Lauren DeStefano
Published March 22, 2011 by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Amazon Book Description:
By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years--leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek 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 sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet 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 has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive.
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?
-----------------------------------------------------------
I will admit up front that it took me three tries to make it through this book. The first time I attempted to listen to the audiobook, and I didn't make it past the first disc. A few months later I tried to read it, with pretty much the same results. Finally, a friend talked me into trying it one last time, and I promised myself I would give it a chance. While the story is definitely slow to start, I am glad I pushed through the opening build up and stuck with it til the end. It's certainly worth the wait.
Over all, I give this book a 78%. Here's the breakdown:
Setting: 18/20
Setting: 18/20
DeStefano leaves no stone unturned when describing the world she has created. Her ability to show a word picture is probably her biggest strength as a writer. She goes into detail on every level. As a reader, I could describe to you the house that Rhine lives in, the grounds the house sit on, and the state, country, and world that remain after the virus and war have ravaged the earth. Aside from the physical atmosphere, DeStefano also clearly expresses the feel of Rhine's world. She captures the despair at the shortened life spans the characters face, the hope some of them hold for a cure, and the survival instinct that each of the brides have prior to becoming one of Linden's wives.
Characters: 16/20
The people that inhabit DeStefano's infected world are complex and well-developed. Instead of one-sided, cardboard characters that are either all sweets and unicorns or all snakes and darkness, each character is relatable on some level, even though they each make mistakes and at times their decisions are difficult to suffer through. The main character of Rhine, who narrates the story in first person, is intelligent, motivated, and thoughtful. She is also begrudging, occasionally impulsive, and frustratingly fickle when it comes to her feelings for her husband. Her sister wives are equally as multifaceted, and even Linden is sometimes endearing.
Style: 14/20
The tone of the book is pretty melancholy, and it is definitely void of any laughter on my part as a reader. The descriptions are whimsical and delicious, but the narrator is so serious throughout the entire story--which is, don't get me wrong, to be expected in a post-apocalyptic tale of doom. However, it could use some levity. I appreciate the author's approach, however, and feel that she really had a handle on what her style was going to be and thoroughly maintained it, which is something of a feat for a first-time novelist. Sometimes you can really tell that you are reading a freshman title, and with Wither, the moments when you are sucked out of the story by a misstep on the author's part are few and far between.
Plot: 17/20
Like I said above, it was difficult to get into this one at first. The timing in the beginning is pretty slow, and the narrator is so quiet and reserved that it seems as if not much happens. Once it gets going, though, the action, though subdued, is pretty nonstop. Because Rhine's internal monologue is so expressive, it eventually seems as if things are happening even when there is no action, quite the opposite of the first few chapters. Rhine has a lot of decisions to make, and this inner turmoil adds tremendously to an already packed plotline. The basic idea for the story, that of a virus that kills everyone young, forced child brides, teenage prostitution, even the hint of rape, it's all very controversial. It could have easily crossed the line into sensational or political, but instead the author created the world as if it these are the most normal of circumstances.
Heartbreak: 13/20
This is the one area where I really have to dock some points. There were a lot of tears reading this novel, especially toward the end. Sensitive readers beware, there are a couple of major character deaths, lots of despair, and some absolutely tragic circumstances involving the remaining characters. The reason the score in this category stayed above 10 is because the resolution in Wither is hopeful, leaving me ready and willing to dive in to the second of the trilogy, Fever.
The tone of the book is pretty melancholy, and it is definitely void of any laughter on my part as a reader. The descriptions are whimsical and delicious, but the narrator is so serious throughout the entire story--which is, don't get me wrong, to be expected in a post-apocalyptic tale of doom. However, it could use some levity. I appreciate the author's approach, however, and feel that she really had a handle on what her style was going to be and thoroughly maintained it, which is something of a feat for a first-time novelist. Sometimes you can really tell that you are reading a freshman title, and with Wither, the moments when you are sucked out of the story by a misstep on the author's part are few and far between.
Plot: 17/20
Like I said above, it was difficult to get into this one at first. The timing in the beginning is pretty slow, and the narrator is so quiet and reserved that it seems as if not much happens. Once it gets going, though, the action, though subdued, is pretty nonstop. Because Rhine's internal monologue is so expressive, it eventually seems as if things are happening even when there is no action, quite the opposite of the first few chapters. Rhine has a lot of decisions to make, and this inner turmoil adds tremendously to an already packed plotline. The basic idea for the story, that of a virus that kills everyone young, forced child brides, teenage prostitution, even the hint of rape, it's all very controversial. It could have easily crossed the line into sensational or political, but instead the author created the world as if it these are the most normal of circumstances.
Heartbreak: 13/20
This is the one area where I really have to dock some points. There were a lot of tears reading this novel, especially toward the end. Sensitive readers beware, there are a couple of major character deaths, lots of despair, and some absolutely tragic circumstances involving the remaining characters. The reason the score in this category stayed above 10 is because the resolution in Wither is hopeful, leaving me ready and willing to dive in to the second of the trilogy, Fever.
I'm glad you gave it another chance! You know I wouldn't try to steer you into a bad book!
ReplyDelete