This review is all about Wither by Lauren DeStefano and I'm really excited about this book!
Summary:
What happens in a world where men only live for twenty-five years and women only twenty? Rhine Ellery is only sixteen when she is snatched by Gatherers and forced to become a bride in a polygamous marriage. Rhine suddenly has every luxury at her fingertips- fancy clothes, servants, and all sorts of activities to do. What she doesn't have is her twin brother and her freedom. She is forced to marry Linden along with two other girls, Cecily and Jenna. Whats comes unexpectedly is Rhine's attraction to a servant, Gabriel, and an unexpected friendship with Lady Rose, Linden's first wife. As time passes and Linden begins to fall in love with Rhine, she still refuses to be a true wife to him and plots her freedom instead of plotting for a baby. Rhine learns, though, that there are many secrets in the house, most of which revolve around Linden's father who is determined to find a cure for the virus that takes the newer generations at such young ages. As the story unfolds and major events happen to each of the characters, Rhine is put to the test to see if she can survive and create her own future or if she will live as an unhappy bride for the few remaining years of her life.
Review:
This book both excited me and disturbed me. It was exciting because it was a story I had never read before. The plot was entirely new and original. It was also fast paced and kept me wanting to read more. It was also disturbing in that some of the actions and situations genuinely shocked me. There was a little bit of graphic content that it pulled me back to the reality of "oh yeah, this is about a polygamist family." I think the fact that since the characters die so young and they are forced to take on more adult roles much sooner, things like the sexual content and descriptions were definitely bold. It's not often I feel a sense of weirdness and wrongness in a book, and for a lack of a better word it "disturbed" me with the whole situation of Cecily losing her virginity and the whole set up and aftermath of that. Sex doesn't shock me but sex with a thirteen year old does. I'm not saying I disliked it, I'm saying it's something I've never encountered in a book before. But while it may seem extreme to write something like Cecily's situation, in the world DeStefano has created it's not that big of a deal. As Rhine points out in one point in the book, at sixteen she's practically an old maid. Cecily being thirteen and having sex and the after effects of that is normal in this futuristic world. So while it was hard to grasp the content at times, I understand and see where it comes from and how it falls into place.
I have to commend DeStefano in her protagonist. Rhine is a strong young woman who would not give in to Linden no matter how sweet he came off or even after he declared he loved her. I have read numerous romance novels where Stockholm syndrome never fails. Mind you these are adult novels, but more often than not a woman is abducted and held captive but through spending time with the capture and softening at all his attentions, the woman eventually grows to like him and, like in all romance books, they fall in love and live happily ever after at the end. Rhine is different. Even though she becomes first wife and she gets a lot of attention and his love, she still doesn't soften to him or the idea of living with him until she dies. She never waivers on her plan to escape and get back to her brother. Jenna has a similar quality, but not a pronounced and strong as Rhine's. Seeing that Rhine stays true to her thoughts and intentions the whole book really made me happy. It was great to see a girl in a book not eventually succumb to the attentions of a guy.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes YA dystopian novels and who wants something a little more darker and different than most of the YA out there. There is definitely some difficult stuff to read in this book so I'll warn you now. It was a great book between it's uniqueness and overall story plot and writing style. I can't wait until Fever hits shelves next year!
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