Wither by Lauren DeStefano Review

Title: Wither

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Paperback Edition

Amount of Pages: 384 pages

Release Date: December 6, 2011

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Meant For: Young Adults

From: Amazon

Summary: From Booklist:

When scientists engineered genetically perfect children, everyone thought it would ensure the future of the human race. Though the first generation is nearly immortal, a virus causes all successive generations to die early: age 20 for women, 25 for men. Now, girls are kidnapped for brothels or polygamous marriages to breed children. Rhine is taken from her hardscrabble life and sold with two other girls to Linden Ashby. Though they live in a palatial Florida home surrounded by gardens and treated like royalty, the girls are sequestered from the outside world, and Rhine longs to escape. Her growing affection for her sister wives, her pity for Linden, and her fear of Housemaster Vaughn, Linden's manipulative father, keep her uncomfortably docile, until she falls for servant Gabriel.

honeywhenyousleep's Review: I first picked up this book on a impulse buy. I had read briefly about it on a forum and thought that the summary sounded interesting. I had never read a dystopian novel that dealt with certain dying periods as this book has and decided to give it a shot. It was pleasant surprise, and I have to say this is one of my favorite books.

Characters:

I very much appreciate the narrative from Rhine's perspective and love her descriptions of things, and the way she incorporates memories within scenes, every time something triggers a thought to come to her mind. I found that Rhine was an very clever character, with the way she continuously manipulated everyone around her to believe that she wanted and did care for Linden the way he did for her.

Rhine's sister wives, Jenna and Cecily, were also amazing characters just by themselves. I loved the way they interacted with each other, handling their marriage in a way that they each accepted they were not the only ones to be with Linden, and ended up each having a different relationship altogether with him.

Relationships:

Now if you would ask me in this book which love interest I would chosen for Rhine to be with, it would be Linden. I found him to be such a sweetheart, but incredibly naive. Not to say that I did not appreciate Gabriel's character would be a lie, but I felt like he wasn't in the book as much as to lead Rhine on that they could be with one another. Sometimes I felt like the way they felt for each others was exaggerated, and that Rhine was in denial for feeling for Linden, that she chose to want Gabriel as a way to suppress her want.

Ramblings:

I finished this book within a day, and the way it is written and paced is just right for me. It wasn't too fast, but it wasn't too slow. Everything was explained in a orderly fashion and not taken to be rushed and I felt it was quite alright that at some parts it was lengthy.

I love the whole concept of this dsytopia, and feel it is much different that anything that is out there at the moment. There was a certain feel to this book that I couldn't describe. It almost felt contemporary, but it does not only talk of what is happening with the disappearing human race, but it shows how it affected everyone and the way things are viewed in this type of society. For example, a grown man being with a 13 year old is acceptable in this society, as if kidnapping to repopulate.

And sometimes it felt like a mystery book as well, as Linden's father drops hints to be deceiving his son, and everyone around them with this 'cure' he is trying to find.

End Thoughts:

After I finished this book, I just could not wait to get my hands on Fever, and I was so happy to have found out that within that week I had read Wither, that it was coming out.

I definitely recommend this to anyone, even if dystopian isn't really there thing, as it has something for everybody in my opinion.

I give Wither a 5/5 rating.