Here are the basics ...Books: Wither (Book 1 of the Chemical Garden Trilogy)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Blog: http://www.laurendestefano.com/blog/
Category: Young Adult
My thoughts ...
One sentence summary: Rhine Ellery lives in a world where genetics have gone wrong (men only live until 25, women until 20) and to counterbalance the decreasing population, young girls are kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.
The good: Amidst all the "paranormal" YA fiction out there, there's also a lot of dystopian type fiction (the best being The Hunger Games and the not-so-great being The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher). This falls somewhere in the middle. It actually reminded me a lot of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. The book is well-written and well-paced. I loved the "sisterhood" that forms between the wives, especially when it would've been so easy to look out for only themselves. You feel a degree of sympathy for all these characters (aside from the obvious bad guy). But..
The bad: .. something was missing. I reached the end and thought myself - "Okay, and?" The book felt like the prologue to what is going to be a really interesting story. There should've been more about the world - the way it was before genetics got all screwed up, how it was in the aftermath and how it is now. I mean you're given an idea but I think she could've put in so much more detail into the world she created.
Do I recommend?: It was okay. I expected a lot more and if you have other books on your to-read list, I'd recommend buying those first before this one. Something tells me that once all three books for this trilogy are out, it would be best to read them one after the other.
Happy reading!
Interesting. A lot of people I know really like this series! I'm definitely planning to check it out, but I personally felt no rush - so it's been on my TBR for quite some time.
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