Wither Review (Spoiler-free!)

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: March 22, 2011
Genre: YA, Dystopian
Pages: 356
Source: Galley Grab

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.
Rhine is sixteen years old. In our world, it's the time of your life, made of sweet-sixteens and parties. In Rhine's world though, she's nearing the end of her life, and she only has four years left. Bought into an unwilling polygamous marriage, Rhine is fueled by the hope of escaping to her twin brother. But in this unfamiliar world of holograms, medicine and counted days, Rhine has found sisters in her sister wives, and it's getting harder and harder to escape. Can she escape in time, and will she find Rowan? And what happens to her husband, Linden, who genuinely cares for her, and what will become of Gabriel, the attendant she's come to care for?

Wither is most definitely a unique take on dystopian YA fiction. Lauren DeStefano has merged a strong protagonist, a bitter and crippled world and a fierce cast of characters into a powerful story of what happens when society tries and fails to play the hand of the Creator. DeStefano has a knack for descriptions, both beautiful and painful, making Wither into a story that's exhilarating, thrilling, heart-wrenching and strangely beautiful.

I'm a little bit torn on Wither overall though. Wither presents a great protagonist in Rhine. She has a clear, refreshing voice and a definite goal. I really loved her resolve. I also loved Jenna, the oldest of the three sister wives and, despite my resistance, I found myself really feeling for Cecily (a 13-year-old bride) and Linden, as well. I'm a little lost on Gabriel, Rhine's love interest though. I felt his character was a bit flat and one-sided. All I ever saw was the love interest. I never felt any depth. I also struggled with the world-building aspects at times. I get that one generation was perfect and lived a full lifespan, but I want to know what made the change in the next generations that started this epidemic of youth deaths. So, I felt the characters drove the novel, while the plot and world lagged at times.

Overall, Wither is a very strong and unique debut, and I'll definitely want to read the sequel, despite my reservations and lingering questions from Wither. I believe the positives outweighed the negatives in the end. I give it a high 3.5 out of 5, and I'd recommend it to fans of YA, especially those who enjoy dystopian fiction.

I received this eARC free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This, in no way, affected my opinion or review of this book.

38 comments:

  1. Great honest review. I think it is important for a reader to be able to see the connection and chemistry between the characters. I am reading this soon and now at least I know what to expect. Thanks for the heads up :)

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  2. I've been wanting to read this one for a while now! Love the cover, and I love the idea as well! Glad that you liked it, but too bad it wasn't a WOW.

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  3. I like dystopian novels but I am not sure about this one, especially after your review. Thanks nevertheless!

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  4. I think I will reduce my expectations a little bit after reading your review.I don't like flat characters. Thanks for the review, Melissa!

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  5. Excellent review. You always seem to be able to get to the heart of what does and doesn't work. I have been hoping to read this one ever since the cover first started popping up across the blogosphere, and am still very interested, but I am glad you discussed the various aspects that made this one less than perfect.

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  6. Nice review! You're good at reviewing books without spoilers! :)

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  7. I finished reading this the other day and I loved it. It was pretty unique. I did have a bit of the same feeling for Gabriel though!

    Great review! :)

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  8. Nice review! I enjoyed reading this book. Dystopian is my new fave genre!!

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  9. I liked this too..but the polygamy stuff made it not a wow for me...Dystopian has always been my fav. genre, but lately its like the markets are giving it the "Twilight" effect and driving me to get sick of Dystopian novels.

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  10. Honest Review indeed. I haven't read a lot of dystopian books and I'm aiming to widen it by reading this as well as Matched. :D I'm curious how I would feel about the love interest and the entire environment of the novel. Thanks for the review!

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  11. Thanks for the review! I'm really not sure if this book is for me. It has a great cover, but I didn't really find the synopsis too appealing, even though this one is being a little bit hyped around the blogosphere.

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  12. I just finished this one. I quite enjoyed it. Like most dystopia, it was extremely dark - too dark for my taste - but I liked it in spite of that. I know exactly what you mean about Gabriel not being developed enough. Their love was more of an instantaneous one. We know they got to know each other, but I never it seems like the love part just magically happened. I liked Linden and the complexity of Rhine's relationship with him. I also like that it never developed into a traditional love triangle.

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  13. I was really looking forward to this book, but I haven't seen all of that great of reviews of it. I think that I will get it from the library instead of buying it. Thanks for the great review Melissa!
    ;)

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  14. I've been very frustrated with dystopians lately, largely because I find their world building lacking. I want more substance and explanation...something to ground me in the world and believe that the scenario the author created is possible. It seems like Wither doesn't quite make the cut in this regard. I'll be interested in seeing how you like future installments of this series.

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  15. I loved Jenna too. Her story was just so heartbreaking.

    I admit, when I read Wither, I got a little too frustrated with the lack of world-building and it may have skewed my opinion, but there were some good character development aspect that were good.

    Thanks for the positive spin, Melissa.

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  16. Perhaps not as good as it could have been, but I would still really like to try this one :)

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  17. This is the first non-five star review I've read of Wither! Thanks for sharing your feelings! :)
    Wither is next on my TBR, so I'm excited to see if my opinions align with yours or not.

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  18. We had much the same reaction to this one Melissa, thought I think I liked the unusualness of it a bit more than you did so I gave it a 4. Couldn't agree with you more on Gabriel though, he didn't do much for me, but I loved the dynamics between Rhine, her sister wives, and Linden! I also wanted to know more of how this virus came about, maybe we'll get more of that in the next book?

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  19. Great review, Melissa!! I honestly didn't know this one was dystopian, i thought it was more paranormal, maybe it's not for me after all.

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  20. Wither sounds very unique, although I am slightly concerned after your review, I think I have a good feeling about it. Thanks for being honest as always lovey :)

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  21. The premise for this sort of freaks me out a bit, but I've been urging myself to give it a shot. Reviews seem to be pretty mixed at this point, but I think I'll still try it out. I enjoy character driven novels more a great deal and Rhine sounds strong, but conflicted.

    Thanks for the review.

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  22. Great honest review. I'm very curious about this one and the different kinds of reviews I've seen for it.

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  23. "Lauren DeStefano has merged a strong protagonist, a bitter and crippled world and a fierce cast of characters into a powerful story of what happens when society tries and fails to play the hand of the Creator."
    That sentence alone makes me want to read this. It sucks that this book was only so-so for you. Thanks for the great review.

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  24. I agree. I wish there had been a little more input on the world of Wither. I also would've liked to read a bit more about Rhine and her brother in the beginning. The characters were really good, but Gabriel was a little flat. I absolutely love the cover:) Great review Melissa!

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  25. I like the sound of this book's premise but you're not the first person I've heard from that's been a bit disappointed, so I've lowered my expectations somewhat. A pity to hear that the love interest character was flat. Thanks for the spoiler-free review, Melissa!

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  26. Well written and informative review. I enjoy how you expounded about the characters and your feelings towards them. Despite it not being highly rated by you, I still got the feeling you liked it quite a bit. Its unique and creative, I think I'll still give it a try. I do like dystopian novels a lot though. If it fell into a different genre I may not have the same feelings.

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  27. I'm still not sure about this one. Dystopians have been hit and miss with me lately. This one does sound unique, but I hate when the love interest falls flat and the insta-love can get on my nerves. Thanks for the great review!

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  28. Great honest review, I usually like dystopian novels but still I'm not sure if I will enjoy this one. Thanks for the review :)

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  29. Just got this from S&S as well and am looking forward to reading it! I've read a few reviews saying they didn't really feel the love interest, so I'm interested to see how it pans out for me.

    Great review!

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  30. World building is very important to me when reading dystopians so it's a shame that this was a bit lacking. Maybe DeStefano just didn't want to answer the main questions right away in the first book of the trilogy?

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  31. One of the many books I want to read!! :(

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  32. Great review. I have already preordered this book, so I guess I will have to read it - I have heard mixed things about it.

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  33. I haven't read too many great reviews on this. I've started to read it since I have to for review. I've read several dystopians with lack of world building, too. It's so disappointing because in dystopians that's one thing that's so important! I like your honesty! Fab review :)

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  34. Nice review! I just read this book myself, and I have to agree that the characters were really good, but that the story behind the new world was lacking a bit...

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  35. I felt the same about WITHER, characters are well developed, but somehow the plot was a bit too slow. I think we are going to learn more about Gabriel and about the origin of the disease in bk 2.

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  36. Thanks for the spoiler-free review, Melissa! It's a shame that the world lagged, I like to know the background for dystopian worlds. I'm not quite sure about this one as I've heard mxed opinions but I'll just have to wait and see.

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  37. <333 this review. i finished this book, like, four hours ago, and then wrote a review of it, and pretty much mentioned ALL of the things you did! :)

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  38. Looks fascinating...the only other polygamy-based book I've read is The Chosen One, and this sounds like quite a different premise. And, of course, the cover of Wither is gorgeous!! Definitely going to read this one.

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