Wither (Chemical Garden Trilogy, #1)

by Lauren DeStefano

3.5

I can’t even imagine being in Rhine’s spot. At first, I was pretty hesitant to read this book but the premise did sound intriguing and in the end I’m glad I read it! I really enjoyed it!

Rhine was an enjoyable character who was defiant from the start. As soon as she became a sister wife, she knew she wouldn’t do it and I found this rebelliousness enjoyable. Cecily, on the other hand, was completely annoying! Ohhhhhh how I didn’t like her…..at first. Even though she is the youngest, all she wants to do is grow up. She thinks that being a sister wife is all there is to life (that’s what she was taught) so she wants to be the best one out there. She was just an innocent girl doing what she was taught. I also had a love/hate relationship with Jenna. On one hand, she was also defiant, yet she gave in. While this is explained why it doesn’t bother her, it still was kinda of frustrating to me. However, in the end she was a sweet girl who cared for her fellow sister wives.

Now to the boys in the story. Linden…..how sweetly oblivious you are! Even from the beginning I liked him even though what he was doing was wrong. It was simply b/c he was also doing what he was taught like Cecily. They both thought that how they acted was the “norm” so they just followed suit. He was a respectful and sweet man and I hope to see what happens to him in the sequel. Gabriel was sweet too, though I don’t feel like I know him very well. That is one thing that bothered me about this. He was the love interest, yet I just didn’t feel it. I hope in the next book we get to see more of him. And Lindens dad……I don’t feel like he came across as evil as he was supposed to. He just didn’t……click I guess.

The plot was very interesting. Honestly, I can’t even imagine being in that situation! I have no idea what I would do! And that bring me to a great part of this book. It makes you think! Crazy, right? Just imagine yourself in Rhine’s situation…..would you rebel like her? Would you strive to be the perfect sister wife? Or would you hate it but simply give in? I know that I would hope I was the defiant, rebellious one doing my best to get out but who knows?! I do know one thing, I would probably be a hermit if our world was ever like that. I’d be terrified of going outside just in case I was captured!

There was one thing I couldn’t wrap my head around….the world. I mean I just had a hard time believing that the only difference between our world now and their world was the fact that everybody died young. like at the end? they get out and voila! she describes their world just like ours! I'm sorry, but that's just unbelievable. people are out and about walking when theirs always a chance they'll get caught and coerced into marriage or freaky experiments? I just don't get it. I wish she would have done something different with the world.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! I really liked the characters, although I wish we got to know some of them better, and the plot was very interesting and I will definitely recommend this book! Just another book to add to the amazing dystopia list!