640 reviews for:

Fugitive

Lauren DeStefano

3.59 AVERAGE


I'm still processing my thoughts on this one. I didn't love it nearly as much as Wither, which was such an amazing, vivid work of storytelling. Fever felt more like a transitional novel, in the sense that, you were waiting for something major to happen, only to realize that something major won't be till the next book.

SPOILER ALERT: If you have not read Wither, do not read this review!

I didn't think it was possible but Fever is even better than Wither. Fever was gripping and heart-pounding and I was hooked from the very first page. This series is so unique and I can't believe where Lauren DeStefano took the story in this book.

Rhine is a strong heroine. She does not sit by while people hurt her and the ones she loves. She takes action! Still, she isn't afraid to show weakness to the people she loves. She is smart, strong, courageous, and vulnerable. She is practically the perfect heroine and there is a lot of development of her character in this book. Gabriel is also a lot more developed in this book. He is brave yet scared, strong yet weak, and always great to Rhine. He grows so much throughout Fever and my heart broke for both him and Rhine at times. Some new characters were also introduced, both good and bad. And speaking of bad characters: daddy dearest is back and even crazier than before! Vaughn is one sick man with pretty much no redeeming qualities. He pretty much scares the crap out of me. Lauren DeStefano has done a great job making him a realistic villain.

The story in Fever is a lot darker than that of Wither. Rhine and Gabriel may have escaped but they are definitely not safe. The trials that face them in Fever threaten their lives, their sanity, and their love for each other. Things never turn out quite right for these two but I seriously hope there is a happy ending for them.

Lauren DeStefano's writing has only gotten better since Wither. Her prose is beautiful and lyrical and impossible to stop reading. Read this book for the writing, if nothing else.

Overall, Fever is by far, one of the best books I have ever read. It is dark and gritty but there is always a small ray of hope. Fans of Wither will not be disappointed by this one!

I liked large parts of this book, but there were a few things that stood out to me as interesting and I thought would play a bigger role later in the story that all just seemed to fall away. Most of my reasons for being disappointed with this book are spoilery for the ending, so I'll put it in a spoiler tag.
Spoiler At the end Rhine is back where she started, in the hands of the same people in the same position except even worse. It makes the entire book feel like it was just a bit of a waste of time. Even the interesting things and characters she meets along the way don't seem to matter because at the end she isn't anywhere near any of them.

Rhine also spends the entire book looking for her brother and then randomly finds him on the last page by watching tv and seeing him on there. I know there's a very small chance the two of them would just run into eachother on the street, but are the odds of her happening to see him on tv any bigger? I don't think so.

This book is just confusing to me. Unless the author brings back seemingly dropped plot points from this book in the sequel, I'm not sure what the point of 70% of what happened even is. It's not like anything made Rhine grow as a character either, it's all just filler until she's taken back.


I'm disappointed because I really liked the book up until the end. I even liked it more than Wither at first. I'm still invested in the story and I will read the third one because I have some hope that the strange set up in this book might make more sense after reading it. We will see.

I want to start off to say that I love this series, apsolutly adore everything about it. So if your looking to read a negative review then you are not goinf to get one from me.
I finally got my hands on this in April and could not put it down. I did re-read bk 1 cause I always do in order to keep the story straight in my mind. I read so many books that sometimes I need a refresher. But I immediately was submerged back into the world. The book literally just picked up right from where Wither left off, with Rhine and Gabriel leaving the manor. Right off the bat they run into trouble and the trouble doesn't stop till u read the last line of the book. I'm a person who adores conflict and near-death experiences for characters so this book was prime. What was really special was the way that the conflict was perfectly intermitted with huge character development. Especially Gabriel, his character grew so much in my eyes. And not just himself but his relationship with Rhine. I thought it was absolutely beautiful.
Basically I could go on and on about how amazing this book is. So just please read it!

I have a love/hate relationship with this book. On one hand, I felt it answered a lot of questions from the first book and continued to build upon Rhine and Vaughan's characters, but it wasn't as good as the first book and the entire plot felt kind of circular.
The circus setting in the first half really served no purpose to the plot other than to remind us how bleak the world really is in Fever, and I felt Gabriel was criminally underused.
Still, I'm excited to see how things will all wrap up in Sever and how Linden will react to knowing all of his father's diabolical deeds.
The only thing I can't figure out is Cecily. Is she good, is bad? I can never really tell.
Overall Grade: 4.5 stars

I really wanted to like this more, because I really enjoyed Wither. I think my lackluster feeling for the book had more to do with finishing A Discovery of Witches (which I thought was incredible and engaging and was sad when it was over) than with the book itself.

Contains Spoilers... This book took me a really long time to finish, because it was so hard to follow and because the subject matter was so disturbing. Normally, I can enjoy a book, even with tough subject matter, but this one just didn't work. I had a really hard time with Rhine in this book. She was not the strong willed, young woman using all her power to earn her freedom. She allowed herself to basically become the victim of human trafficking. Sadly, that's probably accurate to that lifestyle, but it didn't align with this character. Also, I still don't feel that tight bond between her and Gabriel. I think we're supposed to root for them, but I don't. I want her to be reunited with her brother more than I care about these other men. Furthermore, when she finally revealed to Linden what a monster his father is, why didn't she also tell him the whole truth about her? Seriously, he needs to know how naive he is!

The followup to Wither was surprisingly good. It sets up the world as bleak as the end of Wither. The new characters are interesting enough to hold our attention, but not so over powering that we don't hope to see former characters.

It's a quick read, but still creative and detailed.

Unfortunately I didn't find this novel as good as Wither. The only time I truly became interested was near the end. I felt bored whilst reading majority of Fever, however I will hate myself if I don't read the last book so I guess we will see how that one turns out; Hopefully better than this one.

"Momentum," she repeats. "You can't just stand there if you want something to fly. You have to run."

wow,I don't think I've read such a sad, hopeless painful book in a very very very long time.

This one took all my willpower to finish. At some point, I want a win in the corner for the good guys..
I want grown men (the ones that are NOT going to die at 25) to want more from a young girl than just her body.
I want less drugs shoved, morphed and forced into people
I want less taken, more given. And love and affection.

and this...ugh, was....painful. and just left me feeling empty.

the line that broke me the most:
"If only we could be together, maybe we'd have an answer between us."

God, if only.....