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Sunday, February 5, 2012

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.

Other Reviews:
IB Book Blogging
Just Another Story
A Tapestry of Words

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34 comments :

  1. Ugh...Rhine and Gabriel are still lacking in development? That was my major problem with Wither was that they weren't developed enough. That the romance wasn't strong enough. I liked Linden.

    Are Linden and Cecily still major characters?

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    1. Not major. You do get to see them again at the end, which was nice. It really is such a shame that the secondary characters seem a lot more developed and interesting than the main characters.

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  2. I haven't read Wither yet... so I can't really say that I will read this book (well that is until I get around to buying it - then I definitely will :D) I find I don't enjoy books very much when the plot drags unless like you mentioned it has intrigue (that 'thing' that keeps you reading). The writing sounds awesome! Thanks for your thoughts!

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    1. Mmhm, I can think of a few books where the plot was a bit on the slow side but it still had a certain undeniable "thing" that kept me interested. I still have faith that the third book will be good though!

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  3. Great review I got this and I still haven't read Wither but I have both reviews scheduled for later this month I'm very curious to see how I like it. Good to know this one is slower.

    Giselle
    Xpresso Reads

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    1. I'm interested in hearing what you think too, assuming you'll read them back to back, and how that'll change the reading experience.

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  4. Sooooo, disturbing, eh? I don't know that I'll ever read this one. I knew that Rhine was safer in the mansion than she ever imagined possible (which really, how could she not know the danger she'd be in when she was kidnapped in the first place), and since she wasn't actually being forced to sleep with her husband, I really didn't see the need for her to run. Plus, the plot holes really bugged me.

    I know myself, and I know that the slow pacing and the lacking character development would irritate me, so to avoid that trouble, I'm fine waiting for your review of the last book to find out how the series concludes. I already have my theories. :)

    Thanks, Aylee.

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    1. Agreed. I was anxious to get out of the mansion that she was holed up in for all of Wither, but I couldn't help but think, why does Rhine want to get out? To find her brother, of course, to spend time with him for the few short years she has left, but altogether, the outside world seems very dangerous if Snatchers can just grab girls randomly off the street and murder them without a peep.

      As for the plot holes, I didn't really notice many of them in Wither, for some reason. Maybe I'm a more critical reader a year later?

      I can understand why you wouldn't want to continue on. I'm only curious because I want to find out what this virus is all about. I also have theories :)

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  5. Shoot! I had such high hopes for this book! I completely agree with you that even though Wither was a bit slow, it was a good kind of slow, one that gives you time to absorb all the little details about the world and characters. I hate being bored while reading, and it's disappointing to learn Rhine and Gabriel aren't more developed, I was hoping we'd get so much more of Gabriel because I felt he was lacking a bit in Wither. Fabulous review Aylee, thanks!!!

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    1. Yeah, I felt that even though we got to get out in the world in Fever, which was nice, I don't think the world was developed enough to keep the intrigue... I still have soo many questions! I also felt like this would have been the perfect time to give Gabriel some development finally, but no. Thanks for reading!

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  6. Great review, it's a little disappointing to hear that it wasn't as good as Wither, but still an enjoyable read. I have this and still need to read it. I'm interested to see what you mean about the ending. Definitely need to pick this one up soon, I've heard a few people say that they liked it better so I am definitely going to have to read it to get my head around what happens!

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    1. I'm interested to hear what other people think of the ending as well. If they're interested by it or bored. Seems like it's split 50/50 for people who liked Wither better and people who liked Fever better. I hope you fall on the side of Fever anyways, so you enjoy yourself reading it!

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  7. Thanks for a well written review! I've been looking forward to this book, but am bummed to hear it isn't fantastic. I'm not surprised, however, to hear there were scientific hiccups. I think the entire premise of the trilogy is a bit "hiccupy," but it's still a bummer when those are distracting.

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    1. Hmm, yah maybe if I knew more about microbiology and immunology and whatnot, I would have a better formed opinion about the premise. The vague scientific explanations for everything are annoying and unsatisfying. I need more! And I need it to be written as though through the mouth of an expert, not someone trying to sound like they know what they're talking about.

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  8. Oh, dang! Hmm, now I'm not sure what to think! I had Fever up next on the TBR, but now I might push it back a little bit. Slow books are tough to get through (especially when I'm reading them in between textbooks). But! I'm glad Lauren's writing is still wonderful. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Aylee! :)

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    1. Ooh yes, you have to take into account textbook reading and how exhausting that can be. I know I had no interest or patience in reading slow and boring books when I was in school. Still, I hope you enjoy it more than I did and at least appreciate Lauren's writing :) Thanks for reading!

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  9. Aww I'm so sorry that you didn't like this one as much as WIther. I LOVED Fever but I can see why you had a few problems with it. DeStefano's writing is lovely!!! I love reading her books. =) Great review!

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    1. Yeah, it seems to be very split over people who loved Fever more than Wither and people who loved WIther more than Fever. I still hold out hope though that the final book will be the best! At least, Lauren's writing will be good :)

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  10. I'm sorry you didn't love this one as much as the previous one, I think that sometimes happens with middle books :(

    Though I'm glad you still like the writing, :) I might try this book sometime, since you like the writing so much!

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    1. Yes, Fever very much fell into the mold of "middle-book syndrome" where nothing much happens to advance the story. More of a placeholder book, you know? I would recommend trying it, if you can find the time. But I'm not convinced you will like it all that much.

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  11. I got this one to review and since I haven't even read Wither yet, I'll probably hold off reading both until I'm done school. I'm having a lot of trouble reading books with slow pacing right now because I feel like I don't have much time to read for fun so I want something where you don't notice how much time has already gone by. I am curious to see if I'll like DeStefano's writing.

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    1. I remember feeling the same way when I was in school. Wanting to enjoy what little time I had to read and not feel like I had to slog through anything that I didn't want to read, besides textbooks and articles. Wither was slow too, yet I felt like it was still pretty interesting and kept me reading. I'll be curious to hear what you think of it.

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  12. I can't wait to get a copy of this book since I loved Wither :) !! I love Lauren's writing but I'm expecting more from the second book and I need the characters to develop .. I didnd't care that much for Gabriel in Wither .. so I'm hoping to get scenes with Linden !!!
    Thanks for the review Aylee :)

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    1. You do get a few scenes with Linden... although it's not until the very end! She spends most of her time with Gabriel and he's unfortunately just as underdeveloped as in WIther. I was expecting more from this book too - I am sad that I was let down.

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  13. I loved Wither so much. It was my favorite Debut Book for 2011. Lauren's writing style is beautiful. I'm bummed you didn't like this one more than you did. I'm still going to give it a shot, though. Especially to find out some background about Rhine's family.

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    1. I love her writing style so much too. And I definitely recommend giving this one a shot, even if I personally didn't like it as much because you might still love it more. I could've done with more background and informational scenes in Fever.

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  14. Thanks for your honesty. I have Wither on my eReader but I still haven't tried it. It's good to know that the sequel is worth reading even if it's not as good as the first.

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    1. I think it's only really worth reading if you truly enjoyed Wither... otherwise, I would skip it.

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  15. Thanks for including my link, Aylee! I agree that the characterization was kind of uneven, with some being much more complex and ambiguous than others (I wasn't a fan of Gabriel either.) Also, oh the plot problems and scientific implausibility...*headdesk*

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    1. It's kind of odd to me that some characters (the side ones, at that) would be more developed and interesting than the two main characters. And yeah, I think I'm not quite as tolerant about plot errors as I used to be or something because I noticed them in abundance in Fever and not in Wither.

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  16. I haven't read WITHER yet. It's on my tbr shelf. Waiting to see if I like it. Then I'll debate on reading FEVER. Nice review!

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    1. Good idea. Don't plan on reading Fever if you don't enjoy Wither.

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  17. I have a feeling I should skip this one - I gave Wither a 3.5/5, so I think I might not look so favorably on the sequel...

    Nice honest review!

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    1. Hmm, yeah. Especially if you feel like you're short on time for reading, then I would say skip it.

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