Review: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Rating: 3/5
Genre: Dystopia
Recommend To: Fans of creepy/darker dystopia
So while my power was out I read two books which was highly satisfying. I’ll start with Wither by Lauren Destefano.
The Plot: So an interesting idea, humans think we have our entire lives ahead of us. Plenty of time to make and fix mistakes. But what if we didn’t? What if our population was decimated because all females died at 20 and all males at 25? What lengths would the human race go to, to keep ourselves afloat? Turns out we’re not very good at figuring out what to do, and have turned into a race that kidnaps girls and sells them into polygamous, forced marriages. Very creepy. Enter our heroine, Rhine Ellery.
The Characters:
Rhine: Rhine is supposed to be the girl we root for and want to see free. We see her fall in love with a servant, Gabriel, and also begin to care for her husband. (I’ll get to that in a second). She is brave I suppose, and she really cares for her twin brother, and her sister wives. Thing is, she just wasn’t…right? I don’t know, she didn’t strike me, and at times she bothered me. I hate wishy-washy love triangles and even though this was a kind of bizarre situation. At times she irked me. I liked her well enough, but I didn’t love her. In fact, I didn’t love any of them.
Linden: Ohhhkaayy. <deep breath> At first I wanted to hate Linden as much as the other girls, but it became apparent he was innocent, naive, sad, and slightly foppish. At times I just wanted to shake him and say, “Can’t you see what your father is doing to all your wives, your household, even your children?? He’s a CREEP. Get a hold of yourself and take freaking CHARGE of your own house!!” But, uh, no.
Gabriel: I just feel like we didn’t get to know him. It’s obvious Rhine and him are “in love” but at the same time they DON’T KNOW each other. Understandable really because they are trying to figure out their feeling about each other while one is married and the other works for her. But still.
Jenna and Cecily: I really loved this part of the book. The relationship between the sister wives. Again polygamy in a young-adult novel = slightly creepy, but they were almost like real sisters, standing up for each other, talking, comforting each other. Jenna was easy to like, a damaged prostitute, beautiful, and mourning her dead sisters. Always reading romance novels. And Cecily, a brat, but lively, full of laughter, optimistic, and a genius on the piano. The way Vaughn begins to destroy their souls horrified and angered me. My favorite part had to be though when all three girls conspire to get more freedom and completely overwhelm Linden with attention as a team. Yes.
Finally, Housemaster Vaughn: The epitome of evil and psychotic tendencies. He was so twisted and I hated him so much it was unbelievable. His unclear motives made him incredibly dangerous, and he was just so warped. Gods, when the story of Linden’s baby with Rose came out I wanted to charge him down with a lawnmower.
The Romance: Bizarreness. Seriously. So yes Rhine is forced into marriage and she originally hates him. But eventually she starts caring for him when she learns how manipulated he is? And then she says she loves him? Bleh. I thought she liked Gabriel? Oh wait, that’s right she doesn’t know him. But she’s going to run away with him? Weirdness abounds. It’s a kind of messed up love triangle.
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