Wither by Lauren Destefano
March 22, 2011 by Simon & Schuster
Hardcover, 356 Pages
Review Copy (ARC)
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.
Review
Its every little girls dream to grow up and have a spectacular wedding, to wear a shimmering gown and feel like a princess for the day. What most girls do not dream about is reaching puberty and fearing that every time they walk out the door someone will kidnap them, leading to only three outcomes- death, prostitution or marriage. Obviously marriage is the better of the three but even then our princess is in slavery. Slavery to her husband, slavery to her forced polygamous relationship and slavery to becoming a baby factory.
In the opening pages of Wither, just that has happened to Rhine, she’s been kidnapped, thrown in van with tons of other girls and is forced in a line up, while the prospective husband (a young man who is easily a victim in this novel as well) checks them all out. Due to her unusual eyes Rhine is chosen to be a bride along with two other girls, the rest however... are murdered. As the three are drugged and transported to their new prison mansion, the girls will be given beauty treatments, social instructions, wardrobe fittings all in preparation for their wedding. There’s no escape and there is no calling out for help, the girls are trapped, but this is the way of life in a society whose male children only live until 25 and its females 20.
Once the wedding takes place, the girls become sister brides and the book focuses on their relationship, the day to day living and who consummates what and when. Rhine is the first wife, as well as the public wife, so she gets a few more privileges than the other girls and accompanies Linden to special events, is able to leave the house and go outside and is the most eager to escape. While Jenna and Cecily carry their own struggles, both of them have accepted that this is their life. Rhine gets caught up in moments of the glamorous lifestyle, however her only one goal is to- ESCAPE- find a way out and return to her brother. She’s legally bound to Linden now, him and his father basically own her and any attempt to leave will guarantee a trip to the basement, where even we readers don’t know all the funky stuff going on down there.
So how did I feel about this novel: well first off I thought the writing was prodigious and very engrossing. The plot moved along at a wonderful pace and seriously by the time I reached the end I wanted more, due to the fact that so many questions were left unanswered..darn you blasted suck me into another series hole. The storyline itself for dystopian threads were unique, I haven’t read a book about child brides forced into polygamous relationships, living in a dystopian setting, however that being said, the plotline was the most troubling aspect of the novel. The human trafficking which in reality is an epidemic in our world, was treated with such casualness in Rhine’s. Cecily (the 13 yr old child-bride) is the first one to become pregnant by her 20 year old husband and just the icky feeling I got and the almost heartbreaking feeling I had when she gives birth was a stop and ponder moment.
The Ponder { Everything innocent and naive about Cecily died when Linden had sex with her…any part of her that remained being a child died when she gave birth to her own child. The incident was very sad to me}
This book creeped me out on many levels but defiantly made me think about the seriousness of human trafficking, polygamy (which is becoming a very hot topic) child brides, rape and the rampant increase in sexual marketing to young children. I wouldn't call Wither a book of characters to admire and would hate to see people walking away (especially teens) with an awestruck attitude at how glamorous Rhine's environment was, Im hoping but can only guess that Destefano will draw parallels into the atrocity's of child rape, human trafficking and the consequences of exposing children to sexuality at to young an age. What I'm hoping this series does not become is a manifesto for polygamous rights.
Rating
Wither is recommended to mature teens/adults and contains: Violence, sexuality, human trafficking, child brides, pregnancy, death, polygamy, romance, friendship and genetic sickness.
4/5- YA-Dystopian
Copy- ATWT
Great Review and agree with on so many of these thoughts too with the prison/mansion. Son agree with you on that Ponder too about cecily and having a baby.
ReplyDeleteYour ponder is exactly how I felt. I hated the portrayal of Cecily as sex starved, reading book about sex, and wanting it more than Linden. It was so disturbing. :(
ReplyDeleteWither didn't work for me, but I'm glad you found it entertaining. I like to read other's thought on it to make sure I didn't unfairly judge it, so thanks for sharing yours, T. :)
Missie- You always make me rethink my words.(a good thing)..I guess entertaining was a bad word to use...perhaps engrossing, shocking would have been better terms to use...LOL Im going to go change it right now...:D
ReplyDeleteWell, I don't think it was a bad word to use, because it did offer entertaining aspects. I can readily admit that. There was a charm in the way the sister wives came to care for one another, and for a while, they didn't get to avoid reality.
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait to read this book, and thank you so much for more of the background information. I have a feeling that I, too, will find it engrossing. Looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteSounds good but awful dark. Thanks for your honest breakdown. :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful review Tina, I found this one to be kind of grossly fascinating. I thought the characterization was amazing, and while I didn't love that Cecily was so young and interested in sex, given the age that they lived to, it was more understandable that she would be interested in such things. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this series goes!
ReplyDeleteGreat review. I didn't like this book very much unfortunately. It wasn't the writing it was the subject matter it just didn't work for me.
ReplyDeleteIf this book were to be judged by its cover & package alone, it would be gush-worthy but, alas, books are not meant to be judged by their covers but by the tales waiting inside.
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I reviewed this one today . I enjoyed it but I thought the finish was so anti-climatic. I sat there thinking there had to be more because I was four times like seriously.
ReplyDeleteGreat review! I will link this up on my blog.
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point about human trafficking. I didn't even think about that when I read it. I don't think that this book will become a manifesto for polygamous rights. Polygamy is such a hot topic right now. It's like gay marriage was a few years ago, although I suppose that's still a hot topic too.