Wither (The Chemical Garden #1) by Lauren DeStefano

Wither (The Chemical Garden #1)
by Lauren DeStefano
Release Date: March 22, 2011
Pages: 358
Format: Hardback
Source: Library


Rating: I really liked it


Goodreads Synopsis:


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?


My Review:


At first, I was pretty hesitant to read this book for various reasons. However, in the end my curiosity won out and I just had to get my hands on it. And, to be honest, I'm glad I did. 


Rhine was an enjoyable character who was defiant from the start. As soon as she became a sister wife, she knew she wouldn't do it and I found this rebelliousness enjoyable. If I was in her position I'd have a very hard time conforming to that way of life. I know I'd do anything to get out of it. 


Cecily, a fellow sister wife, was....annoying. Incredibly so. But, on the other hand I understood why. She's the youngest and thinks that all there is to life is becoming a sister wife. She just wants to grow up and be the best one out there. She was just an innocent girl doing what she was taught to believe. 


I had a love/hate relationship with the last sister wife, Jenna. On one had she was defiant and knew it was wrong, but she also conceded to it. While it does explain why, it was still frustrating to me. I wish she would have fought more. However, she was incredibly sweet and cared for her fellow wives. 


Although I had my faults with the different sister wives, I like the fact DeStefano created characters that each had different reactions to their situation. If this had happened in real life, each person would react differently to their various situations and I like the fact that the author took the liberty to create characters that show the different behaviors people would have. 


Now to the boys in the story. Linden…..how sweetly oblivious you are! Even from the beginning I liked him even though what he was doing was wrong. It was simply because he was also doing what he was taught like Cecily. They both thought that how they acted was the “norm” so they just followed suit. He was a respectful and sweet man and I hope to see what happens to him in the sequel. 


Gabriel was sweet too, though I don’t feel like I know him very well. That is one thing that bothered me about this. He was the love interest, yet I just didn’t feel it. He was Rhine's friend at the beginning and then you hardly see him for about 2oo pages and them Bam! they're in love. :? I hope in the next book we get to see more of him so I can actually understand why she likes him. 


And Lindens dad……I don’t feel like he came across as evil as he was supposed to. He just didn’t……click I guess. He wasn't in there often enough for the whole "creepy villain" persona to come across. 



The plot was very interesting. Honestly, I can’t even imagine being in that situation! I have no idea what I would do! And that bring me to a great part of this book. It makes you think! Crazy, right? Just imagine yourself in Rhine’s situation…..would you rebel like her? Would you strive to be the perfect sister wife? Or would you hate it but simply give in? I know that I would hope I was the defiant, rebellious one doing my best to get out but who knows?! I do know one thing, I would probably be a hermit if our world was ever like that. I’d be terrified of going outside just in case I was captured! Not to mention, there are also plenty of moral and ethical issues in this book that really make you consider things (P.S. I plan on having a discussion post on this later :P) 


There was one thing I couldn’t wrap my head around….the world. I mean I just had a hard time believing that the only difference between our world now and their world was the fact that everybody died young. [ like at the end? they get out and voila! she describes their world just like ours! I'm sorry, but that's just unbelievable. people are out and about walking when theirs always a chance they'll get caught and coerced into marriage or freaky experiments? I just don't get it. I wish she would have done something different with the world.


Overall, I really enjoyed this book (even though I complained :P)! Although I wished we could've gotten to know some of the characters better (Gabriel and Linden's dad) I enjoyed the rest and the plot with its many moral and ethical issues was very intriguing. 

All the best ♥

Mackenzie