Wither
Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing

Release Date: March 22, 2011
Pages: 356
Source: ARC for Review

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 limted time she has left.

I really enjoyed Wither. I thought it was a really creative and unique book filled with a great cast of characters. Wither starts out slower, but soon turns into an intense page turner that will leave you begging for more!

While the story was slow building at first, it is very interesting to read about. The first chunk of the book I was not as in to the story, and it was a bit more of world building, to set the stage. All at once, I was so caught up in the story, and could barely put it down. I was sneaking in pages whenever I could.  I loved the science of the idea of the human race dying so young. I thought it was a really cool idea.

I absolutely loved the characters of Wither. While I found Cecily shallow and annoying at times, she really had her charming moments. Rhine annoyed me at different times throughout the book, but like Cecily had her moments. Jenna was hands down my favorite character of the book – she was so lovely. Vaughn was so absolutely creepy – I thought he was probably the best written character out of the book.

Wither’s cover is one of my favorites I have seen in a very long time. It is absolutely stunning. Wither is a book I would definitely suggest. It’s interesting and very thought provoking. It is a book you will not want to miss.