Wither by Lauren DeStefano.

 Wither by Lauren DeStefano review. 

Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery has only four years left to live when she is kidnapped by the Gatherers and forced into a polygamous marriage. Now she has one purpose: to escape, find her twin brother, and go home – before her time runs out forever.

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 she trusts, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

           Lets just begin this review by saying this is an amazing book! I honestly think that everyone should read Wither, even if they are not fans or haven't read Dystopian YA books, because it is a brilliant story with a descriptive setting and contains a world that will draw you in from the first pages. So to do this review without rambling or going off on a tangent, I will split it into four sections. The characters. The cover. The setting. The overall story.

The Cover: Okay, lets just start off with a shallow point, the cover is gorgeous! People should just buy this for the cover, and of course because the story within is equally amazing, but it looks damn good in a bookcase! Also, the cover creates a perfect image of the story straight away, there are so many clues to what the story is like, you'll find yourself reading it and going "So thats what the birdcage was for!" and I just love it when the cover actually has a meaning to the story.

The Characters: One of the main things I love about the characters in this book is the individual differences DeStefano has created, each character has different qualities and are completely different people, for example Cecily is very childish and bubbly whereas Jenna is quiet and reserved and Rhine is extremely strong willed, which I think helps bring the story together as we see all three sister wives deal with their situation differently, and you star to root for every character, hoping that they will find a way out of the horrible situation!

The Setting: One of the problems I've seen come up in the book blogging community about Wither is the fact that the setting is set only in one place, but I disagree. The story is set in a mansion of sorts but rarely ventures far from that setting, which I think adds to the sense of feeling trapped perfectly. I found myself wanting the characters to get out of the house just as much as the characters themselves! However, the setting was so detailed that I began to fall in love with the house, you have a golf course, a swimming pool with holographic fish swimming around and a library stacked full of books, I'd love to see it for myself, well without having to marry a stranger!

The Overall story: I think the overall story is the best feature this book has. The premise is so unique but also really realistic, which added a sense of scariness as I found myself thinking “this could actually happen in the future!” The setting, characters and plot is so creative, I rarely found myself becoming bored with the story. Even the villain of the book was amazing, I found him quite creepy and I don't scare easily!

The setting and premise of Wither sucked me in instantly, the characters added so much emotion to the book and the cover wrapped up the story perfectly! The only flaws I had found in the book is the romance side of it, this isn't a romance story in my eyes, the love interest was more of a side story to me as we don't get to find out that much about Gabriel or see Rhine's love for him grow. I would've loved to of seen more of Gabriel to give me a better sense of his character and who he was as a person. Overall, this book gets a four out of five from me so I definitely recommend it!

P.s: I want to say thank you again to Elsie for getting me this book for my birthday, it was awesome!