Wither by Lauren DeStefano
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?
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**Spoilers have been hidden in white. No need to fret. (just scroll over the white area to see spoiler text)**
This is really my first experience with a dystopian novel/series. The last book I read of this kind would be the Giver by Lois Lowery about six years ago. What can I say about this book? It was awesome. I got a look into a crazy, disturbed world I hope never happens.
As with the previous book I read, Firelight by Sophie Jordan, I really liked the buildup of the love story. I didn’t read the synopsis before I read this book so I actually had no idea who the love interest was at first. I was able to figure it out quickly though. I really liked that this book has the forbidden love element, which is different from other forbidden love novels. After reading the love triangle, I can honestly say I will never be able to share a man with any other women. I’m just too jealous for that kind of stuff.
(spoiler) When the main character walked in on her husband with his other wife, I found myself shouting, “You just going to let him do that?” (spoiler)
4/5 stars!Only two things annoyed me about this book.
1. 95% of the book takes place in the freaking mansion. I need some versatility here.
2. Rhine mentions her brother so many times throughout this book, I feel like I’m also dealing with the separation. Yet, after reading 328 pages, I still haven’t met him. This leaves me with no closure what-so- ever. Oh Rowan, don’t you know I’m awaiting our reunion too?
Despite these little flaws, read the book for yourself. It’s actually kind of awesome.
I orginally posted this review in May, 2011, on http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/162944916
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