Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: HarperCollins
Cover Love: 9/10
Add to: Goodreads

Goodreads: By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years--leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek 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 sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet 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 has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. 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:

Wither reminds me of The Handmaid’s Tale mixed with a little bit of The Selection. There are definitely strong themes running in both of these novels which feature prominently in Wither. It has been out for a while and I’m totally surprised that I wasn’t told to read it sooner, because I really really enjoyed it! 

I loved reading from Rhine’s point of view. She had a very strong inner voice, which felt very realistic. All of the characters each had their own personalities and I’m sure I’m not the only one when I say that Cecily annoyed me so much, but she’s still only young. Jenna was an interesting character to work out, not everything was completely revealed about her and I am so curious. I truly felt so sorry for her, she clearly did not want to be in her situation so buried her head in books to forget where she actually was. Vaughn is such a creep, he is so sinister and slimy, and I’m looking forward to seeing his reaction to certain events in the next books. I actually felt sorry for Linden, I hated him at first, but as the novel progresses you can only feel pity for his ignorance. Gabriel is such a sweetie! I really like him, so I hope everything goes well for him. Rose is an important character; she emphasizes the disease and really shows all the girls the fragility of life. The short story at the end really helped me to see the difference in her attitude and behavior from when she was younger to when she was dying. 

The plot was good, it kept me entertained. I could see that certain things were going to happen when they did, but I still enjoyed it. There were lots of little loops and things that were tied up together at the end. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next the most! 

Overall, a really entertaining and enjoyable read which left me hooked for the next one! 

4 out of 5 stars.