Sever by Lauren DeStefano

Sever by Lauren DeStefano
Genre: YA Dystopia
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication: February 12th, 2013
Page Count: 371
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Time is running out for Rhine in this conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Chemical Garden Trilogy.

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.

The only reason why I was even drawn into this series was the fact that all of the books in the series have these beauteous covers.  There's something so haunting and alluring about them.  They just beckon you from their spot on the shelf.  I can't get over how much I adore the covers.  

However, while I love the covers, I couldn't have said the same for the content of the first two books.  It's not that they were terribly written or that they had disastrous plots or anything.  There was just something that didn't connect with me.  Looking back on my thoughts of each book, I kind of disliked Rhine.  Also, I wasn't feeling Rhine and Gabriel's love for one another.  In addition, I didn't find the plot to be that amazing to me.  I mean, I gave the first book three stars and I was iffy on that at the time.

Luckily, things have change drastically!  I crack open Sever expecting there to be some high-tension last battle kind of idea and stuff, but oh, was I wrong!  I remember taking a break from the book and reflecting on it, and I thought to myself 'Damn, this book is depressing'.  Things have occurred throughout the series that have really put a heavy weight on Rhine in this book.  And to be able to finally have the ability to connect with Rhine for the first time in the entire series was something special and amazing.  Rhine's emotions and story and thoughts were believable, yet sad.

Speaking of the story, I very much enjoyed it.  I feel as if it moved faster than the first two books in the series.  The stakes were higher and emotions were wrought thin.  The writing was spectacular.  I loved the imagery and the writing was so poetic and melodic.  I actually enjoyed being inside Rhine's head for a change.  It's not that I hated her, though; it's just that I couldn't relate to her and found her to be a bit boring before.  Thinking about it, she really doesn't speak much . . .

I was so engrossed in the story and was so emotionally involved that I cried my eyes out for the last fifty pages of the book or so.  And I'm not joking.  It's been a while since I've cried all ugly tears in a while, and I was glad that Sever made me be all disgusting and emotional.  It was a pleasure to be at the mercy of DeStefano's evil author ways.  

Sever has left such an imprint on my heart.  The story was moving and haunting at the same time.  Evil guys will be evil, but somehow the good guys have to find a way to shine through the viscous blackness.  DeStefano painted such a gritty and raw story for readers and her writing captivated my mind and made me feel all good inside . . . until she made me cry and all, that is . . . But that's a different story.  Fans of dystopia, a depressing yet moving and emotional story, and a determined heroine will possibly enjoy this series.  Sever made the perfect ending to the Chemical Garden Series. 

4 Splashes

Fever by Lauren DeStefano

The Synopsis:
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.

My Thoughts:
Just recently, I had read the first book to the series, Wither, and I wasn't exactly impressed by it, but I thought the story had a lot of potential that could have been used.  Using my philosophy of always giving a book a chance, I picked up Fever at my local library.  The synopsis really didn't grab my attention, but I was curious to see how the story continues, what with Rhine and Gabriel free of Housemaster Vaughn's grubby-handed grasp.  I needed to know.

I enjoyed Rhine more in this book than I did in the first.  I still don't exactly have the close connection with her as I do with other characters in other books, but I agreed more with her decisions and understood her feelings more than I did in Wither.  Her determination and raw hope for escape was admirable.  Still though, I found some of her decisions infuriating and made me impatient.

Readers got to see more of Gabriel in this book.  At first, I was rooting for Linden in Wither, but now that I really got to meet the true Gabriel, not the servant sneaking around the mansion, I changed my mind.  Now, I won't say much for those who have still yet to read this book, but I much rather prefer Gabriel's personality to Linden's cowardice.  I pitied Linden.  He was like that poor, innocent, homeless puppy that wound up on your doorstep.  Not that little puppied wind up on my doorstep all the time or anything, but you catch my drift.  I cared for Gabriel.  He certainly became my favorite character.

In Wither, not much of anything happened.  Rhine was locked up in the swanky mansion under the supervision of the Creeper 2,000 Housemaster Vaughn.  In Fever, however, there is much adventure.  In the beginning, Rhine and Gabriel get caught up in the Scarlet district and are forced to 'perform' in this carnival-type place.  The first half of the book I thought was slow and boring.  I wanted for things to pick up or for things to get a little scandalous and heated.  I mean, they were in the Scarlet district after all.  Luckily, the story progresses and there is some adventure involved.  The second half of the book is what brought this book from me being okay with the story to me kind of liking it.

Will I read Sever, the final book to the series?  Yes.  Am I excited about it?  No.  Like I've said, the overall story has a lot of potential and I am hoping that things will pick up.  Most likely, things will be resolved by the end of the last book, but I would like to see how things play out. 

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

The 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?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?

My Thoughts:
This was one of those books where I was interested in it, but I kept on pushing it back on my TBR list because other books grabbed my interest.  It sounded cool enough, but then yet again, I wasn't that interested in dystopian at the time.  But things have changed, so I decided it was time to read this book and see what it was all about.
Rhine was your typical YA heroine.  She's accepted the fact that she's going to die in four years and she's used to the idea that she has to do certain things to survive.  She's used to the grime and the crime (seriously, no rhyme was intended here) that this futuristic world has to offer.  So when she's swept away from her brother and is sent off to live with this rich man named Linden, she does not have this.  She will not allow it.  She was strong willed and optimistic, which I really liked about her personality.
And then she falls in love with the house servant, Gabriel.  Okay, things are kind of fine and dandy until Rhine puts all her faith in this boy she barely knows.  I understand that it's kind of against the rules for any of the house wives to have an affair with one of the servants, but I didn't really feel any connection between Rhine and Gabriel.  Barely a spark.  And for some reason, I wanted some romance in here.  I mean, she does have this thing for Gabriel, but it's barely there and I wasn't feeling much with it.
Then there was Linden.  I can kind of understand where he's the sick and perverted kind of villain dude that picked three random girls to be his wives.  I think I would have wanted to bash in his head if it were me as one of the sister wives.  How could you ever love a man like him?  But then, Rhine and the other sister wives get to see who he really is, and honestly, I didn't find him to be that bad.  Yes, he was a bit of a wimp, definitely not the kind of strong and intelligent guys I usually read about, but he had a certain charm to him, and I preferred him over Gabriel.  And I don't exactly understand why.  It goes against all moral beliefs in society today to have more than one wife, so I'm not sure I was wishing Rhine would stay instead of want to escape the mansion.
Someone please tell me there is nothing wrong with me.
Story-wise, I thought it fell kind of flat for me.  Besides Rhine being a very strong character personality wise, she definitely wasn't strong in any other departments.  I didn't feel anything from her.  When I thought she would speak up and say something, she said nothing instead, and she also made infuriating mistakes that would almost get her in trouble. 
In all, this was nothing like I expected it to be.  The story has a lot of potential to it.  Lots and lots of potential, but I feel as if that potential wasn't used to the highest amount that Lauren could have used it.  Overall, I gave Wither three out of five stars from me.  I'm going to read the next book in the series, Fever, soon, but I can wait for it.  I'm curious to see what will happen next and see how it all plays out.  I'm hoping, just like Kelley Armstrong, that the second book will be a step up from the first.
I feel as if many other people have really enjoyed this book, so I kind of feel like the odd man out.  So, maybe you should check with other reviews before you decide whether or not you want to read Wither.  I don't want to prevent people to read this book because this is just my opinion out of many.  Just take this into consideration before you decide whether or not you are going to read this book, please!