Jun 8, 2012

Wither, by Lauren DeStefano

Wither, by Lauren DeStefano
(The Chemical Garden, #1)
Author Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: March 22, 2011
Hardcover: 358 pages
Genre: Young Adult - Dystopian
Buy: Amazon
Read it in: 8 days
Source: Own
Challenge: Dystopian, TBR Pile, Book Blogger Recommendation, ABC Reading
Rating: 
Shelf WorthyRecommendFavorite To learn more about my rating badges, click here!

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

I can't believe it took me this long to read this book. I've wanted to read it since I first heard about it before it even had a cover! But no matter how much I checked at my library's website for it after it came out, it just wasn't there. Finally MONTHS after it came out, it appeared, but I never put it on hold.

Finally, I got my own copy as payment for a layout I made for the lovely Michelle. I was excited, but it still just sat there on my TBR pile under my nightstand. FINALLY got to read it and I'm completely blown away. Sometimes, I worry when a book has too much hype. I'm worried hearing it all will give it very high expectations and then it won't live up to it in my eyes and ruin it for me. But that wasn't the case with this book. It lived up to EVERY great thing that everyone has said about this book.

I was sucked in from the very first chapter by all the amazing detail and writing. Lauren, you've definitely made a lifetime fan out of me! You're writing is beautiful! When you're reading this book, you feel as if you're really there. I felt everything Rhine felt. (LOVE her unique name.) All the pain, and anger, and longing to escape. Everything.

All the characters were vivid and real. Even the ones that I hated. Rhine and Gabriel were my favorites, of course. Which reminds me to let you all know that I am 100% team Gabriel. Yes, Linden was nice at times and you learn a lot about him. But he's not for Rhine! And who would want to share a man with two other women?

This book made me think--as all Dystopians do--what if the world is really like this in 100 years? 50 years? Maybe even 20 years from now? That is VERY scary. Girls being kidnapped out of no where and married off to a man along with a couple of other women? And being locked inside a mansion with no freedom at all? And basically only being there to continue the human races? Really freaking scary.

But overall, this was an amazing book. I'm dying to get my hands on a copy of Fever. I'm dying to see what happens, definitely after that ending! It's driving me nuts! At least one great thing came out of me waiting so long; I don't have to wait a year for the sequel. It's already out!
The sequel is called Fever. It was released on February 21, 2012

4 comments:

  1. Awesome review! Totally glad to see you loved Wither. :) I loved this book just waaayy too much, and the writing is seriously just to die for! <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great review! I didnt like Wither as much as you did, but it was still a great story. And I'm team Linden, I didn't like Gabriel that much :D :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really enjoyed Wither but fell in love with Fever. I hope you love Fever just as much, and hopefully get a copy to read super soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I ordered it yesterday. Should be here Monday. =D Which reminds me, I need to check the order status again. I'm obsessed with knowing where it's at!

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...