Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

* Spoiler warning for the previous book, Wither *

Fever (The Chemical Garden #2)
By Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

To Sum It Up: Rhine has escaped from her forced marriage and imprisonment in the mansion, but she quickly finds herself in a different kind of captivity, along with Gabriel, one of the mansion’s servants who fled with her. They are taken prisoner by a scheming carnival proprietress who has some very disturbing plans for the two. All Rhine wants to do is find a way to get to New York and reunite with her twin brother, Rowan. She has a difficult, dangerous journey ahead of her; she must always look over her shoulder for any sign of her sinister father-in-law, Vaughn. He certainly has not forgotten about Rhine, and he will not let her get away that easily.

Review: Although I wasn’t enthralled by Wither, I had to find out what happened after Rhine escaped from the mansion with Gabriel. Would they finally find Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan? Would we discover what was really going on in the basement of that creepy mansion? We sort of get some answers, but not until near the end of the book and after Rhine and Gabriel have a few adventures that had me shaking my head in disbelief.

The book opens with Rhine and Gabriel making landfall in their boat. No sooner have they planted their feet on solid ground when they’re captured. Again. They’ve stumbled upon a carnival-themed brothel run by the maniacal Madame Soleski. Madame is quite a business-savvy woman and sees dollars signs when she spots Rhine, who is dubbed “Goldenrod” in keeping with the color-themed names that Madame gives to all of her girls. Whenever Madame needs to chat with Rhine privately, they take a little ride on the Ferris wheel. No, really, all of this actually takes place in the book! I hadn’t known what to expect from Fever, but it certainly wasn’t this. I could not believe that these two people made a run for freedom only to end up losing it almost straightaway! And their new prison? Well, it’s just about as bad as the old one, if not more absurd-sounding.

I experienced déjà vu when Rhine started going on about how she and Gabriel needed to get out of the brothel because she spent most of Wither going on about how she needed to get out of the mansion. This girl seriously frustrates me. Like her not even half-hearted attempts to escape from the mansion, she doesn’t put a whole lot of effort into fleeing Madame Soleski’s freak show. I kind of felt sorry for Gabriel for being caught up in Rhine’s unfortunate escapades and for being left with very little to do throughout the book. You know that he’s there, but his presence never really makes itself known.

What kills me about this series is that it’s so well-written. Despite how often I roll my eyes at Rhine’s actions or lack thereof, the writing itself is top-notch and is the reason why I can’t rate the books lower. I just have a lot of trouble buying into the world and tolerating Rhine’s all-talk-no-action character.

I gave this book a shot because I figured that life on the run for Rhine and Gabriel had to be interesting. Sadly, it wasn’t. There isn’t much story progress or character development, either, and I just can’t hang in there for the final book, Sever. I will, however, check out future books from Lauren DeStefano because I think that she is a very talented writer; it’s just this series that didn’t click with me.

All in All: Fever felt eerily similar to Wither at times, especially with Rhine winding up in almost the same situation she wanted so desperately to run away from. I wasn’t crazy about Wither, so it’s hard for me to say if readers who did enjoy it will also like Fever. Overall, I think that this series is one that you need to try out for yourself to see how you feel about it.

Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wither (The Chemical Garden #1)
By Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

To Sum It Up: Scientific research efforts have resulted in the eradication of disease in humans. This achievement, however, has come with unforeseen and devastating consequences. Males die at the age of 25. The female life span is even shorter, ending at age 20. Groups called Gatherers routinely kidnap teenage girls and sell them into polygamous marriages with wealthy men in order to produce children. Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery’s life is shattered when she is captured by Gatherers and forced to be one of Linden Ashby’s brides. Although she now finds herself in luxurious surroundings with a husband who actually cares about her, all Rhine can think about is how to escape this life that she never wanted.

Review: Once again, it was a beautiful cover that reeled me in. I’d heard quite a bit of buzz about Wither, but I wasn’t familiar with its plot at all. Right before I began reading it, I perused the jacket blurb. Whoa. Of the handful of dystopian YA novels that I’ve read, this one definitely had the most outré premise.

My initial shock wore off once I got reading. Wither is actually a very well-written and well-paced novel. It turned out to be a fast read; I kept turning the pages to find out what would happen next. At the same time, though, some aspects of this book's world seemed implausible to me. How is it possible that only North America survived a third world war while the rest of the continents were obliterated? According to the book, it’s because North America possessed “the most advanced technology,” but there’s no further explanation. Then there’s the whole dying at 25/20 thing. They’re just arbitrary numbers when there’s no background information to detail exactly what went wrong with the genetic engineering that wiped out disease but shortened life spans.

I disliked the main character, Rhine. In the beginning, I did feel sorry for her; who wouldn’t? Her incessant complaining about how she needed to escape and return home to her twin brother, Rowan, got to me after a while. In my opinion, she didn’t make much of an effort to get out of there and wasted her energy on moaning about her situation. I think that Rhine’s sister wife, Jenna, would have made a more compelling protagonist. Jenna is shrewd and observant. She’s smart enough to melt into the background, drawing as little attention to herself as possible while taking in everything that goes on around her.

The male characters weren’t much more interesting. I still don’t know what to make of Linden. He appears to be the puppet of his creepy father, Vaughn, but is it possible for Linden to be that ignorant of how his wives ended up with him? As for Gabriel, the servant to whom Rhine grows very close, I don’t see what makes him so special in her eyes. He’s simply there. I couldn’t find any chemistry between those two.

This has been a difficult review to write. As I said before, the writing is really excellent and absorbing. I became invested in the fate of the characters, even though I didn’t like most of them. If the world had been more believable and the characters better developed (and Rhine less whiny!), I would have enjoyed Wither more.

All in All: This is another one of those books that some people will love and others won’t. For me, it’s the quality of the writing that’s convinced me that I should check out the next book in the series, Fever. Plus, I’m a bit curious about what happens to the characters.