Review: Sever (The Chemical Garden #3) by Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: February 12, 2013
Pages: 371
Source: Borrowed
Rating: 3 Stars

With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them.
Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and about the past her parents never had the chance to explain.
In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.

This review is spoiler-free

In short: Fever was disappointing in that it was lacking a bit in plot, character development, and believability, but I still cannot help but be swept away by Lauren DeStefano's beautiful prose.

I loved Wither when I read it in 2011; it was a darkly atmospheric and beautifully described dystopian and I loved the enigma of the mansion. Fever was a rougher read for me as I felt it had lost a lot of the intrigue that had carried Wither. I had my suspicions that I would feel the same way about Sever as I did Fever, but as I am not someone who ditches series lightly, I felt committed to seeing the series through. Unfortunately, my suspicions were confirmed: like Fever, a significant portion of Sever felt disappointingly aimless and pointless and this nothingness in the plot killed any tension. There were a number of twists introduced and I appreciate the effort to add interest, but unfortunately, they all seemed forced and predictable due to heavy foreshadowing.

I am left disappointingly unimpressed by Rhine's character and her romance with Gabriel - they are just SO bland. I was also incredibly frustrated with Rhine's questionable decisions and her inaction for much of Sever. Opportunities came her way to say something, do something, and make a difference, but she seemed to just let them all pass her by. My main interest actually lies with the secondary characters of Sever: the fiery Cecily, the clueless but sweet Linden, and the cunning and villainous Vaughn are all infinitely more intriguing to me than Rhine and Gabriel.

One of my biggest offenses with The Chemical Garden Trilogy lies with the world building and premise of the disease. That is, it makes no sense. I found myself questioning how realistic it was after each new piece of information was revealed. The bio major in me was pretty frustrated at the silly and flat out inaccurate explanations presented about the disease. It was very apparent to me that Lauren DeStefano knows next to nothing about immunology and epidemiology and made no efforts to understand it. This likely won't bother most readers, but as someone with a heavy science background, the lack of scientific accuracy was a major problem for me.

The one real saving grave of Sever - as well as for Fever - is Lauren DeStefano's writing. She has a real talent for sculpturing this dark and dreary atmosphere that makes you feel like you are drowning in the gloominess. And yet, she somehow is able to find beauty within the terribleness and it's so absorbing that it's hard not to to get sucked in and swept away by it. So overall, I was pretty disappointed with the lack of plot, character development, and believability of the premise in Sever, but could at least still appreciate Lauren DeStefano's beautiful prose. Though I was frustrated at the unrealistic science, I do think the ending felt "right" for the story and it was satisfactory overall.

Previously, my reviews of Wither and Fever.

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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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Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: March 22, 2011

Pages: 358

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

Rating: 4.5 Stars

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 limited time she has left.

In short: Wither by Lauren DeStefano is a powerful debut with a chilling dystopian world and memorable character relationships.

Lauren DeStefano creates a chilling atmosphere right from the start in Wither as we see main character Rhine being kidnapped and sold into a polygamous marriage at the age of sixteen, to be trapped in a mansion for the last four years of her life. Rhine is a clever, strong girl who was stolen away from her twin brother, Rowan, and Wither follows her journey as she attempts to come up with a plan to escape and make her way home.

The world that DeStefano creates in Wither is a terribly tragic one in which life is so short and yet most young orphans are still unable to live life to its fullest during their short time. When Rhine is taken and trapped inside the mansion, she is given seemingly everything she could ever want--except freedom. Her husband, Linden, will give her the world--"on a string." When I started reading Wither I found myself wondering, how is DeStefano going to keep the story interesting and introduce action when almost the entirety of the novel takes place in one mansion? I was quite impressed that DeStefano did in fact manage to keep my interest the entire time when reading, so kudos to her.

Romance lovers may be disappointed because they may feel that the romance between Rhine and her love interest, Gabriel, is lacking but I for one loved it. It had a very slow development, starting off as friends. None of this love at first sight nonsense. In my opinion, this is the foundation for a truly powerful romance and I found it an utterly refreshing part of the story. Another strength was the genuine camaraderie felt between Rhine and her sister wives, Rose, Jenna, and Cecily. I loved how they cared for each other and saw themselves as actual sisters. Rhine never feels like a wife to her husband but she quickly feels a connection as a sister wife.

If there was one thing that I felt truly lacking it was the background information with regards to the virus. I craved a more in depth reasoning as to how the virus came to be in this world. I am, however, very hopeful that we will get answers in the next two books of this trilogy. I can't wait to learn more! 

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*Read as part of the 2011 Debut Author Challenge