Sever by Lauren DeStefano-Review

Sever by Lauren DeStefano

As some of you may know.. I have made it a mission to finish up the series that I have been reading.  I end up starting them through the Young Adult Book Club, and then we keep reading new books every month and I wasn't ever going back and finishing the series.  Well now I am!  And this is the last book in the Chemical Garden series.  Here is the goodreads description:

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.

I really thought this was a nice wrap up for a trilogy. It did not end in a bow.. there were still things wrong in the world, but we at least felt satisfied with knowing what happens to the characters. One thing that really drew me to this trilogy is the cover art.  I have found some people to really not like it .. but I think the covers are amazing:

 

I love all the little clues in each picture for the stories.  Just beautiful!

Spoilers to come:

OK... so as you know with the last book I was really disappointed that we left the mansion only to end up back at the mansion.  Well to tell the truth when I picked up this book from the library I couldn't remember for the life of me what exactly happened at the end of Fever.  I looked all over the internet trying to find a summary of the 2nd book.  Wikipedia didn't even have one! (shocker!!).  Sooo I just had to wing it off my memory.  

At the beginning of the book we are starting to find Rhine's brother finally... and forget about Gabriel.  It's like the people in the book don't really care about him.  We'll go find him when everything is all over Rhine decides.  Well he is a boring character anyways.  I feel we never really get to know him. This book I really have grown to love Cecily.  I think she has really matured and found out what the world is really like. Vaughn is still a good villain but now I am not so sure if he really was a villain or not.  Clearly he found the cure for everyone. And yes he went about it in terrible ways, but he did it.  I am not sure if he had just told the truth would the twins have just participated and helped the world?

Now Linden... Linden is a character I love sooooo much.  He is so in the dark .. but yet comes to the light.  I hate (big spoiler don't read ANY further if you haven't read the book).

when he dies.  I was so shocked and surprised, and yes I was surprised when Vaughn dies too.  But Linden I really wanted to see happy.  I wanted to see him and Cecily and their son live happily ever after.  The end of this book was nuts!  

I love how the carnival gets mixed up in the story again.  I thought that was important because I knew that somehow after reading Fever that the carnival had to more then one story.  The twists and turns and the fate that the carnival location brings is amazing.   I do wish we could've learned more about the virus.  Why only the US?  Where was the rest of the world?  Was no one helping?  Why would Hawaiians not even know that the continental US had a virus.  Vaughn said that the people there didn't know.  Too many questions here for me. 

The crystal balls says:

Clouds are covering! A read that lets me down every now and then but peaks out of the clouds!

Fever by Lauren DeStephano Review

 

Fever by Lauren DeStefano

I finally got this book from the library.  I wanted to read it because my Young Adult Book Club picked Wither a few months ago and I am tired of not finishing series.  So I am making more of an effort to finish them.  Here is the goodreads description:

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind. 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.

I liked this book. I thought it was a good follow up to Wither. The book kept moving along nicely. New characters, new environments. I love the covers for these two books (Wither and Fever)which is what drew me to these books in the first place.  One thing I like about Fever is that it answers a lot of questions I had from Wither.  My book club discussed all the issues with Wither here if you want to read more about what other people though.  I had such issues with how Rhine talked to Linden and wouldn't tell him what's really going on and she finally does in this book.  THANK YOU!

Spoiler to come:  One thing I didn't like about this book was that we journey all the way to NY and finally get there and then at the end of the book BOOM we are back in the mansion!  WHAT!!! That made it seem like to me that whole journey in this book was a waste of time.  I also feel like I still haven't been able to really get to know Gabriel.  His character really falls flat to me.  I just don't really like him yet.  I love the housemaster though.. Vaughn.  He is a great villain! End spoilers

After reading this book I will for sure move onto book 3. I want to know what happens at the end of Rhine's journey and what happens to the world! Looks like the next book is called Sever and doesn't come out for a whole year!!  Maybe for once in my life I can get my hands on an ARC!!  I can always dream!!

Here is my review of Wither .
Here is my review of Sever.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano-Review

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

I read Wither this month because it is the book club pick for my Young Adult Book Club and I liked it!  Here is the goodreads description:

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?Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

This book has some great discussion going on in my book club!! I do like Wither and I will read the next book in the series. There are some holes in the story but the characters were interesting enough for me to continue. I'll be interested to see if Rhine finds her brother, what happens to Cicily, and what will become of Gabriel and Rhine. I wonder what will happen with Rhine's eyes? I feel like eventually that will be a big part of the story. How do you guys feel about boys living 5 years longer then girls? I didn't really understand that. I felt that the book tried to make science into a bad thing. Was it so wrong to dissect Rose's body? I suppose if she didn't donate it to science... but in these circumstances I don't think it's wrong. Now Vaughn giving Linden the fake ashes was wrong that's for sure. What about Rose's baby????? Did Vaughn store some of the virus from Rose and then give it to Jenna??

 Rhine... I thought she was an interesting character. I was surprised it took a whole year for her to leave. A WHOLE YEAR! That is a long long time. And then all she did was walk out the gate? And there was no plan for the gate? Really she thought one of the wives scan cards were going to work to get to the outer gate? And her Gabriel barely knew each other! I haven't been in a hurricane so I didn't think her trying to escape during one was that big of a stretch. She just thought everyone would be busy and that would be a good time to go. I guess not being in the situation myself I can't really say why it took a year. Maybe she just needed to work up the courage? I have to agree with the time passage in this book. I couldn't believe that it had been a year at the end of the book. But I suppose it had to be at least 6 months since Cicily had a baby. I do like Rhine... I mean I thought she did care about the people in the house with her.. but if I were her I would've left much sooner.

This book just stirs up a lot of debates!  What did you think of it?

 Here is my review on Fever 
Here is my review on  Sever