Wither

 Wither (the Chemical Garden #1)

Author: Lauren DeStefano
Reviewed By: Courtney
Published By: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: 2011
Genre: YA/ Dystopia
Pages: 358 pages

Thanks to modern science, every newborn has become a ticking time bomb-males only live to age 25, and females only live to age 20. 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 she is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

I purchased this book last summer while browsing. It caught my eye and then I read the cover and thought wow I've never read a book like this before. I also had never heard of this author, so I bought this book on a chance. I didn't even know dystopia books even existed...stupid me, because I love them now :)

Anyways for Lauren being a first time writter I really like the book. They are some ways she could make it a lot more compelling. but first I'll talk about the story...

Rhine and her twin Rowan live in the future where our generation thought we had cured all deseases because all our children were healthy, until they started to have children with tons of health problems. A lot of people ignore whats going on because they have given up hope that there will ever be a cure. Pro-naturalist bombed the Pro-science research centers where scientist were studying malformed children to find their cure. Only Rhine and Rowans parents were a part of those scientist and now they are left to defend for themselves. And she gets caught.

I guess to me the bad thing about the book is its predictable. From a early start I knew whats going to happen, and by the end I have a good feeling I know how its going to end. Although there are things in this book that keep you reading, you wanna know how the story will turn out. You don't learn a lot of things about these the characters at first, you gradually learn more about them, when she is forced to marry you hate the guy, then you learn about him and you don't know where your feelings lie.

When I finished the book I freaked out... my husband was like what is wrong. I didn't know the author and didn't know this was a triliogy, so when I read the last page I freaked I would never know what will happen to Rhine. :O

The only way I think the book can be 10x better is if it broke off and had Rowans point of view. So you could read what her brother is going through while shes gone. But otherwise a great read, I really enjoyed the book. I even made my sister buy it and Kayla :)