Wither (The Chemical Garden, #1) in Shut Up & Read

Feb 25, 2012 Renuka rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, science-fiction, dystopia, romance, e-book, cliff-hangers, owned, reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. So while my power was out I read two books which was highly satisfying. I’ll start with Wither by Lauren DeStefano.

The Plot: So an interesting idea, humans think we have our entire lives ahead of us. Plenty of time to make and fix mistakes. But what if we didn’t? What if our population was decimated because all females died at 20 and all males at 25? What lengths would the human race go to, to keep ourselves afloat? Turns out we’re not very good at figuring out what to do, and have turned into So while my power was out I read two books which was highly satisfying. I’ll start with Wither by Lauren DeStefano.

The Plot: So an interesting idea, humans think we have our entire lives ahead of us. Plenty of time to make and fix mistakes. But what if we didn’t? What if our population was decimated because all females died at 20 and all males at 25? What lengths would the human race go to, to keep ourselves afloat? Turns out we’re not very good at figuring out what to do, and have turned into a race that kidnaps girls and sells them into polygamous, forced marriages. Very creepy. Enter our heroine, Rhine Ellery.

The Characters:

Rhine: Rhine is supposed to be the girl we root for and want to see free. We see her fall in love with a servant, Gabriel, and also begin to care for her husband. (I’ll get to that in a second). She is brave I suppose, and she really cares for her twin brother, and her sister wives. Thing is, she just wasn’t…right? I don’t know, she didn’t strike me, and at times she bothered me. I hate wishy-washy love triangles and even though this was a kind of bizarre situation. At times she irked me. I liked her well enough, but I didn’t love her. In fact, I didn’t love any of them.

Linden: Ohhhkaayy. At first I wanted to hate Linden as much as the other girls, but it became apparent he was innocent, naive, sad, and slightly foppish. At times I just wanted to shake him and say, “Can’t you see what your father is doing to all your wives, your household, even your children?? He’s a CREEP. Get a hold of yourself and take freaking CHARGE of your own house!!” But, uh, no.

Gabriel: I just feel like we didn’t get to know him. It’s obvious Rhine and him are “in love” but at the same time they DON’T KNOW each other. Understandable really because they are trying to figure out their feeling about each other while one is married and the other works for her. But still.

Jenna and Cecily: I really loved this part of the book. The relationship between the sister wives. Again polygamy in a young-adult novel = slightly creepy, but they were almost like real sisters, standing up for each other, talking, comforting each other. Jenna was easy to like, a damaged prostitute, beautiful, and mourning her dead sisters. Always reading romance novels. And Cecily, a brat, but lively, full of laughter, optimistic, and a genius on the piano. The way Vaughn begins to destroy their souls horrified and angered me. My favorite part had to be though when all three girls conspire to get more freedom and completely overwhelm Linden with attention as a team. Yes.

Finally, Housemaster Vaughn: The epitome of evil and psychotic tendencies. He was so twisted and I hated him so much it was unbelievable. His unclear motives made him incredibly dangerous, and he was just so warped. Gods, when the story of Linden’s baby with Rose came out I wanted to charge him down with a lawnmower.

The Romance: Bizarreness. Seriously. So yes Rhine is forced into marriage and she originally hates him. But eventually she starts caring for him when she learns how manipulated he is? And then she says she loves him? Bleh. I thought she liked Gabriel? Oh wait, that’s right she doesn’t know him. But she’s going to run away with him? Weirdness abounds. It’s a kind of messed up love triangle.

Overview: A good book but with lots of open ends left. Plus I want Vaughn dead. And a cure to be found . Definitely to read if you’re a fan of dystopia and disturbing, haunting tales. Oh and another reason to read it is Rhine’s wardrobe. It is to die for.
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May 11, 2012 Jessica Payne rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult-read

Wither, by Lauren DeStefano, is set in a world where disease has been eradicated due to the scientific development of vaccines. There is no cancer, no diabetes, no heart disease, not even allergies or mild illnesses. But there is also hardly time for people to live their lives. Due to some glitch in the vaccine, the life expectancy of girls is only 20 years and boys only 25. This shortened life expectancy creates a problematic society where the streets are overwrought with orphans (since people Wither, by Lauren DeStefano, is set in a world where disease has been eradicated due to the scientific development of vaccines. There is no cancer, no diabetes, no heart disease, not even allergies or mild illnesses. But there is also hardly time for people to live their lives. Due to some glitch in the vaccine, the life expectancy of girls is only 20 years and boys only 25. This shortened life expectancy creates a problematic society where the streets are overwrought with orphans (since people don’t live long enough to raise their children), starvation is prevalent, and girls are kidnapped off the street by Gatherers to be sold into prostitution or into plural marriages. Rhine Ellery is one of these kidnapped girls, and the story opens as she is being sold as a wife. Luckily, because of her beauty and her Heterochromia (her eyes are two different colors) she is purchased with two other girls, to be married to wealthy man named Linden Ashby. Rhine is taken as one of three brides to live in Linden’s mansion for the remainder of her life, which is just four short years away.

Rhine finds friendship with her sister wives Jenna and Cicely, and even Linden’s first wife Rose, before Rose is consumed by the virus as she turns twenty years old. She even finds her new husband to be kind, handsome and talented. And while being taken from the streets and forced to live a life of luxury might sound like a good thing, Rhine was taken from her twin brother, Ronan, and she longs to find him before her life is over. Rhine’s father-in-law is a first generation, someone who lived before the vaccines and is still living a normal life span. As a physician, he is trying desperately to find a cure for the virus in hopes of saving his son, but his methods are desperate and dark, and go far beyond what could be considered ethical. Rhine also finds herself falling in love with Gabriel, a servant that works in the mansion – something that is dangerous and forbidden for both Rhine and Gabriel. Rhine is compelled to leave her life in the mansion and plots to escape.

I loved the author’s use of dichotomy throughout the story. We first see it in Rhine’s eyes – one blue, one brown. It’s something that makes her unique and beautiful, but also makes her a target for danger since they make her identifiable and unforgettable. There is also the fact the Rhine is a twin, that she is one of a set of two people that is missing her other half. Rhine is often torn between the world inside the mansion, which is comfortable and luxurious, and the outside world, which is terrifying and wrought with dangers, but also represents freedom. Wither is composed of many of these duel and often opposing forces, which makes the storyline very compelling and relatable.

One of the best aspects of this book is the author’s masterful use of tension and suspense. I never felt at rest reading this book – some darkness always lurked around the corner threatening to pounce on our heroine. Much of the tension is also created through haunting descriptions that really immerse you in the story, like this excerpt from the first page of the book:

“I wait. They keep us in the dark for so long that we lose sense of our eyelids. We sleep huddled together like rats, staring out, and dream of our bodies swaying. I know when one of the girls reaches a wall. She begins to pound and scream – there’s metal in the sound – but none of us help her. We’ve gone too long without speaking, and all we do is bury ourselves more into the dark.”

I thoroughly loved the book and highly recommend it. The novel stands out from other futuristic dystopian-type books in that instead of creating an environment of stifling safety and supreme order, there is lawlessness, danger and chaos. The plot pushes the reader ever forward through dangerous waters, creating a lot of suspense. The complexity of the characters and their relationships gives the book an element of sophistication that I haven’t found in other teen fiction. And while romantic love is definitely part of the book, I found it refreshing that the main character is not always driven by romantic attachments, but her deep love for her twin brother and her intense longing to be reunited with him. Wither is a terrific read, one that will keep you turning pages way past your bedtime.

Read more reviews, visit my blog Young Adult Fiction for the Young at Heart: http://yafortheyah.blogspot.com/ ...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Jen McConnel rated it liked it

Rhine is kidnapped at 16. Girls of her generation only live to be 20, and the boys aren't much better off: they live to be 25. In an effort to save the human race, wealthy men are taking multiple brides (by force, if necessary), and that's what Rhine's captors want: for her to become a bride. She wants to hate her new husband, Linden, and his world, but she slowly grows to realize that Linden is as much a captive as she is.

What is more surprising to the sparkling protagonist than her sympathy fo ...more

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May 25, 2013 Cathy rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult, dystopian

It was OK. It was trying hard to be deep and emotional and it had it's moments. But it had a lot of holes too. I don't understand why girls needed to be kidnapped into being brides when the vast majority of them are desperately poor orphans. They should have been like Cecily and been lining up to apply for the position. And why were kidnapped girls regularly being televised at parties afterward? It doesn't make sense.

But why should the plot make sense when the premise is so weak? The author did It was OK. It was trying hard to be deep and emotional and it had it's moments. But it had a lot of holes too. I don't understand why girls needed to be kidnapped into being brides when the vast majority of them are desperately poor orphans. They should have been like Cecily and been lining up to apply for the position. And why were kidnapped girls regularly being televised at parties afterward? It doesn't make sense.

But why should the plot make sense when the premise is so weak? The author didn't even try to make her dystopian concept hold water. The entire world other than North America has been destroyed? But our continent is somehow doing just fine, no major repercussions apparently. Florida and New York didn't flood from the explosions the broke up the rest of the continents into little pieces, that's a relief. And apparently there's still enough gas to keep that limo going, and she didn't mention it being hot in the house in the summer with the windows closed like that, so they must have gas or coal to make lots of electricity for A/C. And the cities still have lights, and power to run the cinemas. The world/continent seems to be moving on just fine. With only very old people and very young people to run it. And grow all of those strawberries and steaks and lettuce for Cesar's salads and chickens and fixings for chocolate eclairs.... They don't seem to be hurting for anything, not bad considering their circumstances.

But the weakest part of the story was Rhine's relationship, or lack thereof, with her husband. It just dodged the true horror of her situation. It just took the heart of the story completely out of of. She was there for a year, he was entranced with her, but he never even tried to push the issue at all. It just felt so false. Even more false was that his evil father didn't try to push him into forcing the issue in order to get more children. It's a huge gap in the logic of the story that just didn't make any sense and took the sense of validity right out of it. Not that I'm eager to read a book about a girl being raped, but the author created the situation then pulled her punches for her heroine, if not for her poor sister-wives. Would she have gotten the book published of she'd done it the way it should have been done to do the premise justice? I don't know. But it just didn't make sense like this, it was much weaker than the premise called for, it could have been really compelling.

Oh, and what's The Chemical Garden referring to? I saw when I went to write my review that that's the name of the series but I have no idea what it's referring to. It's a puzzler.

So, despite all of that, if you like moody, angsty dystopian YA then this is definitely the book for you. Emphasis on the moody. ...more

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Dec 12, 2010 Wrighty rated it really liked it

Shelves: for-review, arc

I was attracted to the cover of this book immediately and then was drawn in from the first page. I seem to read a lot of dystopian stories lately and this one was chilling yet interesting. The future world is a disturbing scene with early death sentences, kidnapping and polygamy being the norm. While some issues were especially unsettling (why would people be accepting of kidnapping and polygamy?) it was easy to assign blame to the "bad guys". Housemaster Vaughn was definitely a bad guy. As an e ...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Berenice rated it it was amazing

Human society has changed, something went wrong and now the children of our children are paying the price. In the future the longevity of the race has been reduced, man live up to the age of 25 and woman can live up to 20.
In this new world there are still some left that can grow old, they are called the first generation, and they are torn apart, some of them think we should just accept our faith and disappear while others say we must keep going.
Those who think that we should keep going have res ...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Elise rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I loved this story. It was original. I had never read anything like it before and the world was so intricately done that you can picture yourself in it. Though I'm not sure that I would want to only live to be 20. I'd be dead already. The world is dead and dying and people tried to genetically make themselves perfect. The price of perfect is that you only live to be 20 for guys and 25 for boys. To survive girls are kidnapped and sold as brides to reproduce and have children. The human races last ...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Cheer Papworth rated it liked it

Shelves: dystopian, ya

I would give Wither 3.5 stars, but that is being generous. It is a well-written story, but a little slow. My issue with Wither is that I felt the characters needed further development in order for me to really be invested in the story. There are definitely some interesting characters, but the main character, as well as her "love interest," kind of bore me. Would I read the next book? Sure, I am mildly interested in what happens next, but if I never find out, that is okay too. ...more

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