Wither
Lauren DeStefano
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 listened to this one on CD, so I'm afraid I probably missed a lot of the story, but what I DID hear rocked my face off. DeStefano has created a futuristic dystopia where girls die by 25. No one has been able to find a cure. Rhine Ellery maintains her independence and fight, which is different from a LOT of teen novels. Usually you see the female lead waver and become inconsistent with her character. However, DeStefano knows her characters and they stay who they are the whole book. THANK YOU.
I love that Linden has to fight for Rhine. She won't give in. It's only until she finds out the Linden has no idea what his father is doing that Rhine can open her heart and trust to him. This story flows without flaw. The story is explained correctly, in the right time, and the characters transform throughout the story to create layers upon layers of amazing dystopian literature. Can't wait to get my hands on #2!
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