Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS

Goodreads:

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price - now that she has more to lose than ever.

Review:

This review is going to be a bit short. Not as long as any of my other ones, but not a mini review.

I have to say, I'm disappointed. This book was boring. During summer, I try to get as many books done as I can; usually knocking off two in a week or so. This one took me a week and a half. It doesn't help that I had to work a lot, but that wasn't a major factor in this book. Every time I picked it up to finish it, I was hoping it would get better. No more long paragraphs on Rhine's thoughts. No more random things happening. I was getting bored. I procrastinated on finishing it because it was boring.

Fever was one of those books were it's exciting in the beginning, boring in the middle, and BAM exciting again at the end. I was relieved to reach the end. I was upset about what happened to Rowan, and I thought what he did and what happened to him was a good part of the book. He's one thing that's going to make me read Sever. But the one thing that made me dislike this book was Rhine. I felt like she didn't change at all, that she was still the same girl trying to save everyone when she couldn't get it in her head that something was wrong. She annoyed me greatly. Vaughn had more to him than her! And he's the evil one! (I still hate him though.)

Gabriel. Still like him, but let me tell you something. After I posted my review for Wither, I got three comments. One of those comments made me look at Gabriel differently, and I have to say, I agree. Gabriel is like an unwanted love interest, there but not there. Sure, I loved that they still cared for each other, but with everything going on, I felt that their romance should have been more.

The ending, as I said before, is what's going to make me want to read Sever. If you look at the covers, you can see that in Sever that Rhine looks 100% healthier than she has in any of the other two books. My curiosity for how the cure is found is what going to make me finish this series. And sure, my review might not be the most positive one, but dont' let that stop you from reading the series. (Unless you don't like the show Sister Wives from TLC. Then I don't recommend you read it. Even though I did and I hate that show. I was curious!)

Rating & Ending:

Cover:

You got to admit, the cover is pretty cool. Rhine looks like she has a high fever; the card represents the game Vaughn is playing with her; and the ring that she still wears is a constant reminder of her tie to Linden and her life as his wife.

One more thing:

Anyone who has the ARC of this book have three pages just fall out of it? Mine did! I was pissed. Just warning you now.

*Won this book. No review necessary.

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Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Goodreads:

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?

Review:

This has been sitting on my shelf for quite a while now. I don't know how long I've had it, but I looked at it, and said, I need to read this. I have the second book, and I need to read this. I'm glad I did. Wither took me to the future and blasted me with the past. I felt I was reading the futuristic version of a life of a slave and a polygamy woman. I believe a marriage should only have two people in it. That stupid show on TLC, Sister Wives, is stupid. But this book wasn't. Wither exploits the complications of having multiple wives in a refreashing view point of a young girl, Rhine. If you are against polygamy or for it, it doesn't matter. This book is a read for anyone.

Plot: Rhine is sixteen. In four years, she'll die. One day, she gets taken by a Gatherer and is sold off to a weathly man to become his wife. She doesn't want to, but she's forced to. While married, she plots to escape and find her brother again. Along her journey, she falls in love with a servant, Gabriel, who could be killed if her father-in-law finds out. She plots to escapes with Gabriel, and live the rest of her life on her own terms.

In a way, this book is a futuristic version of slavery. Men taking girls and forcing them to do something they don't want to do: bare children to populate the dying world. I thought the plot and the world of Wither was creative. USA is the only surviving country, the rest are underwater. And the whole population is dying at 20 (females) and 25 (males) due to stupid scientists trying to perfect humans. The world of Wither is a very possible one. There are scientists trying to find ways for us to live longer and to get rid of mutations and disease. And if I was kidnapped to be a wife of some stranger, I would try to run away. And within this book, secrets of the father-in-law come out, and of the world his son lives in. This book was not predictable, except for the ending (which I read before I read the book. Yeah, don't yell at me). There were many twists to it, and many points where I wanted to scream because something bad happened or one of the characters (like Rhine or Cecily) were being stupid. I really like it. Had me guessing a lot.

Characters:
Rhine: stubborn, determined, thoughtful, and emotional. It doesn't take a reader long to like her. Despite when things looked up, things went bad, she got a little depressed, and then kept going. And despite being emotional about some things, she was well rounded, not being too emotional or too cold.

Gabriel: Even though he's the love interest, he did show up in the book as much as I wanted too. (But there's a reason for that, not telling though.) Anyway, he's a typical YA boy. Sweet, funny, thoughtful, wishes for more. In love with Rhine. And he's a boy you would find in high school. He does sweet things for Rhine, and tries to help her out when he can. *Sigh.

Cecily: too young. I didn't really like her, but that's because she was like a freshman in high school. Annoying, doesn't know what to do, and wants to please the upperclassmen. That was Cecily. But she's young, and after what happened to her, all her bratiness goes away and you can't help but feel sorry for her.

Jenna: there's not much to say about her except that she misses her old life like Rhine did hers. her relationship with her husband was just sexual, but she did wish she didn't have to be there. She was somewhat flat, nothing truly going on with her except wanting to escape or help Rhine. Oh, and hating Linden.

Linden: He's nice, a good husband, but he's so in the dark about from what his father tells him about the whole world. I felt sorry for him for most of the novel.

Romance: Rhine's and Gabriel's relationship developed slowly, thankfully. The way Rhine's and Linden's relationship developed, though, I think she could have fallen in love with Linden. It would have been an interesting love triangle, if Rhine returned Linden's feelings, but she didn't. But who knows what will happen in book 2.

Ending: Predictable, but not what actually happens. Of course people know she gets away with Gabriel. It's what they do after they leave is what's unpredictable and cute. I can't wait to read book 2.

Future: Fever, and then Sever in February 13th, 2013

Rating, Cover, & Ending:

For the cover: I wish there was more on it, and the dress different, but I like what the things in the circles represent. The girl, the wedding ring, and the bird in the cage. Rhine trapped in her marriage.

*Bought this book

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