Wither by Lauren DeStefano

 

Synopsis

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out.

My review:

 This Book made me step back and say Wow!

 A very well written story!

 Able to catch your attention from line one and hold it until the very last word.

 I hope we never come to live in a world like this, yet in some ways we already do which makes it so much more believable and scary.  

The girls are so different and yet here they are in this cage of a life with no choices of their own.  I found myself wondering what life I would choose if given the choice to live their old lives or the life as a Sister wife.

Rhine who narrates the story from her view and her desire to escape is strong willed with a never ending desire to be home again. She is caring but also a very capable liar able to deceive to her advantage.

Jenna who is resigned to live the rest of her life as a sister wife is quiet but misses nothing that is going on around her.

Cecily is a naive child who sees love, wedding bells, children and one big happy family. She cannot imagine a better life and therefore cannot imagine why everyone is not thrilled to live this life they share.

 In the beginning I disliked linden the husband but by the end I just felt sorry for him.

 His father gives me the creepy crawlies all through the story.

I look forward to see where Lauren takes this story. Will there be a happy ending to this series?

I guess I will have to wait and see.

I recommend this book with 4.5 starts from cover to cover!