{Review} Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Release Date: 22 March 2011

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Age Group: Young Adult

Format: Hardcover

Pages: 358

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Rating: 5 Books 

Buy the Book: Amazon

 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?

My Thoughts:

 Wither was everything I expected to be and more, with such a wonderful writing style and captivating voice Lauren DeStefano has effortlessly become one of my favorite authors and I am so excited to read Fever and whatever else DeStefano brings to this world!

Okay, so you see that beautiful cover up there? Well guess what, the story inside is just as beautiful in a kind of sad and horrible way. The writing in this book just seems so effortless and poetic, each and every sentence was just beautiful no matter what subject the sentence may have been based on. This book is about terrible things, but in my mind I wanted to live in this horrible world where people die in the early stages of their lives, simply because Lauren DeStefano made it seem so intriguing and horrible, yet the writing made me want to experience this world first hand. I cannot describe to you how gripping this book is, you just need to read it to understand. If you like poetic, flawless and pretty writing then read this book.

To really prove how wonderful this book is I'm going to tell you two embarrassing things; 1) Every time I said out loud that I was going to read Wither I would say "Okay, I'm going to read 'the pretty' now!" and 2) when i was reading the last hundred or so pages I read as slowly as I possible could just so the magic and feeling of this book did not wear off.

All of these character's struck a chord with me. Rhine was such an amazing character and I love her so much! She seems almost fragile in my mind, yet she is strong willed and sticks to what she believes, she is smart and intriguing. Cecily may have annoyed me at some points in the book, but that was part of her character and I loved her sort of quirkiness. Jenna ripped my heart out due to the fact that she loses the most out of everyone and I really did feel sorry for her and then there's Linden who I actually felt sorry for.

I cannot wait for the next book as I hope to see the relationship grow between Rhine and Gabriel. Speaking of growing, I loved seeing that the characters grew over time in this book, for instance; the sister wives had become almost like real sisters over a period of time. Something else I hope to see in the next book; Fever, I hope we officially get to meet Rowan as I am a twin myself and I so badly want to see more of Rhine and Rowan together!

Lauren, I would just like to let you know that you are now one of my favorite authors and I think I can safely say that I am now one of your biggest fans! Your writing is exquisite and I cannot wait to read more from you.