Review: 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. 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?

Wow oh wow! Why did I not read this book sooner?


DeStefano brings Rhine's story to life! I cannot get over the world in which they live in and its interesting to see what has happened to the world. Rhine is a believable character and she is very focused on her goal. Her relationship with Gabriel is one that I loved! I think that the writing style is very mature and it really gives us an insight in to Rhine's character. 


I was a bit confused on her feelings for Linden but that was one of the main things that kept me reading! At first I hated Linden but as the book progresses I began to like him more and more. The fact that Linden was completely oblivious to what was going on annoyed me, but the thing that annoyed me more was the fact that Rhine thought that she shouldn't tell him! I mean I like Linden but I would be the first person to tell him everything to make him suffer!


My favourite character was Jenna because I felt like she was the one that showed her real emotions all the time!


I love the cover! I think it is one of the nicest covers I have seen!


I really wish that we could have learnt more about Gabriel! I hope we learn more about him in the next book!