Title: Wither
Average Customer Review:
Number of Comments: 2 Rating(s)   2 Review(s)

Book Review: Wither (The Chemical Garden #1) by Lauren DeStefano

March 10, 2013
Reviewer:

Wither is about a dystopian world where advances in science have ruined the future. Due to the children born with the help of science to create the perfect child in order to stop cancer and other various diseases; those children can’t live past their 20s. Girls live up to the age of 20, boys live up to the age of 25. So, of course, there are scientists trying to figure out the problem. But there are those that believe this is the way how things should be. And there are those that are taking advantage of the situation. They are called Gatherers. Since most children now are orphans, they kidnap little girls to sell to their potential husbands to stop the world from dying out or they just kill them. This is where we meet our main character, Rhine. She and three other girls have been kidnapped and taken to a luxurious home in an unfamiliar area. She is on a mission to escape so she can go back to her twin brother, Rowan. Their husband may not be the monster she thought he was, but his father may be a bigger monster than they all thought.

That synopsis was a lot longer than I thought it would be, but that just shows how complex this book was. I loved this book. It was amazing from beginning to end. I love dystopian stories and this was amazing. I loved that we got a sense of all the characters in the book and it made me care for them all (well most anyway). Rhine was a smart girl; she knew she had to be careful in order to escape. She didn’t do the act first-think later thing. If she did, this book would have been cut very short. I wish we got more of Gabriel. He is the first person she meets in the mansion and tries to help her even though he would get punished for it. They both go out of their way to help each other. Jenna was the oldest of the girls; she is eighteen which means she doesn’t have long. Cecily annoyed me. She is easily manipulated and has caught the eye of the real enemy, Linden’s dad, Vaughn. He has her believing she is safe at the house and there is nowhere else should would rather be. And she refuses to think otherwise because she is in love with the luxury.

I liked Linden because he wasn’t as bad as I thought. In fact, it seems that due to his dad, he is as big a prisoner as the girls. We see how he acts after his First Wife, Rose, dies. He is crushed; he doesn’t act like she is easily replaceable. It is here something grows between him and Rhine and it actually had me cheering him on a bit. I really can’t wait to see more of him.

But as I said, the real villain is Daddy Dearest Vaughn. After Rose (the original First wife and Rhine’s only friend in the house besides Gabriel) dies, Rhine goes snooping when she shouldn’t and discovers what Vaughn is really up to in his creepy basement. And Vaughn is a very smart man, he knows Rhine is up to something and knows Gabriel, the simple busboy, is helping her somehow. He takes matters into his own hands. And as the book goes on, you can see this is all an experiment to him, everyone is his lab rat of sorts.

I loved the plot of this book. The suspense had me losing my mind. Rhine could be caught doing a whole bunch of things she shouldn’t and you wonder what we happen to her. I desperately wanted more romance between her and Gabriel, there was chemistry from the start. But given their situations, I understand why DeStafano There were some things that happened in the house that were unexplainable that I have no doubt Vaughn had a hand in, but we aren’t given a complete picture. Thank God, because the sequel is coming out in February and intend on getting my copy first thing.

Overall, I highly recommend this book. I am not sure how this review is looking because it is hard not to spoil with this one. It is even harder to write a review about a book worth raving about. I swear to you, this is not even half of the amazing stuff I wanted to talk about in this book. This is amazing debut by DeStefano. Suspenseful, well written and thrilling, this book will not bore you for sure. This is also an amazing YA book. Although please take note that some will need an open mind with this one. Remember, 20-25 years is the end, so there are instances of sex at a young age. But it is only hinted at, we aren’t shown anything. I just have to make sure I put that in there since this book focuses on the end of the human population and end of old age, that this is the way it is handled. Okay, I am stopping now. Read this!