Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

 

 

Series: The Chemical Garden Trilogy (#1)

Release Date: March 22, 2011

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Format: eBook, 368 pages

Source: Personal Bookshelf

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Dystopian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Overview:

 

  By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

  When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?

  Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

My Thoughts:

 

 

  I've been holding out on reading ANY dystopian novels, since they've become this big thing since The Hunger Games came out.  I chose Wither to be my first, because I remembered the cover from when it first came out.  And for the fact that I already had the rest of the trilogy and wouldn't have to wait to purchase or borrow them.

  So as I started the novel, I had no idea what to expect, never having read a book quite like this one.  But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.  Rhine was a strong and somewhat likable character.  Sometimes she was entirely too whiny for my tastes.  I mean, her fate could have easily been worse, but all she could do was bemoan her fate.  She had an adoring husband, who she could have easily influenced had she opened up to him a little more.

  Most people had trouble with the world building, but I kind of looked past it to the fact that Linden and his father basically kidnapped 3 girls and forced them to marry him, and still expected them to love him like he didn't do anything like that.  How do you get over something like that?  And especially, how does he even think that's okay?   
  I easily felt for Rhine in her anger and desperation for escape to find her brother.  To me, that's what made the book relatable.  Anger and escape would have been the first things on my mind, though I doubt I'd ever have the courage to go through with it.  I enjoyed this book and can't wait to finish the next in the trilogy, Fever.

 

 

My rating: 4 stars

Review: Torrent by Lisa T. Bergren

   Torrent by Lisa T. Bergren

Series: River of Time (#3)
Publisher: Cook, David C.
Release Date: September 1, 2011
Format: eBook, 290 pages
Source: Purchased through Barnes and Noble
Genres: Romance, YA, Historical Fiction

The Overview:

 

 

“Hold tight,” I said. “No matter what happens, do not let us go.”

“We won’t,” my dad said.

“Never,” Mom added.

And with a look at Lia, we laid our hands upon the prints.

   Gabriella and Evangelia Betarrini are just two normal American teenagers. Normal except for the fact that they time travel to fourteenth-century Italy, where they’ve lived in castles they’ve seen as crumbling ruins, become swept up in historic battles, and fallen in love with handsome knights willing to do anything to keep them alive.

   

   They’ve returned to the present to save their father, just short of his tragic death, and now all four return to the place that holds the girls’ hearts, medieval Italy. But remaining there means facing great risk as the battle for territory wages on and the coming Black Plague looms. Can they convince their parents to stay and leave behind everything they’ve worked so hard to accomplish? And will the girls sacrifice their futures in an uncertain past? Or in facing death head-on, will they discover life as it was always meant to be lived?

 

 

My Thoughts:

 

 

   In this final installment in the River of Time series, Torrent picks up where Cascade left off.  Gabi and her family has managed to save her father from his future death.  Together, they all travel back to 14th century Italy.  More than a year has passed for Marcello, making him even more eager to marry Gabi. 

   But before any of this happens, they must try to rescue Fortino, Marcello's imprisoned brother.  With poor Fortino's fate, Gabi realizes too late it was all a trap to simply spirit her away to become another man's wife.  She has to deal with coming to terms with the fact that she actually feels something for someone other than Marcello, which she feels really guilty about.

  All in all, this was an amazing book. I find myself really sad that it's over, besides the two novellas that I haven't had a chance to read as of yet.  But that's for a later date.  I would completely recommend this book for anyone looking for a little adventure.

 

 

My rating: 4 stars

Review: Sinners and the Sea by Rebecca Kanner

Sinners and the Sea by Rebecca Kanner

Publisher: Howard Books
Release Date: April 2, 2013
Format: eBook, 365 pages
Source: Netgalley for review
Genres: Historical fiction, Adult fiction

The Overview:

In the spirit of Anita Diamant, this ambitious and unforgettable novel about the story of Noah blends Biblical history, mythology, and the inimitable strength of women.

Cursed with a birthmark that many think is the brand of a demon, the young heroine in The Sinners and the Sea is deprived even of a name for fear that it would make it easier for people to spread lies about her. But this virtuous woman has the perfect voice to make one of the Old Testament’s stories live anew.

Desperate to keep her safe, the woman’s father gives her to the righteous Noah, who weds her and takes her to the town of Sorum, a land of outcasts. Noah, a 600-year-old paragon of virtue, rises to the role of preacher to a town full of sinners. Alone in her new life, Noah’s wife gives him three sons, but is faced with the hardship of living with an aloof husband who speaks more to God than with her. She tries to make friends with the violent and dissolute people of Sorum while raising a brood that, despite a pious upbringing, have developed some sinful tendencies of their own. But her trials are nothing compared to what awaits her after God tells her husband that a flood is coming—and that Noah and his family must build an ark so that they alone can repopulate the world.

Kanner weaves a masterful tale that breathes new life into one of the Bible’s voiceless characters. Through the eyes of Noah’s wife we see a complex world where the lines between righteousness and wickedness blur. And we are left wondering: Would I have been considered virtuous enough to save?

My Thoughts:

 

  It's one of the oldest stories in the Bible, brought to life by Rebecca Kanner in "The Sinners and the Sea."  Everyone knows the Bible version, which mentions Noah and his sons building the ark.  But there is no mention of a wife.  This is her story.

  Born with a large mark upon her face, Noah's wife was never named.  Many considered her to be marked by a demon, keeping her from being accepted by anyone but her own father.  Even after her father gives her to the 500 year-old Noah to be a good, submissive wife, she still struggles with her identity and being nameless (as Noah didn't provide her with a name, either).

  The book is richly written and vividly described as we view the world as we never knew it.  Noah's wife becomes a faithful and committed with to Noah, even though he is constantly pray to and preaching God's word.  She never questions God's command to build an ark for the coming flood, though at times I'm sure she must have had some doubts.

  I jumped right into this book because I loved Anita Diamant's "The Red Tent" so much.  It definitely didn't disappoint. 

 

 
My Rating: 4 stars

Review: Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren

  Waterfall by Lisa T.  Bergren

Series: The River of Time (#1)
Publisher: Cook, David C.
Release Date: February 1, 2011
Format: eBook, 384 pages
Source: Purchased through Barnes and Noble
Genre: YA, Romance, Fantasy








Overview:

     Most American teenagers want a vacation in Italy, but the Bentarrini sisters have spent every summer of their lives with their parents - framed Etruscan scholars- among the romantic hills.  In Book One of the River of Time series, Gabi and Lia are stuck among the rubble of medieval castles in rural Tuscany on yet another hot, boring, and dusty archaeological site... until Gabi places her hand atop a hand print in an ancient tomb and finds herself in fourteenth-century Italy.  And worse yet, in middle of a fierce battle between knights of two opposing forces.
      And thus she comes to be rescued by the knight-prince, Marcello Falassi, who takes her back to his father's castle-- a castle Gabi has seen in ruins in another life. Suddenly Gabi's summer in Italy in much, much more interesting. But what do you do when your knight in shining armor lives, literally, in a different world?

My Thoughts

 

    I really enjoyed this book, and it took only a couple of hours to read.  I haven't read too many time travel books, but if all are as good as Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren, I would love to read them all. The book follows the Bentarrini sisters as they follow their mother on archaeological dig.  Gabi is our protagonist, and I found her to be very likable like her sister, Lia. Together the girls explore the old ruins and find hand prints in tombs in which they place their hands and find themselves transported to medieval Italy. 

   Sometimes I found how easy Gabi's transition was to medieval Italy unbelievable.  I'm sure if any 'regular' teen was just tossed a couple of centuries back into time, (s)he  would promptly freak out.  I know I would.  But maybe that's because even though I excelled in history, I probably wouldn't be able to remember half of what I was taught so long ago. 

   Waterfall is so cleverly written and wonderfully described I don't have any trouble picturing myself there with Gabi.  There is a ton of adventure and romances, sure to please everyone.  After reading this one, I am definitely excited to read the next novel, Cascade.

 

    My Rating: 4 stars