Review!: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Hey y’all! I know I probably should be reviewing one of the books that I mentioned in my book haul, but I’ve had so much reading for class (painfully dull reading) that I wanted to read something fluffy and fun. So, I went to the library and parked myself in the YA section. Side-note: is it creepy for an adult to hang around a room meant for people ages 12-18? Probably, but I’m a girl and I look like I’m 16 so we’ll just pretend it’s fine. After searching for all of the YA fiction on my Goodreads account, I finally settled on Wither by Lauren DeStefano.

Wither– Lauren DeStefano

I am sometimes distrustful of the dystopian genre because they can become repetitive, but I was pleasantly surprised with Wither. The novel follows a sixteen-year-old girl named Rhine, who is kidnapped and made to be a young bride of a wealthy man. Every person in Rhine’s generation dies young, the women at age twenty and the men at twenty-five, and arranged marriages are the only way for well-to-do families to keep their bloodlines going while searching for a cure to the strange illness that kills their offspring so young.

I really enjoyed the characters in Wither. Rhine was an interesting narrator and I found her easy to relate to. She wasn’t, like many YA narrators, a stock character, who establishes her opinions in the first chapter and refuses to change throughout the entire plot. Rhine definitely had a strong personality and a unique point-of-view, but I could see her adjusting her opinions and maturing as she moved through different trials. The supporting characters were also engaging. I really enjoyed Linden’s character, as he was able to endear me to him even though I did not agree with what he stood for (sure, Sam, let’s just talk about the fictional character as if he were a real person).

The only character I wasn’t invested in was Gabriel. This was not because I didn’t find him to be engaging and charming, but because I felt as though his relationship with Rhine was not set up well enough to be believable. Granted, in a novel filled with sister-wives and holographic fish I shouldn’t be so picky about how relationships are developed.

Overall, I have to say that this book was a really fun, light read that I was able to get through in about two hours. I’m even thinking about buying the next book tonight instead of waiting until I go to the library again, so I can find out what happens.

Rating: 4/5 Dinosaurs!

-Sam