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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.
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.
341 pages, Hardcover
First published February 21, 2012
495 people are currently reading
26k people want to read
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January 29, 2012
You know, I think after talking to a couple of people about it, reading a couple of reviews, I can see better why someone would like these books. I am not a girl who cares for , so I cannot understand this particular preference, but I can observe that people have it. I guess that there is something about vague wordiness that is attractive to some readers, and, you know, I can see how that is a thing. Maybe it is like black licorice. Like, it is objectively disgusting, but some people like it. ;-) I kid! I kid! . . . mostly. Anyway, I would not say that I have a particular problem with Ms. DeStefano’s vague wordiness, actually, but it is my impression that, for some, this characteristic redeems the absence of character development, plot, and understandable world building in her books. So, there’s that. I will tell you what I do have a problem with, though, but I feel like I need to move to a new paragraph at this point, so you are going to have to be content with no snappy thesis sentence in this review. It’s the DeStefano way!
Ahh, yes. Much more comfortable. Soo, anywhoo. In one of my Intro to Lit classes in college, I had this lovely professor who advised us that whenever we read anything, we should ask ourselves who wrote it and what his or her agenda is. This is how I read books, and because I value direct communication, I probably base a lot of my opinion about a book on how clearly I can understand who wrote it and what the agenda is. (I am not using agenda as an insult. I think we all have agendas. Maybe “message� is a better word, but in books, I think they would mean the same thing.) How does the book present the world? What does it normalize? What does it question? Sometimes this is a more complex issue than others � for example, in the series, while Scott Westerfeld seems to try to say superficiality and self-mutilation are bad, I think he really does more to normalize them. Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series is another difficult one on that front.
First, I guess I’ll talk about figuring out who the author is, and then I’ll get to talking about the book and its messages in a minute. Ms. DeStefano is a twenty-seven-year-old woman whom . Maybe, in some ways, that is not a bad thing from a marketing perspective because it makes her more relatable to her audience. Otherwise, infantilization bothers me, and it bothers me when women play into it because I think it is usually manipulative, but I guess I don’t feel too strongly about it compared to the other things that make my head explode about this series. What I actually want to talk about are Ms. DeStefano’s choices in dealing with her position as an author in the midst of reviewers, so you’ll have to forgive me for the digression or report me to the authorities if you wish. I guess I’ll put that digression at the end, so you can choose to read it or not. It’s kind of loooong, and probably nobody cares at this point anyway. My main thought is that when authors, and Ms. DeStefano is certainly not alone in this, publicly react to reviews from an instinctive emotional place and make reviews about their feelings (or even when they privately contact reviewers in this way), it really comes off as a show of strength to reviewers, even if the author intends to be benevolent.*
So, anyway, about this book. It makes look like a fast-paced, action-packed, breathtaking ride at blinding speed through a roller coaster of plot. Meaning, nothing happens in this book the entire time. Gabriel is still a cardboard cutout of UR boifriend with blu Is. Rhine swoons I don’t even know how many times. The damn candies , and there is a drop-in mute, disabled, possibly autistic child who serves no purpose other than to . . . no, she serves no purpose. She scampers A LOT. On. All. Fours. And there’s one part where she hangs upside down from the back of a bus seat, and I’m not totally sure what the logistics on that are, considering the size of bus seats I’ve encountered, even compared to the size of babies.
But, aside from the offensive drop-in disabledpuppy monkey child to make everyone look cute (or eeeevil, depending on who you are), we also remember that smart kids still can’t have voluntary sex with someone they like, but since kids must have sex, they have to stumble into a sex trap. So, Rhine and Gabriel fall into the grips of an eeeeevil brothel owner who for some reason talks like a Russian villain in a cartoon. She pumps them with aphrodisiacs and they do the deed in a cage in front of an audience (I think � this is never totally worked out a la Wings of the Dove, and I was left with the feeling that they were just making out, even though that doesn’t really make sense). So . . . that happens. It is voyeuristic and disempowering. Not, like, they would have wanted to have sex, but you know. The aphrodisiacs made them do it. This continues the image presented over and over in these books that women cannot want sex just for its own sake, but either must want it for some unhealthy ulterior motive or be forced into sex. It also continues the image that women cannot say “no� to sex and actually have people listen to them.
Then, after the aphrodisiac cage and some other hijinks, . Probably the main issue I have with these books is that I feel like they are saying nothing in a direct way, but doing a lot to normalize a sense of female victimization. Ms. DeStefano takes on the voice of trafficked child prostitutes, and then she does nothing to give them actual humanity or strength. This is a topic I have studied a little bit and really care about, so painting trafficked girls as boring, shallow waifs is offensive to me. I guess I don’t have much else to say about that.
I think I’ve said this before, but another thing that strikes me as odd in this book is that the statutory rape is treated as, well, you know, kids will be kids, but medical testing is painted in a weirdly ambivalent way. Rhine’s parents did it, so she is in favor of it, but it is also painted as the most evil thing in the book. I am confused about the book’s position on this, and that ends up adding to my overall boredom because ultimately I don't really care one way or another what the position on this is, I'd just like to know what it is.
I still cannot give this book one star because, even though it was probably objectively worse than the first one, and even though had panthers on leashes, which is AWESOME no matter how you look at it, Skye had a child being raped by a dog, and this book did not. So, Fever gets a freebie star for that. If you are not working on a bestiality-to-no-bestialiaty scale, though, this book is mostly pretty boring. I mean, this book is boooorrinzzzzzzzzz.
And, here’s the thing, you can get offended at the fact that I thought your book was boring, and that I think it normalizes rape, if you want to, Lauren (if you don’t mind me using your fist name). But, I’ve been told my writing is boring and wrong and what have you on the internet, and it is just a person’s opinion. And in this case, the person who called you boring has way less power than you do (see below for more on this). And I also do mean that to be constructive criticism, even if it doesn’t come off that way.
Ultimately, it is probably a pretty simple fix to make the next book less boring. You do a lot of telling and not showing. You tell us, for example that Rhine is an Aquarius, so she is unpredictable, but I have not yet seen her be unpredictable. I have seen many, many Aquariuses be unpredictable in many, many unpredictable ways, but I have not seen that from Rhine. I have seen her romanticize her surroundings, as a Libra like yourself might do, but I have not seen her be unpredictable or witty like an Aquarius might be. Also, you indicate that Gabriel wants to protect Rhine and Linton is in love with Rhine, but I have not yet seen them express anything other than not wanting other people to touch her. My understanding is that they do this because she has two different colored eyes, which makes her special to them. That is perplexing to me. If you could say less and show more about why they would like her, it would help me out.
Speaking of her being an Aquarius, I feel really bad that I am releasing a negative review right before Rhine’s birthday. But, since I am pretty convinced someone lied about her birthday, and she’s actually a Libra, I’m going to go ahead and wish her a happy fake birthday and release the review. Happy fake birthday, Rhine! I hope rehab is very successful for you and that you grow a pair!
_______________________
* I was actually thinking pretty seriously about author/reviewer interaction on goodreads.com for a few days before Ms. DeStefano let us know what she thinks our dark, 4chan corner of the internet. Her posts, and her to obviously did make me think more about the circumstances of author/reviewer respect, though, so I am going to talk a little about it here. Author/reviewer interaction is, perhaps, the most over-discussed topic in my entire world right now, other than, maybe, the topic of charging real costs for public records requests, but that is an entirely different boring story. So, I am definitely apologizing for wasting your time by adding my voice to this ridiculousness, but I feel compelled.
I guess, you know, I’m in law school, and that’s definitely part of who I am as a reviewer. I spend most of the day arguing, in a mostly non-personal way, with people who have different opinions than my own about almost anything you can think of from furniture to rape to the prison system to licorice. And I think, for the most part, goodreads tends to interact in a similar way. We present our opinions and tell our story, and then someone tells us that we are a fat, lesbian, Rachel Maddow-lookalike, , and someone else thanks us for our opinion and story and says it changed their life, and then we all go back to our realities. I’ll not say that I haven’t , but who among us has not been hurt by those we love? So, I might be wrong, but I think I can see what Ms. DeStefano is saying when she says it is difficult to read a negative review on goodreads. This is another thing, though, that I observe to be true, but do not necessarily understand. I guess, I like it when people disagree with me, so we can work out our ideas, and everyone can grow and become better through talking and thinking. I even think it’s funny when I get an angry troll who corrects me and says my writing is garbage. My feelings get hurt, on the other hand, when an authority figure steps in to reprimand me for expressing my thoughts.
So, that is where I am going with this. It is my impression that some authors do not realize that by the very nature of getting paid for their writing, they carry a certain amount of power within the writing community as far as everyone else is concerned. They are the trustees of the school, the investors in the project, and when they show up, the kids had better be on their best behavior. I have seen loads of wonderful author/reviewer interactions, but still, when the authors show up, there is a hush. Maybe this is sad sometimes for authors, and I can definitely see why Caris chooses not to embody his author profile, but ultimately I do not feel bad for these poor little rich kids. As reviewers, we come on this website because it is what we do � our fingers love to type, we tell stories, we love and hate books, and we love to write. And we get reminded constantly that we are not as good as published authors. I am not trying to claim some kind of nobility for it; I am just saying that we are all writers, but for those of us who are not paid to write, those who are paid for writing have a certain amount of power.
So, I guess my point is that whether an author intends it to be this way or not, stepping into a reviewer conflict can feel like a show of strength to reviewers. It can feel more threatening than a normal trolling. Even if you mean to say, “Oh hai! Conflict is a bummer!� it can feel to a reviewer like, “I am talking to other published authors about you and how you hurt my feelings and how they should not support your writing.� I am writing this in the second person because Ms. DeStefano is one of the authors who has made it clear she is monitoring reviews, but she is among many, and I think it is a potential learning moment for many authors and reviewers who have suddenly run into each other on these internets. I give major kudos to authors who can show up on a review and just validate what people are saying without trying to make it about that author's emotions. I also give major kudos to authors who can step away from the computer when they need to. It bothers me when I see authors do the opposite, whether they do it behind the scenes or in public.
As reviewers, we give good reviews and your book sells; we give bad reviews, and your book sells. But, you complain about us, and sometimes our writing disappears, and that is how we know where the power lies. As reviewers, most of us have had our writing, bodies, sexual orientation, political views, and grammar choices questioned and criticized, too. But, that is part of the fun and part of the nature of writing. I know that you, and other authors, have said that you do not want to stifle reviewer reaction to your writing, but when you make it clear that every sentence we say is life or death to you, it comes off as a show of strength because you have power over our writing and we do not have power over yours.
And, , this is just my opinion, but it's true.
_________________________
I received an ARC of this book from a book blogger friend. Thank you!!!
Ahh, yes. Much more comfortable. Soo, anywhoo. In one of my Intro to Lit classes in college, I had this lovely professor who advised us that whenever we read anything, we should ask ourselves who wrote it and what his or her agenda is. This is how I read books, and because I value direct communication, I probably base a lot of my opinion about a book on how clearly I can understand who wrote it and what the agenda is. (I am not using agenda as an insult. I think we all have agendas. Maybe “message� is a better word, but in books, I think they would mean the same thing.) How does the book present the world? What does it normalize? What does it question? Sometimes this is a more complex issue than others � for example, in the series, while Scott Westerfeld seems to try to say superficiality and self-mutilation are bad, I think he really does more to normalize them. Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series is another difficult one on that front.
First, I guess I’ll talk about figuring out who the author is, and then I’ll get to talking about the book and its messages in a minute. Ms. DeStefano is a twenty-seven-year-old woman whom . Maybe, in some ways, that is not a bad thing from a marketing perspective because it makes her more relatable to her audience. Otherwise, infantilization bothers me, and it bothers me when women play into it because I think it is usually manipulative, but I guess I don’t feel too strongly about it compared to the other things that make my head explode about this series. What I actually want to talk about are Ms. DeStefano’s choices in dealing with her position as an author in the midst of reviewers, so you’ll have to forgive me for the digression or report me to the authorities if you wish. I guess I’ll put that digression at the end, so you can choose to read it or not. It’s kind of loooong, and probably nobody cares at this point anyway. My main thought is that when authors, and Ms. DeStefano is certainly not alone in this, publicly react to reviews from an instinctive emotional place and make reviews about their feelings (or even when they privately contact reviewers in this way), it really comes off as a show of strength to reviewers, even if the author intends to be benevolent.*
So, anyway, about this book. It makes look like a fast-paced, action-packed, breathtaking ride at blinding speed through a roller coaster of plot. Meaning, nothing happens in this book the entire time. Gabriel is still a cardboard cutout of UR boifriend with blu Is. Rhine swoons I don’t even know how many times. The damn candies , and there is a drop-in mute, disabled, possibly autistic child who serves no purpose other than to . . . no, she serves no purpose. She scampers A LOT. On. All. Fours. And there’s one part where she hangs upside down from the back of a bus seat, and I’m not totally sure what the logistics on that are, considering the size of bus seats I’ve encountered, even compared to the size of babies.
But, aside from the offensive drop-in disabled
Then, after the aphrodisiac cage and some other hijinks, . Probably the main issue I have with these books is that I feel like they are saying nothing in a direct way, but doing a lot to normalize a sense of female victimization. Ms. DeStefano takes on the voice of trafficked child prostitutes, and then she does nothing to give them actual humanity or strength. This is a topic I have studied a little bit and really care about, so painting trafficked girls as boring, shallow waifs is offensive to me. I guess I don’t have much else to say about that.
I think I’ve said this before, but another thing that strikes me as odd in this book is that the statutory rape is treated as, well, you know, kids will be kids, but medical testing is painted in a weirdly ambivalent way. Rhine’s parents did it, so she is in favor of it, but it is also painted as the most evil thing in the book. I am confused about the book’s position on this, and that ends up adding to my overall boredom because ultimately I don't really care one way or another what the position on this is, I'd just like to know what it is.
I still cannot give this book one star because, even though it was probably objectively worse than the first one, and even though had panthers on leashes, which is AWESOME no matter how you look at it, Skye had a child being raped by a dog, and this book did not. So, Fever gets a freebie star for that. If you are not working on a bestiality-to-no-bestialiaty scale, though, this book is mostly pretty boring. I mean, this book is boooorrinzzzzzzzzz.
And, here’s the thing, you can get offended at the fact that I thought your book was boring, and that I think it normalizes rape, if you want to, Lauren (if you don’t mind me using your fist name). But, I’ve been told my writing is boring and wrong and what have you on the internet, and it is just a person’s opinion. And in this case, the person who called you boring has way less power than you do (see below for more on this). And I also do mean that to be constructive criticism, even if it doesn’t come off that way.
Ultimately, it is probably a pretty simple fix to make the next book less boring. You do a lot of telling and not showing. You tell us, for example that Rhine is an Aquarius, so she is unpredictable, but I have not yet seen her be unpredictable. I have seen many, many Aquariuses be unpredictable in many, many unpredictable ways, but I have not seen that from Rhine. I have seen her romanticize her surroundings, as a Libra like yourself might do, but I have not seen her be unpredictable or witty like an Aquarius might be. Also, you indicate that Gabriel wants to protect Rhine and Linton is in love with Rhine, but I have not yet seen them express anything other than not wanting other people to touch her. My understanding is that they do this because she has two different colored eyes, which makes her special to them. That is perplexing to me. If you could say less and show more about why they would like her, it would help me out.
Speaking of her being an Aquarius, I feel really bad that I am releasing a negative review right before Rhine’s birthday. But, since I am pretty convinced someone lied about her birthday, and she’s actually a Libra, I’m going to go ahead and wish her a happy fake birthday and release the review. Happy fake birthday, Rhine! I hope rehab is very successful for you and that you grow a pair!
_______________________
* I was actually thinking pretty seriously about author/reviewer interaction on goodreads.com for a few days before Ms. DeStefano let us know what she thinks our dark, 4chan corner of the internet. Her posts, and her to obviously did make me think more about the circumstances of author/reviewer respect, though, so I am going to talk a little about it here. Author/reviewer interaction is, perhaps, the most over-discussed topic in my entire world right now, other than, maybe, the topic of charging real costs for public records requests, but that is an entirely different boring story. So, I am definitely apologizing for wasting your time by adding my voice to this ridiculousness, but I feel compelled.
I guess, you know, I’m in law school, and that’s definitely part of who I am as a reviewer. I spend most of the day arguing, in a mostly non-personal way, with people who have different opinions than my own about almost anything you can think of from furniture to rape to the prison system to licorice. And I think, for the most part, goodreads tends to interact in a similar way. We present our opinions and tell our story, and then someone tells us that we are a fat, lesbian, Rachel Maddow-lookalike, , and someone else thanks us for our opinion and story and says it changed their life, and then we all go back to our realities. I’ll not say that I haven’t , but who among us has not been hurt by those we love? So, I might be wrong, but I think I can see what Ms. DeStefano is saying when she says it is difficult to read a negative review on goodreads. This is another thing, though, that I observe to be true, but do not necessarily understand. I guess, I like it when people disagree with me, so we can work out our ideas, and everyone can grow and become better through talking and thinking. I even think it’s funny when I get an angry troll who corrects me and says my writing is garbage. My feelings get hurt, on the other hand, when an authority figure steps in to reprimand me for expressing my thoughts.
So, that is where I am going with this. It is my impression that some authors do not realize that by the very nature of getting paid for their writing, they carry a certain amount of power within the writing community as far as everyone else is concerned. They are the trustees of the school, the investors in the project, and when they show up, the kids had better be on their best behavior. I have seen loads of wonderful author/reviewer interactions, but still, when the authors show up, there is a hush. Maybe this is sad sometimes for authors, and I can definitely see why Caris chooses not to embody his author profile, but ultimately I do not feel bad for these poor little rich kids. As reviewers, we come on this website because it is what we do � our fingers love to type, we tell stories, we love and hate books, and we love to write. And we get reminded constantly that we are not as good as published authors. I am not trying to claim some kind of nobility for it; I am just saying that we are all writers, but for those of us who are not paid to write, those who are paid for writing have a certain amount of power.
So, I guess my point is that whether an author intends it to be this way or not, stepping into a reviewer conflict can feel like a show of strength to reviewers. It can feel more threatening than a normal trolling. Even if you mean to say, “Oh hai! Conflict is a bummer!� it can feel to a reviewer like, “I am talking to other published authors about you and how you hurt my feelings and how they should not support your writing.� I am writing this in the second person because Ms. DeStefano is one of the authors who has made it clear she is monitoring reviews, but she is among many, and I think it is a potential learning moment for many authors and reviewers who have suddenly run into each other on these internets. I give major kudos to authors who can show up on a review and just validate what people are saying without trying to make it about that author's emotions. I also give major kudos to authors who can step away from the computer when they need to. It bothers me when I see authors do the opposite, whether they do it behind the scenes or in public.
As reviewers, we give good reviews and your book sells; we give bad reviews, and your book sells. But, you complain about us, and sometimes our writing disappears, and that is how we know where the power lies. As reviewers, most of us have had our writing, bodies, sexual orientation, political views, and grammar choices questioned and criticized, too. But, that is part of the fun and part of the nature of writing. I know that you, and other authors, have said that you do not want to stifle reviewer reaction to your writing, but when you make it clear that every sentence we say is life or death to you, it comes off as a show of strength because you have power over our writing and we do not have power over yours.
And, , this is just my opinion, but it's true.
_________________________
I received an ARC of this book from a book blogger friend. Thank you!!!
January 29, 2012
4.5 stars
This is the first book I've read this year that grabbed me. And I mean it grabbed me. In fact, it's the first book that's going right on my "2012 favs" shelf. You know I'm picky and you know my bar is pretty high, but I LOVED this book. Lauren DeStefano stole my heart with her lyrical prose in Wither, but she took my breath away with Fever.
But before I start gushing uncontrollably about how much I loved this book, I feel I need to talk about this cover for a minute. I'm gonna be honest here and say that when I first saw this cover, I didn't exactly like it. In fact, my exact words were, "It looks awful. And why does her hair look like that? She looked so much better on the first cover. She looks like she is strung out on drugs. Total fail on this one. Smh." *Sigh* I really should stop judging a book by its cover because unlike some books where the cover is completely misleading *cough**cough*, Fever's is very accurate. Every detail you see on that cover has something to do with the plot from the drugged facial expression and body position, to the tarot cards, right down to the color of the dress. Yes, yes. Someone read this book before the photo shoot (or at least given notes) and it SHOWS. Good job. Please, someone give that person a Klondike bar. So, while I do still love Wither's cover better, I take back the negatives I said last July.
Now that that's off my cheast, time for the review. Let gushing commence.
Fever picks up exactly where Wither left off. Gabriel and Rhine have escaped the mansion and Housemaster Vaughn and are attempting to make their way to New York city (or what's left of it) to find Rhine's twin brother, Rowen. Obviously, that's sounds more easy that what it is because they live in a world where their youth coupled with the virus makes them a target for prostitution, weird scientific experiments, and forced servitude. If you think it couldn't get any more disturbing than Cecily’s pregnancy in Wither, you were wrong. Right from the beginning Rhine and Gabriel stumble across one of these horrors at a sick and twisted carnival where the only fun to be had is dependent upon how much the "John" is willing to pay for. However, they quickly learn escaping that deadly playground is not their only problem because Vaughn is after Rhine and he will stop at nothing to get her back.
I'm not giving away any spoilers. So, if you clicked this review hoping for some details about what's going to happen next, guess what?
Does Rhine find Rowen? Does Vaughn catch up to Rhine? What happened to Cecily? Why is it called "Fever"? All of those questions I can't answer. You'll just have to read the book. But I will tell you what I LOVED about this book.
The plot:
This is one of those books where you really can't predict what's going to happen next. That's mostly due to the fact that we didn't have a good idea of what the outside world was like in Wither. Well, in Fever you get a full blown dose of Rhine's reality. It is not pretty and it's grim. Rhine and Gabriel seem to go from one horrible thing to the next. I can't even decide which of them is worse. Scientific experiment or a drugged out prostitute? Which would you pick? I mean, jumping off a cliff would start to seem like the optimal choice. But somehow due to Rhine's determination and strength, they escape. Their journey to New York is not an easy one and it had me flipping through the pages needing to know what happened next. There is one part in the book that slows on you and at first I was wondering when it would pick back up, but when it did it just made me appreciate the down time. The plot twist hits you like a freight train.
The characters (old and new):
While staying at the Carnival of Horrors, or as I like call it "Cirque de Prostitute", we meet one of the best new characters in the series, Maddie. She is a brilliant child who is slightly malformed and a mute. Her characterization was genius and while it may seem like you should feel sorry for her handicaps, she doesn't need your pity. It's easy to say she was one of the reasons why I fell in love with this book. Maddie's mother, Lilac, a nineteen year old prostitute, also was a winner and her story breaks my heart.
Rhine is just as strong as ever. She's goes throughout most of the novel worried if she made the right decision to leave the mansion behind. She's a bit unsure of herself. But unlike other indecisive heroines, Rhine's indecision is understandable. At the mansion she had food, water, and the option to live the remainder of her years relatively comfortably. She gave that all away to be free, but she learns that freedom only goes but so far in her world and she feels terrible for dragging Gabriel into it. Rhine is a very relatable character. Determined, caring, rebellious, and stubborn. I loved her in Wither and I loved her even more in Fever.
Gabriel is one of those characters that, while I like him, I'm not sure how connected I felt to him. For the most part he relies on Rhine to navigate their cruel world and you can tell he really cares for her. However, I don't know how much I cared for him. Don't get me wrong. I don't want him to die or anything, but I think that is mostly for Rhine's sake not because I would miss him. I did appreciate his fierceness to protect Rhine in a world where it's impossible to make such promises.
The prose:
Beautiful. Once again DeStefano mesmerized me with her prose. I feel like I want to paste my favorite quotes in this review, but there are so many. Not only that, but I don't know if they would sound as good as they do when you read the book. Rhine's narration just flows together in this book like one huge poem. And I worry that if quote it, it won't do the passage justice. But I'm going to try anyway. :)
"I should not have loved my daughter as I did. Not in this world in which nothing lives for long. You children are flies. You are roses. You multiply and die."And my personal favorite out of the entire novel:
Everything that happened before feels like a million years ago now. This is the freedom I craved throughout my marriage. To share a bed not because of a wedding ring or a one-sided promise that was made for me, but because of desire. Inexplicable yet undeniable. I have never craved closeness like this for anyone else.
He kissed back, all the pages spread out around us like riddles waiting to be solved. Let them wait. Let my genes unravel, my hinges come loose. If my fate rests in the hands of a madman, let death come and bring its worse. I'll take the ruined craters of laboratories, the dead trees, this city with ashes in the oxygen, if it means freedom. I'd sooner die here than live a hundred years with wires in my veins.Gah! I could live off of bread, water and pretty prose for the rest of my days. I just love it!
The ending:
Whew. WOW. Jeez, man. That last third? OMG, horribly perfect. It's one of those endings where all the shit is hitting the fan and everything's going straight to hell first class faster than you can say "in a hand basket" and you're wondering how this book is supposed to end, that Rhine can't possibly escape this one. It blew me away and left me hanging! THAT DARN CLIFFHANGER!!!
Why, Lauren? Why did you do that to me? Between you and Cynthia Hand how am I supposed to survive until 2013?! Curses, curses, curses!
Recommendation: If you loved Wither or even just liked it, you will most likely enjoy Fever. If you didn't like Wither at all, you may like Fever a little better. *shrugs* Up to you folks!
Disclaimer: I received an ARC from the author. Are these my honest opinions? Pfft...I can't believe you would even doubt me.
More reviews and more at .
August 8, 2021
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Look, I never claimed to be a literati okay? I can be a smart, sophisticated woman and still wallow in book trash the way a Vegas bigshot wallows in a hot tub filled with hookers and champagne. That's why I'm on this trashy YA binge. I crave the mindless escape of soap opera drama and mediocre world building.
The Chemical Garden series really isn't very popular among my friends. A lot of them were kind of fatigued by the glut of Hunger Games copycats and some of them were (fairly) horrified by the child bride themes in this book. Which is totally understandable. This series revolves around a sort of Logan's Run premise where people don't live past twenty (female) or twenty-five (male). Which means that people get married and pregnant uncomfortably young.
If the first book was like a teen-friendly harem drama from the 1980s, this sequel is more like a classic adventure bodice ripper. The heroine, Rhine, is on the run from her evil mad scientist father-in-law, only to end up out of the frying pan and into fire when she lands in a carnival brothel run by a crazy lady who likes to burn people up in incinerators. Her captive gang of prostitutes have all been abducted and some of them are on drugs One of them has a mute child that the crazy lady nearly beats to death at one point. That child comes with Rhine and Gabriel when they try to escape-- again-- only to end up in YET MORE DANGER. Oh, boy.
FEVER took a long time to get moving. Unlike WITHER, which was pretty compelling from the start, this book definitely suffers from second book syndrome. Most of the book is running around. Lots of bad things happen. Rhine gets sick at some point and then it's pages of surreal fever dreams. There really isn't much meat to this book until the beginning of the middle and then, later, towards the end. We get some insight into why the House Governor did what he does (surprise, surprise, he's basically one step removed from a Nazi scientist-- and I mean that very literally, the man is basically a eugenicist). There's some medical gore that was hard to read. I found myself skimming towards the end. It's not a bad book but definitely not as good as the first and it gives the impression that the author was kind of figuring out the plot as she went, and completely ad-hocing it.
I'm still curious to see how this trilogy ends and unfortunately, I DON'T own book three, but I'm not in a huge hurry to buy it, either. I do think that Chemical Garden gets a lot of unfair hate, though, so if you're curious about the book and have a strong stomach, don't let the negative reviews prevent you from giving it a try. It really is a lot like a dystopian bodice-ripper and if that's something you think you'd be into, you'll probably really enjoy this book.
3 to 3.5 stars
May 24, 2011
2012? Seriously? I can't wait that long! I want to get my hands on that book NOW. This is total agony. *cries*
September 23, 2015
Fever is Book 2 of the Chemical Garden Trilogy
Rhine and Gabriel have succeeded in escaping the mansion, and they are determined to find Rhine's brother, Rowan. However, it's a very short time before they are in danger again as they fall into the grips of an evil brothel owner.
I really liked some of the secondary characters introduced in "Fever". I had a very soft spot for young Maddie. We learn a lot about her and her story really tugged at my heart-strings. Lilac, Silas, Jared and Claire were also great characters that I wanted to know more about. They met up with all sorts of people. Lots of bizarre characters at the carnival brothel, some very strange restaurant owners, as well as a psychic. But again some of the characters stories just seemed to end abruptly and I was left wondering what became of them.
I read though this rather quickly. I will admith though, that I was skimming the pages a little. I was anxious to know what was going to happen. It seemed like there was a lot of detail about events that didn't seem all that important and yet a lot of important questions went unanswered. I really wanted to learn more about the real world outside the mansion but it just felt like not very much happened in this book.
I found the relationship between Rhine and Gabriel odd. They almost seemed like brother and sister at times. I found myself wondering half the time if Gabriel even wanted to be there. Don't get me wrong there are some tender moments but it just felt strange to me.
I'm glad I didn't stop reading though as it does start to get pretty interesting towards the end of the book. I was happy to see some of the characters I was wondering about and I really wanted to know what was going to happen next.
Left with a huge cliff-hanger at the end of the book which makes me want to know what happens even more. Hopefully a lot of questions will be answered in the final book, SEVER. I am still very invested in many of the characters and I must know what happens to them and the world they live in.
Rhine and Gabriel have succeeded in escaping the mansion, and they are determined to find Rhine's brother, Rowan. However, it's a very short time before they are in danger again as they fall into the grips of an evil brothel owner.
I really liked some of the secondary characters introduced in "Fever". I had a very soft spot for young Maddie. We learn a lot about her and her story really tugged at my heart-strings. Lilac, Silas, Jared and Claire were also great characters that I wanted to know more about. They met up with all sorts of people. Lots of bizarre characters at the carnival brothel, some very strange restaurant owners, as well as a psychic. But again some of the characters stories just seemed to end abruptly and I was left wondering what became of them.
I read though this rather quickly. I will admith though, that I was skimming the pages a little. I was anxious to know what was going to happen. It seemed like there was a lot of detail about events that didn't seem all that important and yet a lot of important questions went unanswered. I really wanted to learn more about the real world outside the mansion but it just felt like not very much happened in this book.
I found the relationship between Rhine and Gabriel odd. They almost seemed like brother and sister at times. I found myself wondering half the time if Gabriel even wanted to be there. Don't get me wrong there are some tender moments but it just felt strange to me.
I'm glad I didn't stop reading though as it does start to get pretty interesting towards the end of the book. I was happy to see some of the characters I was wondering about and I really wanted to know what was going to happen next.
Left with a huge cliff-hanger at the end of the book which makes me want to know what happens even more. Hopefully a lot of questions will be answered in the final book, SEVER. I am still very invested in many of the characters and I must know what happens to them and the world they live in.
August 2, 2013
About a year ago, I reviewed Fever, and it was pointed out to me how positive the review was compared to my rating; you can still see on my blog, but which I'm not going to link to, because, though I meant it at the time, this is one book where hindsight has really changed my opinion. Since I don't believe in major edits to my blog reviews, I'm going to change this one, because I really don't care.
What I Liked:
The writing, sort of. Lauren DeStefano has a very interesting, unique style that, while not precisely my thing, I can appreciate the merits of. Her writing will specifically appeal to those who appreciate a more poetic sort of style.
Rhine and Gabriel's relationship is very awkward. They have no sort of chemistry and it becomes apparent when they run away together. If you shipped them, this will be a negative for you, but I thought it made a nice change from the typical instalove sort of scenario. Sometimes intense attractions are born solely from the stressful situation in which the character has found herself, like being sold to some guy she doesn't know as a baby machine.
That's pretty much it, but the book is also very readable, which is what led me to rate this book too highly initially. In adjusting to my own rating system, it took me some time to fully appreciate that just because I read a book quickly, that doesn't necessarily mean that I liked it.
What Annoyed Me:
Fever suffers from some serious second book syndrome. Though the book moves along at a good pace and it's not a slow read, the plot doesn't really go anywhere. At the end of the book Rhine's back where she started. It's basically the difference between running outdoors and running on a treadmill. There's just as much movement, but, in the latter instance, you're not going anywhere.
Of course, I love plenty of books that have plots that do not go anywhere and that don't even have action, plots that sit in a cafe and watch the sunset, never moving at all. However, those books generally involve a lot of navel-gazing and growth within the main character. Rhine does not accomplish anything significant in her journey, nor does she mature emotionally. What she does do is spend most of the book drugged out of her mind and helpless.
What I Hated:
This series makes no goddamn sense as written. Lauren DeStefano has established a post-apocalyptic/dystopian horror of a future, wherein women are dying at 25 and men at 20 because of some craziness with genetic engineering. I can accept this. Women are being sold to rich men and raped and basically treated like chattel in an effort to keep the patriarchy and humankind going. I can accept this too. Fine. This is your world and I will roll with it. However, if you're going to write a world like this, you have to be willing to follow through with the consequences and do shitty things to your female heroine, or have reasonable explanations for why she makes it through unharmed.
In Wither, Rhine is married off to Landen to have his babies. He wants her to fall for him, so he doesn't force her to have sex with him, much to his father's disappointment. A bit of a stretch, but I'm willing to believe this, since Landen's a bit wimpy, he's dealing with grief over his real wife's death, and he has two other women to bone anyway. While he's trying to wear her down, she's making out with the cute servant, Gabriel. At the end of the book, they run off together, hoping to escape somewhere better.
Unsurprisingly, they don't. They immediately wash up at a whore house, where they are forced to work. This is where I learned that Lauren DeStefano is the kind of author who writes on horror movie rules: heroines are pure and girls who have sex die. See the spoiler for more details:
What I Liked:
The writing, sort of. Lauren DeStefano has a very interesting, unique style that, while not precisely my thing, I can appreciate the merits of. Her writing will specifically appeal to those who appreciate a more poetic sort of style.
Rhine and Gabriel's relationship is very awkward. They have no sort of chemistry and it becomes apparent when they run away together. If you shipped them, this will be a negative for you, but I thought it made a nice change from the typical instalove sort of scenario. Sometimes intense attractions are born solely from the stressful situation in which the character has found herself, like being sold to some guy she doesn't know as a baby machine.
That's pretty much it, but the book is also very readable, which is what led me to rate this book too highly initially. In adjusting to my own rating system, it took me some time to fully appreciate that just because I read a book quickly, that doesn't necessarily mean that I liked it.
What Annoyed Me:
Fever suffers from some serious second book syndrome. Though the book moves along at a good pace and it's not a slow read, the plot doesn't really go anywhere. At the end of the book Rhine's back where she started. It's basically the difference between running outdoors and running on a treadmill. There's just as much movement, but, in the latter instance, you're not going anywhere.
Of course, I love plenty of books that have plots that do not go anywhere and that don't even have action, plots that sit in a cafe and watch the sunset, never moving at all. However, those books generally involve a lot of navel-gazing and growth within the main character. Rhine does not accomplish anything significant in her journey, nor does she mature emotionally. What she does do is spend most of the book drugged out of her mind and helpless.
What I Hated:
This series makes no goddamn sense as written. Lauren DeStefano has established a post-apocalyptic/dystopian horror of a future, wherein women are dying at 25 and men at 20 because of some craziness with genetic engineering. I can accept this. Women are being sold to rich men and raped and basically treated like chattel in an effort to keep the patriarchy and humankind going. I can accept this too. Fine. This is your world and I will roll with it. However, if you're going to write a world like this, you have to be willing to follow through with the consequences and do shitty things to your female heroine, or have reasonable explanations for why she makes it through unharmed.
In Wither, Rhine is married off to Landen to have his babies. He wants her to fall for him, so he doesn't force her to have sex with him, much to his father's disappointment. A bit of a stretch, but I'm willing to believe this, since Landen's a bit wimpy, he's dealing with grief over his real wife's death, and he has two other women to bone anyway. While he's trying to wear her down, she's making out with the cute servant, Gabriel. At the end of the book, they run off together, hoping to escape somewhere better.
Unsurprisingly, they don't. They immediately wash up at a whore house, where they are forced to work. This is where I learned that Lauren DeStefano is the kind of author who writes on horror movie rules: heroines are pure and girls who have sex die. See the spoiler for more details:
July 16, 2019
La primera entrega de esta trilogía me sorprendió para bien, y quizá por ello esperaba más de esta segunda parte, cosa que no sucedió.
Los protagonistas me gustaron, son fuertes y complejos, pero siento que perdieron atributos, al igual que la historia.
El libro comienza justo donde termina el primero, pero lo poco que sucede en ese trascurso no hace gran diferencia.
No me gustó para nada eso de la madame, ni la historia de sus chicas, ni nada respecto a esa cuidad y sus circunstancias.
No pasó la gran cosa, solo que ya sabíamos, que el doctor, suegro de la protagonista es un ser despiadado que en nombre de la ciencia y la cura de la enfermedad hace muchas cosas terribles.
Era obvio que ella es "especial" y que este señor pensaba utilizarla.
Una buena parte del libro se centra en volver a contarnos lo del primero, más discursos nuevos que cuentan la misma cosa, para centrarnos solo un poquito más allá de donde quedó Efímera.
Casi creo que no hay necesidad de leerlo para pasar al tercero. :/
Los protagonistas me gustaron, son fuertes y complejos, pero siento que perdieron atributos, al igual que la historia.
El libro comienza justo donde termina el primero, pero lo poco que sucede en ese trascurso no hace gran diferencia.
No me gustó para nada eso de la madame, ni la historia de sus chicas, ni nada respecto a esa cuidad y sus circunstancias.
No pasó la gran cosa, solo que ya sabíamos, que el doctor, suegro de la protagonista es un ser despiadado que en nombre de la ciencia y la cura de la enfermedad hace muchas cosas terribles.
Era obvio que ella es "especial" y que este señor pensaba utilizarla.
Una buena parte del libro se centra en volver a contarnos lo del primero, más discursos nuevos que cuentan la misma cosa, para centrarnos solo un poquito más allá de donde quedó Efímera.
Casi creo que no hay necesidad de leerlo para pasar al tercero. :/
December 12, 2016
Not good at all.
Oh, wait. No one likes it when I leave a single sentence review. Breathless fangirls and guys are even now lurking in the darkness of the internet, waiting to leap out with their all caps denunciations: HOW CAN U SAY THAT WITH NO REASON U JUST DONT GET IT ITS TO DEEP FOR YOU. I'm sorry. I'm sure some of them can spell. I'm a little bitter from my last bad ŷ experience, with other fan fave 'Name of the Wind'. But there's no need to be rude, and I'm sorry for casting aspersions upon DeStefano's fan base.
I guess there's something that reminds me of 'Name' about this book. The same overwrought faux Victorian prose, loaded with improbably purple dialogue and shoddy character descriptions. Here's something that has bugged me for 100 pages: the main character at one point claims to 'mutter something unintelligibly' to herself. Can you do that? I mean, even if you mutter very softly and don't enunciate, I'm pretty sure you still know what you're saying. With all of the other problems with the book, I am not sure why that one stuck in my teeth, but there you go.
If you, like me, love books about bleak pitiless futures and strange diseases, just give this book a miss, no matter how alluring it may seem. You could have just stopped at my first sentence. Fever is really not good. DeStefano has captured the tone of a melodramatic teenager who mistakenly believes she's Very Deep, but since the entire book sounds the same, I'm not sure it's a stylistic choice as much as it's simply crappy prose. She very nicely thanks her editor for helping her with her "erratic" writing, but clearly more help was needed.
I'd feel worse about panning this but I'm sick of YA books with a rape and/or victim fetish. And though as a feminist I should say that's what I'm MOST sick of, I'm even more sick of wading through heavily promoted, big budget, poorly written books.
Now, you kids get off my lawn!
The end.
Oh, wait. No one likes it when I leave a single sentence review. Breathless fangirls and guys are even now lurking in the darkness of the internet, waiting to leap out with their all caps denunciations: HOW CAN U SAY THAT WITH NO REASON U JUST DONT GET IT ITS TO DEEP FOR YOU. I'm sorry. I'm sure some of them can spell. I'm a little bitter from my last bad ŷ experience, with other fan fave 'Name of the Wind'. But there's no need to be rude, and I'm sorry for casting aspersions upon DeStefano's fan base.
I guess there's something that reminds me of 'Name' about this book. The same overwrought faux Victorian prose, loaded with improbably purple dialogue and shoddy character descriptions. Here's something that has bugged me for 100 pages: the main character at one point claims to 'mutter something unintelligibly' to herself. Can you do that? I mean, even if you mutter very softly and don't enunciate, I'm pretty sure you still know what you're saying. With all of the other problems with the book, I am not sure why that one stuck in my teeth, but there you go.
If you, like me, love books about bleak pitiless futures and strange diseases, just give this book a miss, no matter how alluring it may seem. You could have just stopped at my first sentence. Fever is really not good. DeStefano has captured the tone of a melodramatic teenager who mistakenly believes she's Very Deep, but since the entire book sounds the same, I'm not sure it's a stylistic choice as much as it's simply crappy prose. She very nicely thanks her editor for helping her with her "erratic" writing, but clearly more help was needed.
I'd feel worse about panning this but I'm sick of YA books with a rape and/or victim fetish. And though as a feminist I should say that's what I'm MOST sick of, I'm even more sick of wading through heavily promoted, big budget, poorly written books.
Now, you kids get off my lawn!
The end.
December 14, 2011
Things will get worse before they get better. A little more agony before the fever will break.
Fever, the second installment to The Chemical Garden Trilogy, picks up immediately where left off. As Rhine and Gabriel escape Linden’s mansion in search of their freedom and Rhine’s twin brother, they find themselves captured by Madame Soleski and forced to become a perverse display for profit. The story unfolds into a brutal yet subtly romantic dystopic nightmare where no matter how harsh and morbid it becomes, there seems to be something that makes this novel increasingly addicting.
I’ll admit right now, I am sort of shocked at myself for how engrossed I’ve become with this trilogy. It’s definitely not like anything I’ve categorized in the past as romantic, beautiful, or hopeful, yet there’s a deep seeded part of this story that deserves those exact descriptors; and it’s for reasons that hide beneath the layers of DeStefano’s story-telling. As I read certain scenes, I’d find myself both cringing and embracing this author’s ability to enrapture me with her bold skill to push my comfort level yet keep me fully engaged. She seamlessly creates a journey that leaves me craving for more and turning the pages to its harsh conclusion. ~applauds~
The writing continues to be a blend of beautifully poetic and increasingly morbid. As a reader, I had to be careful not to be completely hypnotized by DeStefano’s ability to deliver attractive prose because it never fails that she has a harsh reality waiting to unfold at every corner. DeStefano’s writing really shines in this book as she demonstrates her ability to use both symbolism and foreshadowing to its advantage.
For example for most of the book, I was baffled as to why Rhine continued to wear her wedding band and long for the luxuries of Linden’s mansion, until I realized it served a purpose. The band symbolizes an invisible cord that tethers her to her nightmare. Even after her escape, she longs for the luxuries found in Linden’s mansions, but Rhine soon discovers that those luxuries come at the hefty price of her freedom. In the end, she’ll take the hardship because even if the lies and luxuries are beautiful, the truth is what she’ll face in the end and that’s a world where she was born to die at a young age.
This second installment provides some additional insight into DeStefano’s world-building. In Fever, we get a better idea of the leader’s role in this nation, how organized law enforcement has morphed into a more private security system and finally how the Gatherers own the streets in search of girls they can sell into polygamist relationships. However, we’re still left wondering how the other continents collapsed into nothingness, leaving the US as the only surviving nation. So, I’m both curious and excited to see what DeStefano will unveil as the world beyond this setting in her concluding installment.
In addition, I loved everything about the art cover and title of this book because of how appropriate and well-tied to the story it proves to be. Nothing is insignificant or frivolous. The accessories and props you see on the cover relate to some fact about the story, that I continually found myself turning back to the cover to relate it to what I was reading.
Overall, I cannot wait to experience the final installment to The Chemical Garden Trilogy to see how the world survives this dystopic nightmare. Harsh, yet hauntingly beautiful!
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Publishing for allowing me to preview this book. Definitely a story that I anticipate will cause both turbulent waves amid resounding praise. Well done!
March 3, 2012
Liebes Fever,
was war denn das? Deine große Schwester Wither und ich hatten so eine gute Zeit zusammen und jetzt kommst du daher und machst alles kaputt.
Ich bin wirklich enttäuscht. Ich habe so viel mehr von dir erwartet, stattdessen fühlst du dich an wie ein Lückenfüller.
Es ging ja ganz gut los. Karnevalszenerien gewinnen mich immer schnell für sich, sogar diese sehr rotlichtstichige. Ein Riesenrad, ein Karussell, farbenprächtige Zelte, eine verschrobene Karnevalskönigin und süßlich-betörender Rausch in der Luft. Perfekt. Die Atmosphäre hat mich genauso umgehauen wie Rhine und Gabriel. Ich fand fast gar nichts Schockierendes an dem voyeuristischen Liebesspiel, zu dem sie gezwungen werden. Das könnte aber auch daran liegen, dass du dich darüber so ausschweigst. Rhine hat doch vorher noch mit niemandem Sex gehabt oder? Und jetzt, wo es unter so extremen Umständen sogar mehrmals dazu kommt, behältst du wirklich alle Details für dich? Das finde ich echt nicht fair.
Und wo ich schon bei Rhine und Gabriel bin � die beiden sind so anziehend wie Feuer und Eis. Da gibt es nicht das kleinste Fünkchen Chemie! Könnte daran liegen, dass Gabriel einfach null Charakter hat.
Versteh mich nicht falsch, du liest dich wirklich ganz gut. Lauren DeStefano hat sich wieder alle Mühe mit ihren schönen Formulierungen gegeben, aber das tröstet einfach nicht über deine zähe, schleppende Atmosphäre hinweg. Rhine und Gabriel kommen die ganze Zeit einfach so furchtbar passiv und eingeschlafen herüber. Als würden sie nichts verstehen und auf keine Handlung selbst kommen. Da waren ja die neu vorgestellten Figuren Maddie, Lilac und Grace schwungvoller. Obwohl ich ihr Auftauchen nicht richtig verstehe. Bis auf die Möglichkeit auf einen neuen Unterschlupf scheinen sie keine tragenden Rollen zu spielen.
Ich hoffe wirklich dein Nachfolger macht das alles wieder wett und bringt ein paar wachgerüttelte Figuren mit sich.
In tiefer Enttäuschung,
Infinite Playlist
was war denn das? Deine große Schwester Wither und ich hatten so eine gute Zeit zusammen und jetzt kommst du daher und machst alles kaputt.
Ich bin wirklich enttäuscht. Ich habe so viel mehr von dir erwartet, stattdessen fühlst du dich an wie ein Lückenfüller.
Es ging ja ganz gut los. Karnevalszenerien gewinnen mich immer schnell für sich, sogar diese sehr rotlichtstichige. Ein Riesenrad, ein Karussell, farbenprächtige Zelte, eine verschrobene Karnevalskönigin und süßlich-betörender Rausch in der Luft. Perfekt. Die Atmosphäre hat mich genauso umgehauen wie Rhine und Gabriel. Ich fand fast gar nichts Schockierendes an dem voyeuristischen Liebesspiel, zu dem sie gezwungen werden. Das könnte aber auch daran liegen, dass du dich darüber so ausschweigst. Rhine hat doch vorher noch mit niemandem Sex gehabt oder? Und jetzt, wo es unter so extremen Umständen sogar mehrmals dazu kommt, behältst du wirklich alle Details für dich? Das finde ich echt nicht fair.
Und wo ich schon bei Rhine und Gabriel bin � die beiden sind so anziehend wie Feuer und Eis. Da gibt es nicht das kleinste Fünkchen Chemie! Könnte daran liegen, dass Gabriel einfach null Charakter hat.
Versteh mich nicht falsch, du liest dich wirklich ganz gut. Lauren DeStefano hat sich wieder alle Mühe mit ihren schönen Formulierungen gegeben, aber das tröstet einfach nicht über deine zähe, schleppende Atmosphäre hinweg. Rhine und Gabriel kommen die ganze Zeit einfach so furchtbar passiv und eingeschlafen herüber. Als würden sie nichts verstehen und auf keine Handlung selbst kommen. Da waren ja die neu vorgestellten Figuren Maddie, Lilac und Grace schwungvoller. Obwohl ich ihr Auftauchen nicht richtig verstehe. Bis auf die Möglichkeit auf einen neuen Unterschlupf scheinen sie keine tragenden Rollen zu spielen.
Ich hoffe wirklich dein Nachfolger macht das alles wieder wett und bringt ein paar wachgerüttelte Figuren mit sich.
In tiefer Enttäuschung,
Infinite Playlist
February 14, 2012
An improvement over Wither - Fever starts exactly where we left off in the midst of the excitement from having escaped. The issue I had with Wither lacking energy, where I had a feeling of restlessness being with those girls in their big mansion unmoving, is not the case anymore. In Fever, we're out in the real world. Things are moving fast and the anxiety is heightened. As a lover of fast paced dystopians, I found myself much preferring this second installment.
We're following Rhine and Gabriel on the run. Rhine is trying to find her brother, while Gabriel is seeing the outside of the Mansion for the first time in a decade. As in Wither, I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between these two. They are clearly good for each other; always there to help one another, but there's no rooted passion between them. Fortunately, the plot doesn't center around the romance as much as their escape and, eventually, what's happening to Rhine. She's started getting sick with the same symptoms as the virus. No one knows why, or how to fix it.
Although it's still not at the scale I was hoping, we do learn more about the outside world in Fever. Rhine and Gabriel travel enough to give us glimpses of society's living situations. We also hear the president give an interesting speech of future plans. Furthermore, we get some good plot development as well as a lot of mystery throughout this novel. The twists we encounter definitely came to impress me. They were very well thought out from the beginning, put together in a way that makes them hard to predict. I, for one, had no idea what was happening and was caught smiling by the cleverness of it all by the end.
I noticed an improvement in the writing from Wither. It's more vibrant, and the story flows really well with an easy to read, but sophisticated prose. It's beautiful in a sense. There is also a sequence where Rhine is drugged, going in and out of consciousness, that I thought was brilliantly done. I felt as confused as Rhine was. Trying to figure out what was happening along with her. You get the sense of unease like in a dream where you know you must escape, but you're trapped, controlled. It's suspenseful and frightening.
A much more fast paced, captivating dystopian than the first in its series- Fever continues Rhine's story while her years dwindle by. With only 3 of them left, Rhine has a lot of life left to live in a very short time. I'm looking forward to finding out how she spends these in the final book of the series!
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For more of my reviews, visit my blog at
We're following Rhine and Gabriel on the run. Rhine is trying to find her brother, while Gabriel is seeing the outside of the Mansion for the first time in a decade. As in Wither, I didn't feel a lot of chemistry between these two. They are clearly good for each other; always there to help one another, but there's no rooted passion between them. Fortunately, the plot doesn't center around the romance as much as their escape and, eventually, what's happening to Rhine. She's started getting sick with the same symptoms as the virus. No one knows why, or how to fix it.
Although it's still not at the scale I was hoping, we do learn more about the outside world in Fever. Rhine and Gabriel travel enough to give us glimpses of society's living situations. We also hear the president give an interesting speech of future plans. Furthermore, we get some good plot development as well as a lot of mystery throughout this novel. The twists we encounter definitely came to impress me. They were very well thought out from the beginning, put together in a way that makes them hard to predict. I, for one, had no idea what was happening and was caught smiling by the cleverness of it all by the end.
I noticed an improvement in the writing from Wither. It's more vibrant, and the story flows really well with an easy to read, but sophisticated prose. It's beautiful in a sense. There is also a sequence where Rhine is drugged, going in and out of consciousness, that I thought was brilliantly done. I felt as confused as Rhine was. Trying to figure out what was happening along with her. You get the sense of unease like in a dream where you know you must escape, but you're trapped, controlled. It's suspenseful and frightening.
A much more fast paced, captivating dystopian than the first in its series- Fever continues Rhine's story while her years dwindle by. With only 3 of them left, Rhine has a lot of life left to live in a very short time. I'm looking forward to finding out how she spends these in the final book of the series!
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July 11, 2015
341 pages of boredom.
I am so disappointed with this book. The plot is completely dull & boring. I don't see any world building and the characters just escaped, run, getting caught in the circus, find Rhine's brother etc. Nothing exciting happens and it didn't answered anything of what's the problem in their society. Na-da. Not even single CLUE how to cure this virus.
I tried to be patient but it's exhausting. I don't feel the dystopia vibe anymore. I seemed not to care anymore with the society or any of the characters. They even lacked chemistry and connection with each other.
I don't think I'll continue this series. I lost my interest. It ended with a cliffhanger but I don't really care. It messed up.
I am so disappointed with this book. The plot is completely dull & boring. I don't see any world building and the characters just escaped, run, getting caught in the circus, find Rhine's brother etc. Nothing exciting happens and it didn't answered anything of what's the problem in their society. Na-da. Not even single CLUE how to cure this virus.
I tried to be patient but it's exhausting. I don't feel the dystopia vibe anymore. I seemed not to care anymore with the society or any of the characters. They even lacked chemistry and connection with each other.
I don't think I'll continue this series. I lost my interest. It ended with a cliffhanger but I don't really care. It messed up.
February 23, 2012
Gritty sequel failed to keep my attention like WITHER did
takes readers into an even darker world than did Lauren DeStefano’s debut novel, . Having escaped the confines of the mansion, Rhine and Gabriel make the run to freedom only to find that the outside world may offer even less of it. As they struggle to make their way to Manhattan in search of safety and Rhine’s twin brother, the two find that the world is populated by those both cruel and kind and that everyone is looking for a way to survive.
When I read WITHER last year, I was impressed by the author’s writing and her willingness to explore what dire things might happen in a world where all young people die early. Even with this gritty dystopian world laid out, I found the world building to be weak enough that I spent a lot of time questioning how this world came about. Unfortunately, this is the same problem I had while reading FEVER, and it seemed even more prevalent this time. Incomplete or unbelievable world building continued to draw me out of the story too often. Also, while I liked the author’s exploration of sexuality and oppression in the first book, this book’s tone comes across as even more bleak and without as much purpose. Rhine and Gabriel routinely end up in situations that felt like they were there more for shock value than for character or plot development. And when these terrible things happen, they don’t touch the main characters in the way one would expect, again making the world less believable. Because of this, I sometimes felt disconnected from Rhine and Gabriel and their struggles. I also never felt really moved by Rhine and Gabriel’s relationship, despite a few good moments. The book then finishes on a cliffhanger with little resolution. FEVER as a whole felt very much like a “middle book� where things don’t move forward a great deal.
On the positive side, DeStefano continues to show that she can write well, and her pretty prose allows readers to easily visualize the surroundings she describes. FEVER also provides much more information about the world outside the mansion, and sympathetic new characters are introduced. Although I don’t think it was as well done as in the first book, I also continue to appreciate the author’s willingness to examine the harsh realities that could result in a world where women become little more than sexual commodities.
Overall, FEVER failed to keep my attention in the way that WITHER did one year ago, and it didn’t leave me mulling over important issues in the same way. Even such, I am sure that many fans of the first novel will appreciate this sequel and where it sets up things for the final book. I know I’ll be reading it to see where DeStefano takes her characters and her story and whether she leaves readers with a sense of hope or just continued despair.
Note: This review refers to an advance review copy.
January 28, 2025
I finally got to this one and I found the audiobook on Hoopla before I bought it on Audible. It was an easy read, which I’m grateful for.
–ēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēē�
Fever is the follow-up to Lauren DeStefano’s novel “Wither�, which is called a “thought-provoking debut� by Kirkus Reviews. This novel is set in a future where women die by the age of 20 years of age and men die by the age of 25 years of age.
Girls are sold into marriage to keep the population growing due to the virus that kills people at such young ages. Rhine has finally escaped her marriage to Linden but what hope does she really have in the outside world when her death looms ever closer?
–ēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēē�
I wish there was a trigger warning for the close call sexual assault that occurs in this book. It’s a trigger for me, for sure, and I was freaking out in public. Not a good look, right?
I can see the protests when the president announced the rebuilding of the labs happening again. It reminds me of the fallout from the death of George Floyd during the COVID pandemic.
This entire trilogy reminds me of what happened when the COVID pandemic was at its worst when things were first shut down. I don’t like the post-apocalyptic novels because of that.
It reminds me too much of what can easily happen if we are left to our own devices after something catastrophic. I don’t like thinking about that, as I wonder what I’d do in that situation.
I feel so much empathy for Rhine, as I have a lot of the same personality traits that she does. I put other people before myself to my own detriment. I help people before I help myself and I see a lot of myself in Rhine. That really hurts.
I hate that Rhine finally returned to Manhattan after a year away to find that her brother burned their home down. I know she’ll have what I hope is an HEA at the end of the next book but I still felt a broken heart.
When she starts dying at the end of the book, my heart sank again. I was hoping that she would have more time. I know there’s a third book to come but my heart still sank. I can still feel my heart sinking. lol
I would hate to see Maddie going through the world truly on her own without both her biological mother and Rhine. I know she still has her biological maternal grandmother but I feel like that’s not the same.
I’m truly cautious when it comes to recommending this book because of the sexual assault that almost happens about halfway through the book. I don’t want anyone to be triggered like I was. It’s a shame too because the premise is quite promising.
–ēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēē�
Fever is the follow-up to Lauren DeStefano’s novel “Wither�, which is called a “thought-provoking debut� by Kirkus Reviews. This novel is set in a future where women die by the age of 20 years of age and men die by the age of 25 years of age.
Girls are sold into marriage to keep the population growing due to the virus that kills people at such young ages. Rhine has finally escaped her marriage to Linden but what hope does she really have in the outside world when her death looms ever closer?
–ēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēēē�
I wish there was a trigger warning for the close call sexual assault that occurs in this book. It’s a trigger for me, for sure, and I was freaking out in public. Not a good look, right?
I can see the protests when the president announced the rebuilding of the labs happening again. It reminds me of the fallout from the death of George Floyd during the COVID pandemic.
This entire trilogy reminds me of what happened when the COVID pandemic was at its worst when things were first shut down. I don’t like the post-apocalyptic novels because of that.
It reminds me too much of what can easily happen if we are left to our own devices after something catastrophic. I don’t like thinking about that, as I wonder what I’d do in that situation.
I feel so much empathy for Rhine, as I have a lot of the same personality traits that she does. I put other people before myself to my own detriment. I help people before I help myself and I see a lot of myself in Rhine. That really hurts.
I hate that Rhine finally returned to Manhattan after a year away to find that her brother burned their home down. I know she’ll have what I hope is an HEA at the end of the next book but I still felt a broken heart.
When she starts dying at the end of the book, my heart sank again. I was hoping that she would have more time. I know there’s a third book to come but my heart still sank. I can still feel my heart sinking. lol
I would hate to see Maddie going through the world truly on her own without both her biological mother and Rhine. I know she still has her biological maternal grandmother but I feel like that’s not the same.
I’m truly cautious when it comes to recommending this book because of the sexual assault that almost happens about halfway through the book. I don’t want anyone to be triggered like I was. It’s a shame too because the premise is quite promising.
February 26, 2012
Nothing was happening. I feel like Fever was an overlong game of hide and seek, and I didn’t even like the players all that much! As usual, the positive lay in how it’s written. And like the first, the negatives lay in the shock value. If the first had me reeling from the child bride aspect. This one had me reeling back from a number of things:
Prostitution?
Check.
Drugs?
Men turned monsters?
Experiments?
Check, check, and check.
OK. I liked it and I didn’t like it. The hiding and seeking went on forever� with nothing new happening. Certainly, the new people added something to look forward to. Maddie and Silas in particular had me considering where the story would go with them in it. Maddie especially had me paying closer attention, to who she was and to how different she was from the rest. She might very well be the main thing I liked in this one.
The old characters certainly had little new to add having changed only a little. Gabriel seemed still to be looking to Rhine for guidance. And those rare flashes of fire from him were indeed just that: rare. Rhine too had changed her tune only a little. If in the first she dreamt of the outside world; here some of her thoughts were on life with her sisters and with Linden. I could understand her wanting a little of what she had had. But I tell you it got frustrating reading nothing happen.
This second book read filler to me BUT I am still interested in what Rowan’s got to say for himself. He was the one thing I was looking forward to and like Rhine I wanted to see what had become of him. I guess I have to wait for the next one! Darn it.
3/5
Prostitution?
Check.
Drugs?
Men turned monsters?
Experiments?
Check, check, and check.
OK. I liked it and I didn’t like it. The hiding and seeking went on forever� with nothing new happening. Certainly, the new people added something to look forward to. Maddie and Silas in particular had me considering where the story would go with them in it. Maddie especially had me paying closer attention, to who she was and to how different she was from the rest. She might very well be the main thing I liked in this one.
The old characters certainly had little new to add having changed only a little. Gabriel seemed still to be looking to Rhine for guidance. And those rare flashes of fire from him were indeed just that: rare. Rhine too had changed her tune only a little. If in the first she dreamt of the outside world; here some of her thoughts were on life with her sisters and with Linden. I could understand her wanting a little of what she had had. But I tell you it got frustrating reading nothing happen.
This second book read filler to me BUT I am still interested in what Rowan’s got to say for himself. He was the one thing I was looking forward to and like Rhine I wanted to see what had become of him. I guess I have to wait for the next one! Darn it.
3/5
January 26, 2016
I didn't realise a book could be so repetitive, or that characters could spend so much of the plot sleeping!
April 22, 2012
FEVER by Lauren Destefano was a much anticipated novel for me because I enjoyed reading it's predecessor, WITHER and was very intrigued on how this new storyline would play out. Although I anticipated a few plot points, on a whole it was not what I expected.
Upon returning to the bleak world that Rhine and Gabriel inhabit we find them on the run, fleeing a madman that is hell bent on cruel experimentation. Unfortunately they do not enjoy their freedom for long before they are held prisoners in a different kind of torture of which Rhine becomes a feature attraction. They barely escape with another in tow and travel up to Manhattan but the journey is long and they encounter a few hardships along the way but nothing prepares Rhine for what awaits her back home.
When I read WITHER I was drawn to it's heroine Rhine, and her storyline. I admired her spirit and drive to escape her captors and return to the free world and find her brother. I am scarcely into a few pages of FEVER and Rhine quickly becomes ensnared in a fresh kind of hell that is brutal and sexually driven. This new place reminds me of some perverse carnival of the flesh, filled with withered and broken girls, illicit drugs and nightmares. Although this new situation is uncomfortable to read about I do find Madame, the flesh carnival's keeper, to command the pages that she inhabits because she is a ridiculously excessive character that is a perverse shell of a human whom is cunning and crazed by the ghosts in her past. Yet, despite my fascination with her I was eager to leave that place and move on. It is their first of many harrowing moments on their travels but they seem to manage despite their bleak circumstances.
As I witnessed Rhine and Gabriel on their arduous mission to find Rhine's brother I had hoped that their relationship would grow stronger.The frail bond between Rhine and Gabriel is constantly tested by the strain of their situation; Gabriel is dealing with his own personal demons while Rhine seems to drown in memories of her past. While I could tolerate her recollections of her life with her brother I could not stomach her nostalgia of being with Linden and her sister wives. If she was so eager to leave that hellish situation why did she have so many fond memories of it and of Linden? Why didn't she take off her wedding band? Of all the things she does, that fact I find the most off and incomprehensible.
Besides that issue there are several factors that initially threw me off. Some where explained as the story progressed, especially one that caused my head to ache, but at that point I did not care. I guess I became overwhelmed with Rhine's turmoil and delirium and was left dazed and confused. What I previously enjoyed about this series seemed to be lacking with this current novel, too much confusion and shock value situations seemed to prevail, weighing it down.
Despite my thoughts on this novel I enjoy Lauren's writing style for it is well detailed and poetic in nature and the world that she has created is imaginatively original. I just cannot say with certainty if I will return to finish this series.
Upon returning to the bleak world that Rhine and Gabriel inhabit we find them on the run, fleeing a madman that is hell bent on cruel experimentation. Unfortunately they do not enjoy their freedom for long before they are held prisoners in a different kind of torture of which Rhine becomes a feature attraction. They barely escape with another in tow and travel up to Manhattan but the journey is long and they encounter a few hardships along the way but nothing prepares Rhine for what awaits her back home.
When I read WITHER I was drawn to it's heroine Rhine, and her storyline. I admired her spirit and drive to escape her captors and return to the free world and find her brother. I am scarcely into a few pages of FEVER and Rhine quickly becomes ensnared in a fresh kind of hell that is brutal and sexually driven. This new place reminds me of some perverse carnival of the flesh, filled with withered and broken girls, illicit drugs and nightmares. Although this new situation is uncomfortable to read about I do find Madame, the flesh carnival's keeper, to command the pages that she inhabits because she is a ridiculously excessive character that is a perverse shell of a human whom is cunning and crazed by the ghosts in her past. Yet, despite my fascination with her I was eager to leave that place and move on. It is their first of many harrowing moments on their travels but they seem to manage despite their bleak circumstances.
As I witnessed Rhine and Gabriel on their arduous mission to find Rhine's brother I had hoped that their relationship would grow stronger.The frail bond between Rhine and Gabriel is constantly tested by the strain of their situation; Gabriel is dealing with his own personal demons while Rhine seems to drown in memories of her past. While I could tolerate her recollections of her life with her brother I could not stomach her nostalgia of being with Linden and her sister wives. If she was so eager to leave that hellish situation why did she have so many fond memories of it and of Linden? Why didn't she take off her wedding band? Of all the things she does, that fact I find the most off and incomprehensible.
Besides that issue there are several factors that initially threw me off. Some where explained as the story progressed, especially one that caused my head to ache, but at that point I did not care. I guess I became overwhelmed with Rhine's turmoil and delirium and was left dazed and confused. What I previously enjoyed about this series seemed to be lacking with this current novel, too much confusion and shock value situations seemed to prevail, weighing it down.
Despite my thoughts on this novel I enjoy Lauren's writing style for it is well detailed and poetic in nature and the world that she has created is imaginatively original. I just cannot say with certainty if I will return to finish this series.
Want to read
June 18, 2011If I don't get an arc for this as soon as they exist, I'm gonna tie up Lauren DeStefano and make me write me books like this is Misery or something.
September 24, 2013
HOLY WOW. People say that it's hard to write reviews for books you don't like, but I honestly think it's harder to write them for books you absolutely LOVE! Wither was one of my favourite reads of all time and Fever is just as breathtaking, if not more!
Lauren DeStefano has some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read! She hooks you in from the very beginning and traps you in a dark dystopian world unlike any other. And you wouldn't think so, but the GORGEOUS cover actually has a lot to do with the story � with its old carnivals, rusty merry-go-rounds, and dying girls covered in glitter.
Rhine is such an amazing voice for this novel! Like a poet at heart, she's strong and hopeful and resilient and caring. We get to spend more time (and fall more in love) with Gabriel too �, and some old characters surprise us while some new ones cling to our hearts.
I love the dystopian world that DeStefano creates because it's so dark and gritty and scarily realistic, where a disease claims the life of ever man at age 25 and every woman at age 20. With amazing characters, writing, and story, she makes every surprising corner come to life!
Beautiful, lyrical, and dark in its enchantment, Fever is one of those books that makes me want to invent a new rating for it! Some may say that The Chemical Garden series isn't for everyone because it's so dark at times, but I would honestly recommend it to everyone! :)
BUY or BORROW?: You need to buy this book when it comes out � I'm definitely buying my own finished copy! Lauren DeStefano is undoubtedly an author worth starting a collection for!
(Original review at )
Lauren DeStefano has some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read! She hooks you in from the very beginning and traps you in a dark dystopian world unlike any other. And you wouldn't think so, but the GORGEOUS cover actually has a lot to do with the story � with its old carnivals, rusty merry-go-rounds, and dying girls covered in glitter.
Rhine is such an amazing voice for this novel! Like a poet at heart, she's strong and hopeful and resilient and caring. We get to spend more time (and fall more in love) with Gabriel too �, and some old characters surprise us while some new ones cling to our hearts.
I love the dystopian world that DeStefano creates because it's so dark and gritty and scarily realistic, where a disease claims the life of ever man at age 25 and every woman at age 20. With amazing characters, writing, and story, she makes every surprising corner come to life!
Beautiful, lyrical, and dark in its enchantment, Fever is one of those books that makes me want to invent a new rating for it! Some may say that The Chemical Garden series isn't for everyone because it's so dark at times, but I would honestly recommend it to everyone! :)
BUY or BORROW?: You need to buy this book when it comes out � I'm definitely buying my own finished copy! Lauren DeStefano is undoubtedly an author worth starting a collection for!
(Original review at )
November 19, 2011
OH MY GOODNESS. I cannot even formulate words right now. Devoured. Absolutely devoured.
Full review on my
April 17, 2019
Kitap çok akıcı nasıl başladı nasıl bitti anlamıyorsunuz...Distopik dünyası karardikca karardı iyice korkunç oldu hele son bölümler nefes alamadim😱
March 15, 2012
I really loved Wither. Fever, though, was a massive disappointment.
This book was all over the place; I couldn't believe it at all. So much of it is dreams and nostalgia for other times and places and people - so much of it internal, wistful monologuing - that I found myself completely detached from the here and now, which, given that it's written in first person immediate, is no mean feat. The structure is uneven: nothing really seems to happen for the first hundred pages, then the vast bulk of the book is spent in directionless running from one place to another while living off a seemingly endless supply of chips and cola, then Rhine gets sick, and then finally Vaughn comes and takes her back home and does terrible things to her anyway. Given that pretty much nothing of any critical plot importance has happened in the interim - the Maddie/Lilac thread is entirely self-contained, affecting nothing in the bigger arc, as impactless as every other person Rhine and Gabriel meet on their journey - the question becomes: what was the point of it? Even Rhine and Gabriel's relationship remains stunted. Gabriel barely features in the story expect as someone to run with; all their exchanges seem to center on one or the other of them being sick and needing to be healed, with maybe a small dash of 'we should/shouldn't go there' and 'let me tell you about my hallucinatory dreams' thrown in.
I didn't buy the section at the carnival with Madame; it felt completely unreal that she'd keep Gabriel alive for Rhine's sake, that she'd then make Rhine into anything other than a prostitute, that she'd expend considerable effort making the two of them into an attraction and then, after what felt like as little as a week - the time-blurring made it hard to tell - try and sell Rhine to a Gatherer. I mean, either she's so special that she'll bring heaps of income as an illusion-attraction, in which case keep her, or else she's just someone else to be sold, in which case why not sell her? It didn't seem to make any sense, and given that we never come back to that place or those characters, ultimately unnecessary. I didn't buy that Vaughn had a tracker in Rhine's leg - if that were so, he ought to have found her straight away, not months later. I didn't buy that Rowan burned down the house and everything in it, but that the papers places *where the fire had started* were still in tact enough to be read. I didn't buy that Rhine and Gabriel could spend a night with Annabelle so soon after they'd escaped without getting caught, or that they managed to get away on foot at all with nobody looking for them, or that nobody even *was* looking for them at that point. I didn't buy the Great Cliffhanger Revelation that Rowan is now in the pro-naturalist camp, on account of how it seems to go against everything their family stood for.
And then there was the pacing: time-skips at Madame's, a middle full of as-it-happens running in which nothing really happens, more time-skips at Claire's, and then the revelation when Rhine wakes up at Vaughn's that she's been there for a MONTH. A MONTH, disappeared in a paragraph! Wither held together so well because the secondary characters and all their relationships were explored in good time, realistically and with feeling; time jumped there, yes, but in such a way that it didn't feel like things were being glossed over or eroded. But here, there were barely any new characters we spent time with for more than a chapter or two before flitting onwards; no secondary structure to hold the story together, so that the onrush of returning characters at the end - and the horrific circumstances under which they're reintroduced - feels rushed and cramped and shocking. A bad contrast note, like, 'Why didn't we just stay here the whole time, and understand all of this better?' So far as I can see, extremely little was gained - both narratively and actually - by Rhine and Gabriel's prolonged escape, while a massive amount was lost by cramming everything that happens in the last few chapters into, well, the last few chapters.
It felt like filler; like a padded excuse to flesh a trilogy out, when a duology might have done better. And I am so, so disappointed, because Wither was so beautifully done, and Fever just seemed to take all the things I thought were successful and rip them into bits. Will I read the third one, then? Probably, if only for the catharsis. But I'll be apprehensive as hell.
This book was all over the place; I couldn't believe it at all. So much of it is dreams and nostalgia for other times and places and people - so much of it internal, wistful monologuing - that I found myself completely detached from the here and now, which, given that it's written in first person immediate, is no mean feat. The structure is uneven: nothing really seems to happen for the first hundred pages, then the vast bulk of the book is spent in directionless running from one place to another while living off a seemingly endless supply of chips and cola, then Rhine gets sick, and then finally Vaughn comes and takes her back home and does terrible things to her anyway. Given that pretty much nothing of any critical plot importance has happened in the interim - the Maddie/Lilac thread is entirely self-contained, affecting nothing in the bigger arc, as impactless as every other person Rhine and Gabriel meet on their journey - the question becomes: what was the point of it? Even Rhine and Gabriel's relationship remains stunted. Gabriel barely features in the story expect as someone to run with; all their exchanges seem to center on one or the other of them being sick and needing to be healed, with maybe a small dash of 'we should/shouldn't go there' and 'let me tell you about my hallucinatory dreams' thrown in.
I didn't buy the section at the carnival with Madame; it felt completely unreal that she'd keep Gabriel alive for Rhine's sake, that she'd then make Rhine into anything other than a prostitute, that she'd expend considerable effort making the two of them into an attraction and then, after what felt like as little as a week - the time-blurring made it hard to tell - try and sell Rhine to a Gatherer. I mean, either she's so special that she'll bring heaps of income as an illusion-attraction, in which case keep her, or else she's just someone else to be sold, in which case why not sell her? It didn't seem to make any sense, and given that we never come back to that place or those characters, ultimately unnecessary. I didn't buy that Vaughn had a tracker in Rhine's leg - if that were so, he ought to have found her straight away, not months later. I didn't buy that Rowan burned down the house and everything in it, but that the papers places *where the fire had started* were still in tact enough to be read. I didn't buy that Rhine and Gabriel could spend a night with Annabelle so soon after they'd escaped without getting caught, or that they managed to get away on foot at all with nobody looking for them, or that nobody even *was* looking for them at that point. I didn't buy the Great Cliffhanger Revelation that Rowan is now in the pro-naturalist camp, on account of how it seems to go against everything their family stood for.
And then there was the pacing: time-skips at Madame's, a middle full of as-it-happens running in which nothing really happens, more time-skips at Claire's, and then the revelation when Rhine wakes up at Vaughn's that she's been there for a MONTH. A MONTH, disappeared in a paragraph! Wither held together so well because the secondary characters and all their relationships were explored in good time, realistically and with feeling; time jumped there, yes, but in such a way that it didn't feel like things were being glossed over or eroded. But here, there were barely any new characters we spent time with for more than a chapter or two before flitting onwards; no secondary structure to hold the story together, so that the onrush of returning characters at the end - and the horrific circumstances under which they're reintroduced - feels rushed and cramped and shocking. A bad contrast note, like, 'Why didn't we just stay here the whole time, and understand all of this better?' So far as I can see, extremely little was gained - both narratively and actually - by Rhine and Gabriel's prolonged escape, while a massive amount was lost by cramming everything that happens in the last few chapters into, well, the last few chapters.
It felt like filler; like a padded excuse to flesh a trilogy out, when a duology might have done better. And I am so, so disappointed, because Wither was so beautifully done, and Fever just seemed to take all the things I thought were successful and rip them into bits. Will I read the third one, then? Probably, if only for the catharsis. But I'll be apprehensive as hell.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
May 3, 2017Yangın da bitti. Mülakata hazırlanmam gereken yerde dayanamayıp kitabı bir solukta bitirdiğim doğrudur. Yine çok güzeldi. Bozgun için sabırsızlanıyorum ama artık mülakat sonraya bırakacağım onu. Hem belki o zamana Ateşten Doğan da çıkmış olur ve ikisini birden temin ederim. 💃
Yazarın kalemindeki o karanlık doku beni kendine çeken. Zihni bulandıran bir karmaşası var. Karakterin ruh halini çok iyi yansıttığını düşünüyorum. Öyle ki zaman zaman neyin gerçek neyin kabus neyin hayal ürünü olduğunu anlayamıyorum. Ama bu dokuyu bu tadı almaktan şikayetçi değilim. Aradığımı buldum çünkü.
Betimlemelerindeki çarpıklığa rağmen hızlı okunuyor. Sıkmıyor. Merak uyandırıyor. En azından benim için öyle. Çok sevdim bu seriyi ben. Cidden mülakat biter bitmez ilk işim Bozgun'u okumak olacak. Ve umarım iyi geçer de keşke kitabı okumasaydım da biraz daha hazırlansaydım diye hayıflanmam. 😂
Yazarın kalemindeki o karanlık doku beni kendine çeken. Zihni bulandıran bir karmaşası var. Karakterin ruh halini çok iyi yansıttığını düşünüyorum. Öyle ki zaman zaman neyin gerçek neyin kabus neyin hayal ürünü olduğunu anlayamıyorum. Ama bu dokuyu bu tadı almaktan şikayetçi değilim. Aradığımı buldum çünkü.
Betimlemelerindeki çarpıklığa rağmen hızlı okunuyor. Sıkmıyor. Merak uyandırıyor. En azından benim için öyle. Çok sevdim bu seriyi ben. Cidden mülakat biter bitmez ilk işim Bozgun'u okumak olacak. Ve umarım iyi geçer de keşke kitabı okumasaydım da biraz daha hazırlansaydım diye hayıflanmam. 😂
Want to read
March 18, 2012I need it i need it I need it I need it I need it!! I need it now! I can't wait another almost year!
July 10, 2020
“Because even if the lie is beautiful, the truth is what you face in the end.�
Now that Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, they have to find a way to Manhatten before Vaughn finds them.
But before long, they sumble upon a new threat. A circus with a mad woman as the leader that has big plans for Rhine and won't let them leave. She drugs both Gabriel and Rhine and forces them to put on a show for some of her clients. It's only when Vaughn shows up at the circus and makes a deal with Madame to buy Rhine back, are they able to escape and find a way to Manhattan.
Once they're back at Rhine's home, they find her brother absent and their home burned down. With no lead as to where Rowan could be, they go and find the mother of the woman who helped her escape the circus and they stay with her. But Rhine begins to show symptoms of the virus even tho it's to soon for that. That's when Vaughn shows up once again and confesses on killing Jenna and infecting her. He convinces her to go back with him where he plans to turn her into his lab rat until he finds an antidote for the virus.
This book was so pointless, it mad me mad.
I hate circuses! Both fictional and real.
So I skim read the entire circus part and hoped I didn't miss something important but the father I got, the more I understood that this book was just a filler and had nothing important to say.
I mean the whole point of the book is that they try to get to Rowan without a plan to achive it. Meanwhile Gabriel suffers from drug abstinence and Rhine has flashbacks from her old life and the one she had at the mansion.
Until the last two chapters, nothing important happens.
I skimmed the entire book and don't feel like I missed out on anything.
Honestly, I think you can skip it altogether and just read the last couple of chapters when Vaughn shows up again.
But that's not for me to decide. You do you.
I certainly wish I did skip it.
July 4, 2012
First off, let me just say I loved , but after reading it I really didn't feel like it needed another book. It could have been a standalone. But, Destafano's writing is was so good in #1 and the cover for this one was so appealing I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a go.
徱··ǾԳ(Գ)
1. to fail to fulfill the expectations or wishes of: His gross ingratitude disappointed us.
2. to defeat the fulfillment of (hopes, plans, etc.); thwart; frustrate
So, I still feel like Whither could have been a standalone. This book is the epitome of a filler book. I couldn't get completely invested until the last 50 pages or so. The carnival scenes just bored me to tears. I will admit I skimmed a bit through them. I know why we have to have Maddie as a character, but she got on my nerves (I know without even speaking), she just felt very third-wheel.
Spoilers:
I only really got interested once Vaughn found Rhine. I am very curious where book #3 will go, considering that mention of Rowan at the very end. I do hope Silas and Gabriel team up to save Rhine, but who knows?!?!? Speaking of Gabriel, he fell flat for me this go round. I hate to say this, but this whole book felt sort of lazy to me. I really am hoping for some redemtion in the next installement.
I want to give this book 3 stars just because I loved Wither so much, but it's really more of a 2.5......
Yep. I'm a little disapointed.
徱··ǾԳ(Գ)
1. to fail to fulfill the expectations or wishes of: His gross ingratitude disappointed us.
2. to defeat the fulfillment of (hopes, plans, etc.); thwart; frustrate
So, I still feel like Whither could have been a standalone. This book is the epitome of a filler book. I couldn't get completely invested until the last 50 pages or so. The carnival scenes just bored me to tears. I will admit I skimmed a bit through them. I know why we have to have Maddie as a character, but she got on my nerves (I know without even speaking), she just felt very third-wheel.
Spoilers:
I only really got interested once Vaughn found Rhine. I am very curious where book #3 will go, considering that mention of Rowan at the very end. I do hope Silas and Gabriel team up to save Rhine, but who knows?!?!? Speaking of Gabriel, he fell flat for me this go round. I hate to say this, but this whole book felt sort of lazy to me. I really am hoping for some redemtion in the next installement.
I want to give this book 3 stars just because I loved Wither so much, but it's really more of a 2.5......
Yep. I'm a little disapointed.
Read
July 24, 2012Edit: Yeah, okay. The cover makes sense in context. Still don't particularly love it.
* * * * *
Sorry - But. What. Is. Up. With the cover?!
May 29, 2012
This book was a mess. What was it even about?
Full review is also on my .
What the HAIL? This book was a total disaster! I think the only reason I finished it was because I so confused I didn't know to stop reading. The different sections were disconnected. There was almost zero world building, and it made no sense. I read the first book Wither last summer (when I wasn't blogging) and I gave it 4 stars. I know that I am much less critical of books when I'm not thinking about what I'm going to write about them later, but I definitely do not remember thinking Wither was this bad. I remember thinking that there were some inconsistencies in the world. For one, if people are so desperate to round up women to get them pregnant, why would they have shot all the extra girls? Whatever redeeming qualities there were in Wither, that made me give it 4 stars definitely do not exist in this one. I don't think I can cover everything about this book that was just not right...I'd be here all day, but here are some of the highlights (and spoilers):
Right after their escape Rhine and Gabriel are imprisoned by a red-light district Madame--a total stereotypical caricature who speaks in revolving Russian and French accents. For about the first half of the book, Madame keeps Rhine and Gabriel in an opiate (and apparently aphrodisiac) haze. Bizarrely, Stefano protects Rhine from straight up prostitution (which would have at least been believable) and instead has Rhine and Gabriel "perform" in an open air bird cage for customers. I think they go all the way. It's implied, but not described (thankfully) so it's unclear exactly what they are doing. On top of that, there's a malformed child that only crawls and can't speak (but is apparently intelligent--I suppose we are supposed to somehow identify her?) I've yet to figure out why she is in the book.
Spoiler alert, they finally escape, right when Vaughn (the original villain) finds them. I still cannot figure out the point behind the interlude at Madame's. Rhine shows none of the desire to leave that she did at Vaughn's, despite being forced into sexual acts (which she never was at Vaughn's) and knowing that Gabriel was being forced to take drugs.
They do finally escape, right as Vaughn shows up (how convenient). They stop at a restaurant where the owners end up being psychopaths. The woman--like apparently all first-gen women in this series--so overcome with the loss of her own child, creepily acts as if the crippled girl is her own child. And the man--like all men in this series--is for some reason only interested in Rhine for sex and tries to rape her. Apparently, gentlemen, in times of hardship, your base instinct is to treat all women as if they are plastic sex dolls. I'm not sure if DeStefano was trying to make a point here about the objectification of women or definitions of rape--but all she ends up doing is normalizing rape within this world. Girls are only good for two things in this world---sex and pregnancy. There's no explanation, no discussion of why this is or why it is wrong. In fact, DeStefano ends up telling us that some forms of rape are ok in comparison to others. Linden "loves" his wives, and he had an "understanding" with at least one of them, so therefore having sex with them is fine. Cecily WANTS to become pregnant, even though she is only about 12. While on the run, Rhine actually misses Linden. That situation only seems wrong because we know that Vaughn is behind the wheel with nefarious plans. With Madame, Rhine avoids straight up prostitution by agreeing to perform with Gabriel--but HELLO she is still being forced and drugged. Yes, Rhine does it partly to protect Gabriel, but that is STILL rape (or sexual assault? see confusion above). It's only when Rhine is physically forced, like by the restaurant owner, that it is truly rape and therefore something that traumatizes her. Of course, in that situation, she is conveniently saved by Gabriel who just "felt" that something was wrong with that guy. So the true rape, the true horror, is never even played out.
I had so many feminist issues with this book that I need to stop there. It is just too much. I seriously think DeStefano needs to take a women's studies course. And a political science or economics course. This leads me to my final thought. Attention authors: If you don't understand that building a dystopian world requires some political or economic knowledge and insight into OUR own world then you shouldn't be writing dystopian lit. Bottom line. The world in this series makes no sense. There is mention of the president, who is now just a figurehead and whose position is inherited. Um ok...so how did that happen? And what is the point? What does that bit of information add to Rhine's story? There's apparently some conflict between scientists and naturalists--those who think they should try to fix the virus and those who think (apparently) that the human race should just be able to die out. This conflict seems to be an afterthought until the "cliffhanger" at the end of the book. And I would say, I saw that coming, if the scientists vs. naturalists conflict had appeared sooner than right near the end of the book.
Stefano implies that Rhine and Rowan have some quality (as they were probably one of their parent's many experiments) that will solve the virus problem. Actually, it's laid on pretty thick, from their eyes, the revealed conversations between Julia and Gabriel, Vaughn's obsession with her...But we are given nothing to lead us further into why she is different. This is a problem I have with a lot series books. You don't have wait and reveal everything at the end. Give us more information when it makes sense in the story. Don't just hint at it, give it to us. That way it won't be a surprise that either makes no sense or just pisses me off.
Honestly, I will probably read the last one when it comes out. Mainly because it is a trainwreck that I cannot look away from. This book reads like a "what no to do" for dystopian authors.
Full review is also on my .
What the HAIL? This book was a total disaster! I think the only reason I finished it was because I so confused I didn't know to stop reading. The different sections were disconnected. There was almost zero world building, and it made no sense. I read the first book Wither last summer (when I wasn't blogging) and I gave it 4 stars. I know that I am much less critical of books when I'm not thinking about what I'm going to write about them later, but I definitely do not remember thinking Wither was this bad. I remember thinking that there were some inconsistencies in the world. For one, if people are so desperate to round up women to get them pregnant, why would they have shot all the extra girls? Whatever redeeming qualities there were in Wither, that made me give it 4 stars definitely do not exist in this one. I don't think I can cover everything about this book that was just not right...I'd be here all day, but here are some of the highlights (and spoilers):
Right after their escape Rhine and Gabriel are imprisoned by a red-light district Madame--a total stereotypical caricature who speaks in revolving Russian and French accents. For about the first half of the book, Madame keeps Rhine and Gabriel in an opiate (and apparently aphrodisiac) haze. Bizarrely, Stefano protects Rhine from straight up prostitution (which would have at least been believable) and instead has Rhine and Gabriel "perform" in an open air bird cage for customers. I think they go all the way. It's implied, but not described (thankfully) so it's unclear exactly what they are doing. On top of that, there's a malformed child that only crawls and can't speak (but is apparently intelligent--I suppose we are supposed to somehow identify her?) I've yet to figure out why she is in the book.
Spoiler alert, they finally escape, right when Vaughn (the original villain) finds them. I still cannot figure out the point behind the interlude at Madame's. Rhine shows none of the desire to leave that she did at Vaughn's, despite being forced into sexual acts (which she never was at Vaughn's) and knowing that Gabriel was being forced to take drugs.
They do finally escape, right as Vaughn shows up (how convenient). They stop at a restaurant where the owners end up being psychopaths. The woman--like apparently all first-gen women in this series--so overcome with the loss of her own child, creepily acts as if the crippled girl is her own child. And the man--like all men in this series--is for some reason only interested in Rhine for sex and tries to rape her. Apparently, gentlemen, in times of hardship, your base instinct is to treat all women as if they are plastic sex dolls. I'm not sure if DeStefano was trying to make a point here about the objectification of women or definitions of rape--but all she ends up doing is normalizing rape within this world. Girls are only good for two things in this world---sex and pregnancy. There's no explanation, no discussion of why this is or why it is wrong. In fact, DeStefano ends up telling us that some forms of rape are ok in comparison to others. Linden "loves" his wives, and he had an "understanding" with at least one of them, so therefore having sex with them is fine. Cecily WANTS to become pregnant, even though she is only about 12. While on the run, Rhine actually misses Linden. That situation only seems wrong because we know that Vaughn is behind the wheel with nefarious plans. With Madame, Rhine avoids straight up prostitution by agreeing to perform with Gabriel--but HELLO she is still being forced and drugged. Yes, Rhine does it partly to protect Gabriel, but that is STILL rape (or sexual assault? see confusion above). It's only when Rhine is physically forced, like by the restaurant owner, that it is truly rape and therefore something that traumatizes her. Of course, in that situation, she is conveniently saved by Gabriel who just "felt" that something was wrong with that guy. So the true rape, the true horror, is never even played out.
I had so many feminist issues with this book that I need to stop there. It is just too much. I seriously think DeStefano needs to take a women's studies course. And a political science or economics course. This leads me to my final thought. Attention authors: If you don't understand that building a dystopian world requires some political or economic knowledge and insight into OUR own world then you shouldn't be writing dystopian lit. Bottom line. The world in this series makes no sense. There is mention of the president, who is now just a figurehead and whose position is inherited. Um ok...so how did that happen? And what is the point? What does that bit of information add to Rhine's story? There's apparently some conflict between scientists and naturalists--those who think they should try to fix the virus and those who think (apparently) that the human race should just be able to die out. This conflict seems to be an afterthought until the "cliffhanger" at the end of the book. And I would say, I saw that coming, if the scientists vs. naturalists conflict had appeared sooner than right near the end of the book.
Stefano implies that Rhine and Rowan have some quality (as they were probably one of their parent's many experiments) that will solve the virus problem. Actually, it's laid on pretty thick, from their eyes, the revealed conversations between Julia and Gabriel, Vaughn's obsession with her...But we are given nothing to lead us further into why she is different. This is a problem I have with a lot series books. You don't have wait and reveal everything at the end. Give us more information when it makes sense in the story. Don't just hint at it, give it to us. That way it won't be a surprise that either makes no sense or just pisses me off.
Honestly, I will probably read the last one when it comes out. Mainly because it is a trainwreck that I cannot look away from. This book reads like a "what no to do" for dystopian authors.
August 13, 2020
Fever picks up right where the first book left off, with Rhine and Gabriel escaping the mansion and the clutches of Vaughn, Rhine’s father-in-law, who is doing everything in his power to capture them.
In my review for Wither, I said that I had absolutely no desire to pick up the next book in the series after finishing the first and that was true because it took me an entire year to pick up the second book, and I did that mostly because I hate not knowing what happens in a series. But Fever just wasn’t it. I think I preferred the first book to this sequel, but even then I think I feel disappointed as a whole with how this series has progressed.
The premise of this book is that Rhine and Gabriel escape, they find themselves trapped in some kind of carnival where all of the girls are forced to become prostitutes, then Rhine and Gabriel escape from there and end up in an orphanage with the daughter of one of the girls who works for Madame, and then they are captured by Vaughn who reveals that he always knew where Rhine was because she has a tracking chip somewhere in her body. That was it. That’s the whole premise, and it was a fucking joke. This book was such a filler, because all that happens is that Rhine and Gabriel sleep every 5 seconds and are drugged every other 5 seconds. The majority of this novel is Rhine and Gabriel sleeping. That’s it. That’s the whole story. This was definitely a filler book, because when Vaughn revealed that he always knew where Rhine was, it was like well what was the point of anything? The whole book is leading up to this ending of Vaughn capturing Rhine and I knew it was coming so the whole book just felt pointless.
Also, I enjoyed Rhine and Gabriel’s romance in the first book but in this instalment it’s almost as if Gabriel literally does not exist. He was the most useless character in this book and the author really ruined his storyline. He’s literally drugged out of his mind all the time, and then he’s kind of just there in the background, and then Rhine has that fever thing and then he’s also just there again. He just felt like had no sort of relevance in the story besides being there so there is an active love interest in the story. Also, why does the author keep trying to set up this weird love triangle between Rhine, Gabriel and Linden? Rhine doesn’t love Linden, she was forced to become his wife. And she states that so many times, but yet I still feel like there’s a love triangle. I’m not surprised this book is called ‘F𱹱� because this whole book was like one big fever dream.
Overall, Fever was a disappointing sequel that is so obviously filler in an attempt to drag this series out to three books so it can be a trilogy. The only thing that’s keeping me reading this series is the fact that I just can’t stand not knowing what happens and how it ends, even though I really don’t even care anymore at this point.
“Funny, isn’t it?� I say. “Scientists were so determined to fix us, and when we all started dying, they just left us here to rot, and the world around us too.�
In my review for Wither, I said that I had absolutely no desire to pick up the next book in the series after finishing the first and that was true because it took me an entire year to pick up the second book, and I did that mostly because I hate not knowing what happens in a series. But Fever just wasn’t it. I think I preferred the first book to this sequel, but even then I think I feel disappointed as a whole with how this series has progressed.
“There are so many of us, so many girls. The world wants us for our wombs or our bodies, or it doesn’t want us at all. It steals us, destroys us, piles us like dying cattle in circus tents and leaves us lying in filth and perfume until we’re wanted again. I ran from that mansion because I wanted to be free. But there’s no such thing as free. There are only different and more horrible ways to be enslaved.�
The premise of this book is that Rhine and Gabriel escape, they find themselves trapped in some kind of carnival where all of the girls are forced to become prostitutes, then Rhine and Gabriel escape from there and end up in an orphanage with the daughter of one of the girls who works for Madame, and then they are captured by Vaughn who reveals that he always knew where Rhine was because she has a tracking chip somewhere in her body. That was it. That’s the whole premise, and it was a fucking joke. This book was such a filler, because all that happens is that Rhine and Gabriel sleep every 5 seconds and are drugged every other 5 seconds. The majority of this novel is Rhine and Gabriel sleeping. That’s it. That’s the whole story. This was definitely a filler book, because when Vaughn revealed that he always knew where Rhine was, it was like well what was the point of anything? The whole book is leading up to this ending of Vaughn capturing Rhine and I knew it was coming so the whole book just felt pointless.
“I’m following the Rhine River,� he says.
“Am I there with you?� I ask.
The concentration leaves his face. He looks at me, and I raise my head from his shoulder. “You’re everywhere,� he says.�
Also, I enjoyed Rhine and Gabriel’s romance in the first book but in this instalment it’s almost as if Gabriel literally does not exist. He was the most useless character in this book and the author really ruined his storyline. He’s literally drugged out of his mind all the time, and then he’s kind of just there in the background, and then Rhine has that fever thing and then he’s also just there again. He just felt like had no sort of relevance in the story besides being there so there is an active love interest in the story. Also, why does the author keep trying to set up this weird love triangle between Rhine, Gabriel and Linden? Rhine doesn’t love Linden, she was forced to become his wife. And she states that so many times, but yet I still feel like there’s a love triangle. I’m not surprised this book is called ‘F𱹱� because this whole book was like one big fever dream.
“I was born into a world that was already dying; I belong to it. I will take it over holographic oceans and spinning diagrams of beautiful houses. Because even if the lie is beautiful, the truth is what you face in the end.�
Overall, Fever was a disappointing sequel that is so obviously filler in an attempt to drag this series out to three books so it can be a trilogy. The only thing that’s keeping me reading this series is the fact that I just can’t stand not knowing what happens and how it ends, even though I really don’t even care anymore at this point.
September 24, 2013
Rhine's struggles and pain are real, and her story is both heartbreaking and hopeful. I couldn't read this book fast enough.
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