Wither
Lauren DeStefano
358 p.
By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking 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 kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. 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 is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape—before her time runs out? (Barnes and Noble)
I have to say that I really enjoyed this one. With all the dystopian novels out there at the moment, this was different.
What has changed in this world is science. While science has largely been seen as progress, in Wither it has taken a deadly turn. Science has failed and now because something went wrong, young men die at twenty-five and young women at twenty. Now how is that for a scary thought? The whole idea of this drew me in and that is why I was initially excited to purchase this novel.
Rhine Ellery is trying to tough it out with her twin brother, Rowan, after the death of their parents. That is, until she is kidnapped and forced to marry like so many other teenage girls. The only thing she can think of is her freedom and being reunited with the brother who has no idea where she is or what happened. Rhine finds her self trapped in a mansion with two other sister wives, Cecily and Jenna. The three of them are now married to Linden and unfortunately also have to spend too much time with their experimental father-in-law Housemaster Vaughn.
I can completely understand Rhine's feelings. I honestly don't know what I would do in her position. Luckily for her she finds true friends in her sister wives and a young man named Gabriel.
Rhine and Gabriel have feelings for each other but it isn't heavily emphasized as much as her plans of freedom. Linden I feel is just as much trapped as the sister wives and the servants. I found myself most of the time feeling lonely and sorry for Linden, even though my head said not my emotions got the best of me.
There were not a tremendous amount of comedic moments and if I have a few wrinkles from deep thought and concentration I won't be surprised. I was moved though and a moment or two almost in tears.
All in all I do hope you give this one a read! I didn't speed through this one, but not because I didn't enjoy it, but because it was a little emotional and the world was so bleak with everyone dying at such a young age. I hope that those who read this enjoy it as much as I have.
