The Book Cover
Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Pages: 384
Synopsis:
(Taken from Amazon.com) 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?
Review:
I received this book a while ago as an ARC directly from the publishing company. I was incredibly excited to add another dystopian to my library and I just loved the cover. (For some reason the girl on the cover kind of reminds me of Mandy Moore — am I the only one that thinks this?)
It took me a while to get to this novel, but I finally decided to make some room and start it. I had been in a reading slump for months and I needed something that would really get me going again; diving back into the pages that I love. Unfortunately, I kind of wish I hadn’t. Looking at the pretty cover is good enough. Really.
Honestly, this book annoys me along the same kind of lines as Twilight. For some reason, it is uber popular. Just look at the reviews on Amazon. Many have read Wither and many like it. But, I find the plot full of holes, boring in many parts, creepy (in a sexually skeevy kind of way), and believe that it does a fabulous job of spreading the wrong message to our youth.
I am going to be really frank — I think this is a horrible novel. In fact, I am surprised that I finished it at all. On one hand you have a story with a lot of potential and on the other, it’s not well-written. Very much like a train wreck, I can’t stop watching/reading.
I am not sure I would completely consider this a dystopian novel. It’s almost kind of a fantasy, wanna-be dystopian. For the most part, the world is going on as normal. Wanting to cure cancer, and doing so, scientists created a bigger problem. Genetically, women were unable to live past 20, and men 25. I really liked the idea that humanity was as ticking time bomb due to overzealous scientists. It even makes sense to me that in order to continue on the human race, babies must be made at an earlier age. But why the kidnapping and rape? Why couldn’t the willing, make the conscious decision to have a baby early and do so through IVF?
This brings me to my first issue. Realistically women live longer then men. But how is this supposed genetic mutation killing women at 20, and men at exactly 25? Why are women the weaker of the sexes? Then, there is this whole society of rich men who kidnap women and force them into polygamous marriages at an incredibly early age — for what purpose? Well to have babies and provide good eye candy, of course!
Duh.
These selected child-brides, who are (suspiciously) only beautiful — are kidnapped against their will and drugged. Then, though it doesn’t exactly say– the fat, ugly, or disabled are killed in the back of the van. Based on how superficial the novel is, I am going to make a wild guess as to why the women were killed rather then returned to their homes. Many girls kidnapped from their loved ones, and only 3 selected to be forced into marriage and baby making. 3!
*Grumbles*
Whatever.
Lindon, a rich young man of approximately 21, is a clueless man-kid who does what his doctor Daddy says. That includes marrying multiple girls at once, having his way with them, spreading his seed — and all this even though he’s in love with a dead girl. Why he doesn’t question the morality of what is going on, I’ll never know. But he is happy to think with his penis consumate his marriages. That’s all that matters; that he is doing his part in extending the human race!
What is entirely gross and skeevy about the entire book (written for teenagers, might I add) is that one of the wives is barely 13 years old when she loses her virginity to her 21 year old husband and gets pregnant. And, you know, that’s acceptable — I guess? Gross.
But I guess we’re not supposed to have an issue with the sex with minors and banishing them to their bedrooms, only to come out and look pretty because — well, the wives are well taken care of. They get whatever they want, whenever they want, because without their wombs — the human race will die off!!! Oh noes! What a great excuse for all skeevy sex offenders. “Sorry, child — but you’re mine now or the world as we know it will end!”
Way to glorify polygamy, child rape, and sex trafficking, and get rich off it, DeStefano. *Claps* Brraaa-vo. (Anyone else grossed out that this type of book was published by popular Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers?) Is this the kind of message we want our young readers to read? Seriously?
On top of yuckies I felt while reading this book, DeStefano showcased her amazing logic and research skills and made Florida have 4 seasons!!! Oh Em Gee! You see, as a native Floridian, I have always wanted 4 seasons. Unlike the rest of the world, we just have two, wet and dry. Or you could just call it hurricane season and drout season. If you want to be technical, we do have four seasons, but they aren’t as eventful as the rest of the world. Florida is hot and humid with a lot of rain and a few days of cold. But, according to DeStefano, our trees had leaves that turned multiple colors before they fell to the ground. Suddenly, I feel really jipped because in MY Florida (the real one), most leaves just turn brown and die. So boring and not at all remotely beautiful.
Our hurricane season is usually during the warmer months — June to November. (Yes, Florida is pretty warm all the way through November.) But in this novel, one minute there is a rainless hurricane and another it is snowing blizzards. Not only does that not even make sense, but Florida does not have snow.
Okay, okay — you just went and researched snow in FL. Sure, we’ve had “snow” — ice that falls from the sky. But no way in heck would anything constitute being called a blizzard, or trekking through inches. It is too humid in Florida, and Florida is physically unable to have that sort of snowfall. Some readers may argue that this is a dystopian novel so anything could happen — but I am going to stop you there. The whole premise of the novel was built around the fact that scientists altered genetics. There wasn’t some huge chemical warfare, bombs, or disease. It was science altering genetics to cure cancer. Last time I checked that doesn’t suddenly cause complete climate changes.
For some reason the whole Florida thing REALLY bugged me. I mean everyone knows Florida to be tropical and I am pretty sure people, for the most part, know that Florida is not known for snow. Who was the fact-checker and how on Earth was this not caught prior to publication? SOMEONE must have a brain, right? I really love Simon & Schuster so I am going to forgive them, this one time, for publishing this.. thing. I really don’t know what you’d call it, but its not literature.
But, anyway — that is just my opinion. For some unknown reason many people like it (or they just don’t know any better..) So give it a try for yourself, if you care. But, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
You have been warned.
