Wither( Chemical Garden,#1)

☆☆☆☆☆

wither.

Chemical Garden,#1

Lauren destefano.

Publisher  Simon & Schuster Books

Publication Date: March 22,2011

Genre:YA Dystopian Romance

Format|Pages: Hardcover|358

 Source:Goodreads|Library

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?



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 have been hearing a lot about the series since it came out. There has been quite few good reviews that I had come across for this series. I had finally came across WITHER when I was at library so decided to check out, see what a lot people craving about. Once I read the book I could see why a lot of people were talking about the book, the series. I am not even sure how to begin to explain what effect WITHER had on me, but I couldn’t get in enough of the story. I found myself falling in love with characters and it gave me feeling that each of the characters were real, even though it was a fictional story. WITHER was that type of book that you find yourself connecting with the characters, especially Rhine. By mid of the book, you will be rooting for Rhine and you will be wondering what is going happen with her next. What adventures and challenges she will have to face, and not just her. You will be wondering about it long after you finish the novel.



I have read a lot of Dystopian novels through years that I started reading those. WITHER was unlike any others that I have read before, not a book that you will be expecting. That was one of things that I loved about it, that it was unlike the other dystopian novels that I have read before. How often do read about someone who has 3 wife’s and when a person knows when they are going to die? When I first read the summary, I knew that it would be interesting but it ended up much better than that. The book was described through Rhine’s eyes and I saw, heard and felt almost everything that she did. It was beautifully written. I loved the descriptions and the emotions were so well written, I felt every single one of them. This book was an emotional roller coaster ride, but in a good way.



I loved the relationship that Rhine developed with her sister wife’s, especially Jenna, something that I never saw happening. I don’t think that I would been able to do what she did. When Jenna got sick so suddenly, just like Rhine I had feeling that something wasn’t right. It was too early. My heart broke since I became fond of Jenna like Rhine had. The two of them did become like sisters. I don’t think she made it as far as she did, if not for Jenna’s support. As for Linden & Gabriel, I am not sure who I liked more, I felt that they both had a connection with Rhine, even though Rhine didn’t want admit that there might be something, between her and Linden. The way that he was with Rhine, I have feeling that he does love her. He’s going be heartbroken once he finds out what she had done. However I do wonder what is going happen with Gabriel and Rhine, now that they can finally be together, now that they escaped. How far would they make it? What a beautiful, breathtaking debut novel. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for all of them next