloodfever
Barrons gives a lot of the advice that we should all take to heart. One piece that I carry with me always is about survivors and victims...
"Sometimes, Ms. Lane, one must break with one's past to embrace one's future. It is never an easy thing to do. It is one of the distinguishing characteristics between survivors and victims. Letting go of what was to survive what is." ~~Darkfever
One of the first lessons that struck me, from the first time I read Darkfever, is Barrons calling Fiona out on her blindness regarding his nature, something many women are prone to...
"And there my dear, Fio, you make one of womankind's greatest mistakes; falling in love with a man's potential. We so rarely share the same view of it, and even more rarely care to achieve it." ~~Darkfever
Ryodan's take on the what evil is--a new way to look at an old idea..
“Most people are good and occasionally do something they know is bad. Some people are bad and struggle every day to keep it under control. Others are corrupt to the core and don’t give a damn, as long as they don’t get caught. But evil is a completely different creature, Mac. Evil is bad that believes it’s good.” ~~Shadowfever
Everyone's life is going to have trials and tribulations, times that it doesn't seem things could get any harder. It's important to remember...
“Nobody looks good in their darkest hour. But it's those hours that make us what we are. We stand strong, or we cower. We emerge victorious, tempered by our trials, or fractured by a permanent, damning fault line.” ~~Faefever
Surviving, thriving, overcoming adversity, rising from one's circumstances are reminders sprinkled throughout the series, telling us, again and again, that it's how you go on that counts.
Anyone worth knowing breaks once. Once. No shame, no foul if you survive it. ~~Bloodfever
“People treat you as badly as you let them treat you. Key word there: let.” ~~Bloodfever
“It‘s funny how, when things seem the darkest, moments of beauty present themselves in the most unexpected places.” ~~Dreamfever
“Strength wasn't about being able to do everything alone. Strength was knowing when to ask for help and not being too proud to do it.” ~~Dreamfever
“Although it may not seem like it, this isn't a story about darkness. It’s about light. Kahlil Gibran says Your joy can fill you only as deeply your sorrow has carved you. If you've never tasted bitterness, sweet is just another pleasant flavor on your tongue. One day I’m going to hold a lot of joy.” ~~Bloodfever
I‘m sorry your pretty little world got all screwed up, but everybody‘s does, and you go on. It‘s how you go on that defines you. ~~Bloodfever
Jack Lane also gives Mac a lot of advice about life, and so much of it can apply to us all. Mac is lucky that she has such wise people surrounding her, and is smart enough to realize it.
Dad says there are three kinds of people in the world: those who don’t know, and don’t know they don’t know; those who don’t know and do know they don’t know; and those who know and know how much they still don’t know. ~~Bloodfever
One of the most important lessons from Fever that I carry with me every day is the fact that the world is not black and white, everything falls somewhere in the gray...
There are only shades of gray. Black and white are nothing more than lofty ideals in our minds, the standards by which we try to judge things, and map out our place in the world in relevance to them. Good and evil, in their purest form, are as intangible and forever beyond our ability to hold in our hand as any Fae illusion. We can only aim at them, aspire to them, and hope not to get so lost in the shadows that we can no longer aim for the light. --Bloodfever
So many quotes about truth...
People are capable of varying degrees of truth. The majority spend their entire lives fabricating an elaborate skein of lies, immersing themselves in the faith of bad faith, doing whatever it takes to feel safe. The person who truly lives has precious few moments of safety, learns to thrive in any kind of storm. It’s the truth you can stare down stone-cold that makes you what you are. Weak or strong. Live or die. Prove yourself. How much truth can you take, Ms. Lane? --Dreamfever
About thriving in the shit of life...
“Life didn't explode in the sunshine and pretty places. Life took the strongest root with a little bit of rain and with a whole lot of shit for fertilizer. Although love could grow in times of peace, it tempered in battle.” ~~Dreamfever
About sometimes you have to make the journey alone, particularly at the beginning and the end...
“Regardless of how many people I surrounded myself with, no matter how many friends and family I loved and was loved by in return, I was alone at the moment of being born and at the moment of dying. Nobody came with you and nobody went with you. It was a journey of one.” ~~Dreamfever
About the resilience of the human spirit...
“I've come to hold the human spirit in the highest regard. Like the body, it struggles to repair itself. As cells fight off infection and conquer illness, the spirit, too, has remarkable resilience. It knows when it is harmed, and it knows when the harm is too much to bear. If it deems the injury too great, the spirit cocoons the wound, in the same fashion that the body forms a cyst around infection, until the time comes that it can deal with it. For some people, that time never comes. Some stay fractured, forever broken. You see them on the street, pushing carts. You see them in the faces of the regulars at the bar.” ~~Dreamfever
About living and dying...
“Dying is overrated. Human sentimentality has twisted it into the ultimate act of love. Biggest load of bullshit in the world. Dying for someone isn't the hard thing. The man that dies escapes. Plain and simple. Game over. End of pain...Try living for someone. Through it all-good, bad, thick, thin, joy, suffering. That's the hard thing.” ~~Shadowfever
“Time heals.
No, it doesn't. At best, time is the great leveler, sweeping us all into coffins. We find ways to distract ourselves from the pain. Time is neither scalpel nor bandage. It is indifferent. Scar tissue is not a good thing. It is merely the wound's other face.” ~~Shadowfever
About valuing what's important...
“Some things are sacred. Until you act like they're not. Then you lose them” ~~Shadowfever
And most of all, perhaps most importantly, about love...
“One day you do meet a man who kisses you and you can’t breathe around it and you realize you don’t need air. Oxygen is trivial. Desire makes life happen. Makes it matter. Makes everything worth it. Desire is life. Hunger to see the next sunrise or sunset. To touch the one you love. To try again.” ~~Shadowfever
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