Review: Fever (The Chemical Garden #2) by Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: February 21, 2012

Pages: 341

Source: For Review from Simon & Schuster Canada (Thank you!)

Rating: 3 Stars

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness. 
The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary. 
In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price - now that she has more to lose than ever.

In short: Though Fever by Lauren DeStefano lacks a lot of the intrigue that carried Wither, DeStefano's gorgeous writing is still a treat to read.

Fever picks up right where Wither left off - with Rhine and Gabriel fleeing from the mansion, away from Rhine's husband, Linden, her sister-wife, Cecily, and her disturbingly creepy father-in-law, Vaughn, who likes to perform experiments on bodies (living and cadavers alike). The thrill of freedom only lasts so long though, as Rhine realizes that though she was imprisoned in the mansion against her will for a year, at least she was safe. In Fever, Rhine and Gabriel end up in various horrible predicaments while in search of Rhine's twin brother, Rowan.

I didn't enjoy Fever as much as I did Wither and the problem lies in the plot. The pacing was very slow and I found myself a little bored throughout most of the book. That's not to say that Wither wasn't also on the slow side of pacing - because it was - but there was an intrigue in Wither that managed to keep my curiosity that was somehow lacking in Fever. Sure, the demented carnival-brothel that Rhine gets herself mixed up in in the beginning was interesting (and obviously, very disturbing) and the last 50 pages were exciting and mind-bending (and also, very disturbing), but everything else in the middle dragged a bit.

The high point of Fever is the same as it was for Wither: Lauren DeStefano's writing is gorgeous. DeStafeno is able to craft and incredibly dark (and yes, again, incredibly disturbing) dystopian world that makes you cringe and want to turn away but are somehow unable to. Interwoven through all the darkness are little tidbits of flashbacks from happier times when Rhine was still with her family, which are beautiful and poignant. Character development is mixed, however - I feel like some characters are wonderfully developed and enigmatic, while others are lacking - especially Rhine and Gabriel, unfortunately. I also noticed quite a few plot holes and scientific inaccuracies, which were frustrating due to the sheer number of them.

Overall, though Fever lacked the intrigue present in Wither to truly carry the story, I would still recommend it to people who loved Wither. There is still some interest in the plot, especially near the end, as well as Lauren DeStefano's beautiful writing, that are worth reading. Fever will be published February 21, 2012. The third and final book in The Chemical Garden trilogy, as yet unnamed, will be released in 2013.

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