Book Review #5 Wither by Lauren Destefano

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.
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The first time I heard about this book, I had quite high hopes. A dystopian novel with a total different world than presented in any other book I had read so far. The beginning of the book was promissing. The writing style was easy and well to follow. However, soon I got distracted. There were some things that -even for a dystopian novel- didn't want to sink in. The whole world flooded besides the USA, yeaah I still don't get that. Another thing is that sometimes Lauren Destefano skips from one scene to the other, without giving us a small break (not even a white line), it just happens and that was quite confusing now and then.

Though, besides the negative points, I did enjoy the story. There are some serious heartbreaking moments in this book and you really do grow closer to Rhine and the people around her, when she does as well. The emotions in the book were described well and the flashbacks given in the book to Rhine's "old world" provided a good balance with the her "current world".

I would probably give it 3/5 stars. I liked the story yes, but wasn't overthrown by it. Sometimes it seemed to much of an introduction towards the next book 'Fever' as there never really was any real "action" in the book that kept you reading on and on and on. I am looking forward to be reading 'Fever', but other books will have priority for sure.