Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
You know that feeling when you don't particularly enjoy the first book in a series, but you're emotional invested to the point where you have to finish the series? Well, that's what happened to me with the Chemical Garden Trilogy. And let me say this, I like Fever much, much more than Wither.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I read it quickly, it was okay. Continues the story, I'm hoping the final book will be more exciting and complete the series.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Death, Sexual assault, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
All my reviews posted on Auntie Spinelli Reads
While this one didn't quite wow me, it was still a good read. Rhine and Gabriel have escaped out of the frying pan and right into the fire. The world isn't quite what Rhine was expecting.
While I liked her in Wither, Rhine sort of annoyed me in this one. When she was at the mansion, she was desperate to escape, yet when she finally does, she continues to dwell on her life there. Um, hello, you got what you wanted and now you don't want it anymore? It irked me that she couldn't enjoy her freedom with Gabriel because she was so focused on missing Linden and Cecily. I actually felt kinda sorry for Gabriel.
There wasn't much mention of the virus at all in this one until closer to the end, which almost made me forget the terrible world building in the first book (almost). There is still no explanation for the virus. Also, there was something said that kind of bothered me:
A hundred years ago there was nearly twice as much land to our country. Some of it was ruined by warfare, but most of the land loss was natural, the land deteriorating slowly and sinking into the ocean.
Yet, in the first book, this quote:
A third world war demolished all but North America, the continent with the most advanced technology. The damage was so catastrophic that all that remains of the rest of the world is ocean and uninhabitable islands so tiny that they can't even be seen from space.
I feel like Lauren needs to get her facts straight. While the story was still good, the world building issues really dragged it down for me. I am STILL left wondering what year it is, which would be nice to know.
We're once again reminded how horrible the future world is, where women are just pieces of property used for their wombs. The carnival that Rhine gets captured into was horrible. It's basically a brothel, run by Madame Soleski. The idea of it is horrifying, knowing the girls don't have a choice with what happens to their bodies. I did like the naming system, though - the Reds, Blues, Greens, Purples, etc. Names such as Lilac, Goldenrod, Sky, and Coral.
I don't want to say much else due to spoilers. I was somehow disappointed with this one, though. I was hoping the series would improve as it progressed (especially in the research department), but I liked Wither better than Fever. After finishing it, I just felt like giving a mental shrug and a 'meh.'
ASSESSMENT
Plot: 3/5
Writing style: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
World-building: 2/5
Pace: 4/5
Cover: 5/5
While this one didn't quite wow me, it was still a good read. Rhine and Gabriel have escaped out of the frying pan and right into the fire. The world isn't quite what Rhine was expecting.
While I liked her in Wither, Rhine sort of annoyed me in this one. When she was at the mansion, she was desperate to escape, yet when she finally does, she continues to dwell on her life there. Um, hello, you got what you wanted and now you don't want it anymore? It irked me that she couldn't enjoy her freedom with Gabriel because she was so focused on missing Linden and Cecily. I actually felt kinda sorry for Gabriel.
There wasn't much mention of the virus at all in this one until closer to the end, which almost made me forget the terrible world building in the first book (almost). There is still no explanation for the virus. Also, there was something said that kind of bothered me:
A hundred years ago there was nearly twice as much land to our country. Some of it was ruined by warfare, but most of the land loss was natural, the land deteriorating slowly and sinking into the ocean.
Yet, in the first book, this quote:
A third world war demolished all but North America, the continent with the most advanced technology. The damage was so catastrophic that all that remains of the rest of the world is ocean and uninhabitable islands so tiny that they can't even be seen from space.
I feel like Lauren needs to get her facts straight. While the story was still good, the world building issues really dragged it down for me. I am STILL left wondering what year it is, which would be nice to know.
We're once again reminded how horrible the future world is, where women are just pieces of property used for their wombs. The carnival that Rhine gets captured into was horrible. It's basically a brothel, run by Madame Soleski. The idea of it is horrifying, knowing the girls don't have a choice with what happens to their bodies. I did like the naming system, though - the Reds, Blues, Greens, Purples, etc. Names such as Lilac, Goldenrod, Sky, and Coral.
I don't want to say much else due to spoilers. I was somehow disappointed with this one, though. I was hoping the series would improve as it progressed (especially in the research department), but I liked Wither better than Fever. After finishing it, I just felt like giving a mental shrug and a 'meh.'
ASSESSMENT
Plot: 3/5
Writing style: 3/5
Characters: 4/5
World-building: 2/5
Pace: 4/5
Cover: 5/5
Absolutely amazing. Captivating from beginning to end! Can't wait for the next and final book to come out!
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"It's going to get worse before it gets better."
The first word that comes to my mind when I think of this book? CREEPTASTIC! (creepy (in a good way) + fantastic = creeptastic)
Oh yeah and I *hearts* Gabriel! SO.HARD.
Lauren DeStefano gives us another beautifully written story in this sequel that picks up right where WITHER left off. Rhine and Gabriel have managed to escape from their prison-like life in the mansion only to find themselves caught up in another one when they stumble into a dark carnival. Filled with dancing girls, spinning horses and one haunting Ferris wheel, this is no playground and it's run by a Madam whose as sinister as Vaughn. (As far as I'm concerned, nothing good can ever come of a Ferris wheel which is why I avoid them at all costs. *shivers*) When Rhine discovers what the Madame has in store for her, she and Gabriel must flee again but this time they're not alone.
Along the way they meet new people, some nice, some - not so much, all the while Rhine is constantly searching for her twin, Rowan. There never seems to be any rest for these two and they're constantly plagued with something whether it's an injury, fear that Vaughn will find them or creepy nightmares that make it hard to distinguish dream from reality. Rhine and Gabriel care very deeply for one another and my heart was aching for them to be able to find some kind of peace. On several occasions, Rhine questions whether her decision to leave Linden and the mansion was the best one or her or Gabriel.
Speaking of Gabriel, this journey of theirs changes him, both of them really but he's no longer content to play the subdued house servant. He's...well, he's all kinds of AWESOMESAUCE. ALL.KINDS. (you'll just have to read it to see what I mean.)
The theme throughout this book is "things will get worse before they'll get better" and that means there's still hope. Still hope to find Rowan, still hope to find a cure for the virus, still hope to get back all that's been lost.
I can't wait to see how it all ends!
The first word that comes to my mind when I think of this book? CREEPTASTIC! (creepy (in a good way) + fantastic = creeptastic)
Oh yeah and I *hearts* Gabriel! SO.HARD.
Lauren DeStefano gives us another beautifully written story in this sequel that picks up right where WITHER left off. Rhine and Gabriel have managed to escape from their prison-like life in the mansion only to find themselves caught up in another one when they stumble into a dark carnival. Filled with dancing girls, spinning horses and one haunting Ferris wheel, this is no playground and it's run by a Madam whose as sinister as Vaughn. (As far as I'm concerned, nothing good can ever come of a Ferris wheel which is why I avoid them at all costs. *shivers*) When Rhine discovers what the Madame has in store for her, she and Gabriel must flee again but this time they're not alone.
Along the way they meet new people, some nice, some - not so much, all the while Rhine is constantly searching for her twin, Rowan. There never seems to be any rest for these two and they're constantly plagued with something whether it's an injury, fear that Vaughn will find them or creepy nightmares that make it hard to distinguish dream from reality. Rhine and Gabriel care very deeply for one another and my heart was aching for them to be able to find some kind of peace. On several occasions, Rhine questions whether her decision to leave Linden and the mansion was the best one or her or Gabriel.
Speaking of Gabriel, this journey of theirs changes him, both of them really but he's no longer content to play the subdued house servant. He's...well, he's all kinds of AWESOMESAUCE. ALL.KINDS. (you'll just have to read it to see what I mean.)
The theme throughout this book is "things will get worse before they'll get better" and that means there's still hope. Still hope to find Rowan, still hope to find a cure for the virus, still hope to get back all that's been lost.
I can't wait to see how it all ends!
Am I the only one that is super creeped out by the cover?
This book was okay. It wasn't really better or worse than wither. There were certainly a lot of parts that surprised me, like Madame, and especially the ending. Who would've thought?
This book was okay. It wasn't really better or worse than wither. There were certainly a lot of parts that surprised me, like Madame, and especially the ending. Who would've thought?
Fever is named well. I felt like the characters were in a daze the entire time. In fact, I’m fairly certain at least one of them was at any point in time. This added to the narration because so much was happening that was beyond Rhine’s control. I enjoyed the book, but I also disliked certain aspects a little bit. Fever is very different from Wither and I don’t feel as if the overall plot actually moved much. There was plenty of action and character growth in Fever, along with incredibly helpful realizations, but I felt like things were back to square one when it was all said and done.
Things were bleak from the moment Rhine and Gabriel stepped out of the boat and ended up in a twisted carnival of prostitutes. The Madame kept herself drugged on opiates and kept everyone else drugged to some degree. Rhine was fortunately not forced to become a prostitute herself, but she was forced to perform in other ways in the circus. Gabriel was kept drugged to keep him from becoming a problem. There didn’t seem to be any way out. The circus was absolutely horrifying and it made the mansion look like the safest place on earth.
I enjoyed the contrast of book one and book two. While book one was the kind of horror that disguised itself in luxury, the things Rhine encountered in book two were the obvious kinds of horrors that show how bleak the world outside of the mansion really was. Gabriel came with Rhine and she struggled with her guilt because the world was so much worse on the surface than the mansion was. And she dragged him along with the promise of freedom.
I don’t want to go into a whole lot of plot detail, so I won’t expand on anything. The characters found themselves in terrible situation after terrible situation. Anything I thought would happen during the escape from the mansion was wrong. I thought perhaps the relationship would bloom a little more between Gabriel and Rhine, but with one of both of them being drugged or fevered or sick throughout the book, there was little time for exploration of feelings.
I loved the overall feeling and tone of fever, even the fact that everything was hazy and the characters weren’t always lucid. The circus scenes were incredible. The author is very talented at writing and bringing scenes to life. I love that book two differed so much from the same themes as book one because it brought some new things to the table. However, Fever didn’t really expand on the original plot by a whole lot. I wonder sometimes if the series is too jumbled and if the author would have been better off writing horrific short stories. The two things I think book one and two have the most in common are the aspects of horror in certain elements. The first book was the luxurious mansion with secret horrors and the second book was the twisted circus with the crazed Madame. I love the way they were explored, but I question what one really has to do with the other besides being things Rhine experienced. I’m not even sure the circus was anything more than a stumbling block, whereas the mansion still seems to be the focus of the series.
The dystopian world, aside from the threat of Vaughn coming after them and experimenting on them, has little place in the novel. There are things about the world outside of just Rhine that still bug me a little bit and I was really hoping book two would take these things and sort of expand on them, but instead the characters experienced things in a drug induced haze and that was pretty much it. I loved Fever and I loved the contrast and different style, I just wish things made a little more sense in the grand scheme of things. Book one lacked some needed world building in terms of the how the world got the way it was, but I suspended disbelief and went with the flow. After book two, I’m a little more skeptical and I need to be pulled back in and believe this world exists. I recommend Fever. The book itself is very good and extremely well written. I can’t wait to read Sever and see where the series takes me.
Review originally published at Love, Literature, Art, and Reason Book review blog
Things were bleak from the moment Rhine and Gabriel stepped out of the boat and ended up in a twisted carnival of prostitutes. The Madame kept herself drugged on opiates and kept everyone else drugged to some degree. Rhine was fortunately not forced to become a prostitute herself, but she was forced to perform in other ways in the circus. Gabriel was kept drugged to keep him from becoming a problem. There didn’t seem to be any way out. The circus was absolutely horrifying and it made the mansion look like the safest place on earth.
I enjoyed the contrast of book one and book two. While book one was the kind of horror that disguised itself in luxury, the things Rhine encountered in book two were the obvious kinds of horrors that show how bleak the world outside of the mansion really was. Gabriel came with Rhine and she struggled with her guilt because the world was so much worse on the surface than the mansion was. And she dragged him along with the promise of freedom.
I don’t want to go into a whole lot of plot detail, so I won’t expand on anything. The characters found themselves in terrible situation after terrible situation. Anything I thought would happen during the escape from the mansion was wrong. I thought perhaps the relationship would bloom a little more between Gabriel and Rhine, but with one of both of them being drugged or fevered or sick throughout the book, there was little time for exploration of feelings.
I loved the overall feeling and tone of fever, even the fact that everything was hazy and the characters weren’t always lucid. The circus scenes were incredible. The author is very talented at writing and bringing scenes to life. I love that book two differed so much from the same themes as book one because it brought some new things to the table. However, Fever didn’t really expand on the original plot by a whole lot. I wonder sometimes if the series is too jumbled and if the author would have been better off writing horrific short stories. The two things I think book one and two have the most in common are the aspects of horror in certain elements. The first book was the luxurious mansion with secret horrors and the second book was the twisted circus with the crazed Madame. I love the way they were explored, but I question what one really has to do with the other besides being things Rhine experienced. I’m not even sure the circus was anything more than a stumbling block, whereas the mansion still seems to be the focus of the series.
The dystopian world, aside from the threat of Vaughn coming after them and experimenting on them, has little place in the novel. There are things about the world outside of just Rhine that still bug me a little bit and I was really hoping book two would take these things and sort of expand on them, but instead the characters experienced things in a drug induced haze and that was pretty much it. I loved Fever and I loved the contrast and different style, I just wish things made a little more sense in the grand scheme of things. Book one lacked some needed world building in terms of the how the world got the way it was, but I suspended disbelief and went with the flow. After book two, I’m a little more skeptical and I need to be pulled back in and believe this world exists. I recommend Fever. The book itself is very good and extremely well written. I can’t wait to read Sever and see where the series takes me.
Review originally published at Love, Literature, Art, and Reason Book review blog