written by: Lauren DeStefano
genres: Dystopian, romance, young adult
pages: 341
own / library /.borrowed
release date: February 21st 2012
series? The Chemical Garden #2
publisher: Simon & Shuster
note: OMG I loved Wither, #1 in the series, and couldn't wait for part 2 to release. When I borrowed it I wanted to start reading it immediately, and actually I did do that :) this review is a spoil for Wither. Sorry.
the book:
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.
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.
my review:
This was... not what I expected. Not that it wasn't good, just that it was completely different from Wither. Again, that's not a bad thing. I liked Wither, and I liked Fever, too.
Some characters are lost, while new ones come in. Rhine and Gabriel are on the run, and they end up at all places they never wanted to be. Their life at the mainsion probably was better, even with Vaugh around. On their way to New York lots of unfortunate events happen, sometimes so unfortunate it seems unthinkable and unrealistic, but since it's dystopia it doesn't really matter :) Some of the characters (Rhine, most of all) developed a lot, and became complete different persons. Also, some of my facourite characters completely disappeared, which made me sad.
The dystopian world where Fever is set is so cruel, with everybody dying so young, after a short life they barely lived. The young girls becoming mothers, and the old people having so much power that it seems unthinkable. The selling of women as if they are nothing, and, above all, the normality of death. When someone dies you are expected to get over it immediately, or at least in a few weeks. Then you should just forget the dead, as if they never were there. This seems unthinkable to me...
The pace of this book was slow sometimes, but not annoyingly slow. I will understand it when people say that they found it slow, because it wasn't full of action or something. It were the small things that happened that mattered to me!
The writing style of Lauren DeStefano is not very special. It's nice but not new. I like to read it, it's easy to read and you can read it without having to repeat full paragraphs. Still, I prefer different writing styles, that are new to me. It doesn't really matter, but the writing style is one of the things that annoys you when it's bad, and you remark when it's good, but when it's normal you don't remark at all.
And now I'm going to talk about the plot *spoiler free*. It was pretty interesting, but I didn't fall in love with it entirely, probably because my favourite characters were not in this book. The thing I loved most about Wither were the love 'triangle', but there was no 'triangle' in Fever. It had been a long time since I'd read a book without a love 'triangle' in it, and it showed me that an author can write a good book without using the love 'triangle' btw, I put triangle in quotations b/c I don't really think there was a real triangle, but there were 2 love interests, so triangle seems like the best word to describe it...
And after looking at the cover, and before reading the blurb, I wanted to read the book. It's beautiful! The cover is worth the book!
You will not be disappointed by the story, characters or romance inside it. A must for all young adults that love dystopia
rating: 4 stars
xo Mar
Some characters are lost, while new ones come in. Rhine and Gabriel are on the run, and they end up at all places they never wanted to be. Their life at the mainsion probably was better, even with Vaugh around. On their way to New York lots of unfortunate events happen, sometimes so unfortunate it seems unthinkable and unrealistic, but since it's dystopia it doesn't really matter :) Some of the characters (Rhine, most of all) developed a lot, and became complete different persons. Also, some of my facourite characters completely disappeared, which made me sad.
The dystopian world where Fever is set is so cruel, with everybody dying so young, after a short life they barely lived. The young girls becoming mothers, and the old people having so much power that it seems unthinkable. The selling of women as if they are nothing, and, above all, the normality of death. When someone dies you are expected to get over it immediately, or at least in a few weeks. Then you should just forget the dead, as if they never were there. This seems unthinkable to me...
The pace of this book was slow sometimes, but not annoyingly slow. I will understand it when people say that they found it slow, because it wasn't full of action or something. It were the small things that happened that mattered to me!
The writing style of Lauren DeStefano is not very special. It's nice but not new. I like to read it, it's easy to read and you can read it without having to repeat full paragraphs. Still, I prefer different writing styles, that are new to me. It doesn't really matter, but the writing style is one of the things that annoys you when it's bad, and you remark when it's good, but when it's normal you don't remark at all.
And now I'm going to talk about the plot *spoiler free*. It was pretty interesting, but I didn't fall in love with it entirely, probably because my favourite characters were not in this book. The thing I loved most about Wither were the love 'triangle', but there was no 'triangle' in Fever. It had been a long time since I'd read a book without a love 'triangle' in it, and it showed me that an author can write a good book without using the love 'triangle' btw, I put triangle in quotations b/c I don't really think there was a real triangle, but there were 2 love interests, so triangle seems like the best word to describe it...
And after looking at the cover, and before reading the blurb, I wanted to read the book. It's beautiful! The cover is worth the book!
You will not be disappointed by the story, characters or romance inside it. A must for all young adults that love dystopia
rating: 4 stars
xo Mar
