Book Review: Wither

Title: Wither

Series: The Chemical Garden #1
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Release Date: March 22, 2011

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.

My Thoughts: Wither is a mind-provoking, well-written debut novel that will stay on your mind long after you have finished reading it! It made me feel disgusted, horrified, sad, scared, and totally creeped out. And I just couldn't stop reading it!

Wither is a dystopian novel, set in a future where a third world war has desolated most of the world, and the little people that is left is suffering from a disease that makes boys die at the age of 25, and girls at only 20. Since her parents' death, Rhine and her twin brother try to take care of themselves, and avoid Gatherers. But then one day Rhine falls for a trap set by the Gatherers and is captured. Together with two other girls she is taken to a mansion to become Linden's wife.

Rhine was such a strong character. Even if she eventually grew more comfortable in her "prison", and started to care for her sister wives, and even for her husband, she never once let go of her goal to escape the mansion and reunite with her twin brother. I believe many persons in her position would experience the Stockholm syndrome, and start caring and sympathize so much with their captures, until they became comfortable with the thought of staying there forever.

My only complain about this book is that I sometimes had to remind myself that this book was set in the future, and not in the past. Some parts of it felt so old-fashioned, like having servants serving you meals, doing your hair and make-up, and sewing your clothes. I would also have wanted a better explanation of the disease, and how most of the world were destroyed. How many people survived? Is people in other countries suffering from the disease as well? I hope this will be explained more thoroughly in coming books!

Before I finish this review, I have to praise the gorgeous page design which continues the theme with circles and squares from the - equally gorgeous - cover! It really was a nice touch which added something extra to the book.

Wither releases this week, so make sure you go buy yourself a copy, or borrow it from your local library.

Rating: 4.5 of 5