Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ihateprozac 's review for:
Fever
by Lauren DeStefano
I'm an absolute masochist so I couldn't resist seeing if this book was as crap as the previous one. If you want to witness my rage over the previous novel, which is the most infuriating book I've read since Twilight, check it out here.
Because Gabriel and Rhine escape the mansion and we don't have to witness awkward forced interactions with Linden everyday, this book is a little less crap than its predecessor. The book tracks Gabriel and Rhine as they escape the mansion, wind up working in an evil brothel carnival, return to New York to find Rowan, and end up back at the mansion under blackmail by Vaughn.
While I admit that the book is a little less crap than the first one, I still wouldn't say it was a good book by any means. The brothel carnival was utterly ridiculous. Rhine and Gabriel wander too close to a carnival to even bother running away, and are forced into servitude by a crazy lady whose hired guns have apparently never entertained the thought of turning on her. Gabriel gets hooked on drugs and they're forced to put on peepshows for the local cashed up bogans, which just proves that when you think this series is crappy and ludicrious, it gets even crappier and more ludicrous.
While I was confused as to who Silas was for the longest time (brother/cousin/lover/friend), the orphanage scenes actually managed to stir some emotion in me. It was heartbreaking delivering Maddie to her grandmother and learning that Lilac/Grace had been gathered so young and sold into prostitution. However, I still felt that too much of the focus was placed on how Silas felt about the ordeal, when Claire must have been suffering unimaginable pain in effectively losing a child.
And I will concede that the story picked up when Vaughn captured Rhine and subjected her to months of medical torture in the basement. I never guessed that Rhine's flu-like symptoms were the result of withdrawal from medication, let alone medication delivered through the June Beans! Though I don't understand what Rhine's genetic mosaicism is or how it could play a role in developing a vaccine, I was interested by the concept of building up a virus immunity the same way in which the flu vaccine is delivered.
I mentioned in my review of the previous book that Vaughn was a crappy half-arsed villain, but he really stepped up his game in this novel. He made me sick to my stomach the way he treated Rhine as a test subject rather than a human being, beating her down with medication and inhumane experiments simply because she was both different and difficult. I also disliked Linden a little less when I realised that he truly had no clue about Vaughn's extracurricular activities in the basement. While I still think he's a thickheaded pig who is totally devoid of personality, it's a little preferable to thinking he just gave his wife over for experiments.
I could've cried with joy when Rhine told Linden what a monster his father is, but I was frustrated that she still didn't tell him the truth about how she came to be at the mansion! No matter how much Linden wanted to give his father the benefit of the doubt, surely killing teenage girls in cold blood in the back of a van is inexcusable, no?
I'm glad we finally got a glimpse of what Rowan has been up to. I hadn't formulated any theories as to where he'd gone, but I certainly didn't expect him to have adopted the anti-science mentality that killed his parents! I'm hoping that Rhine manages to unite with Rowan, show him the error of his ways, and they can live a life of rainbows and smiles back at the mansion with a dead Vaughn, dead Linden and healthy Gabriel.
Overall: While this book was less shitty than its predecessor, I still wouldn't recommend that anybody touch this series unless they also like to spend their afternoons casually self-flagellating with a spiked whip. The story picks up and some characters start to come into their own, but you'll still finish the book so frustrated that you want to scream and punch the nearest inanimate object. Instead of straight up rage at the crappy male lead, crappy protagonist and crappy universe, I now rage about the crappy male lead, crappy protagonist and despicable villain.
Because Gabriel and Rhine escape the mansion and we don't have to witness awkward forced interactions with Linden everyday, this book is a little less crap than its predecessor. The book tracks Gabriel and Rhine as they escape the mansion, wind up working in an evil brothel carnival, return to New York to find Rowan, and end up back at the mansion under blackmail by Vaughn.
While I admit that the book is a little less crap than the first one, I still wouldn't say it was a good book by any means. The brothel carnival was utterly ridiculous. Rhine and Gabriel wander too close to a carnival to even bother running away, and are forced into servitude by a crazy lady whose hired guns have apparently never entertained the thought of turning on her. Gabriel gets hooked on drugs and they're forced to put on peepshows for the local cashed up bogans, which just proves that when you think this series is crappy and ludicrious, it gets even crappier and more ludicrous.
While I was confused as to who Silas was for the longest time (brother/cousin/lover/friend), the orphanage scenes actually managed to stir some emotion in me. It was heartbreaking delivering Maddie to her grandmother and learning that Lilac/Grace had been gathered so young and sold into prostitution. However, I still felt that too much of the focus was placed on how Silas felt about the ordeal, when Claire must have been suffering unimaginable pain in effectively losing a child.
And I will concede that the story picked up when Vaughn captured Rhine and subjected her to months of medical torture in the basement. I never guessed that Rhine's flu-like symptoms were the result of withdrawal from medication, let alone medication delivered through the June Beans! Though I don't understand what Rhine's genetic mosaicism is or how it could play a role in developing a vaccine, I was interested by the concept of building up a virus immunity the same way in which the flu vaccine is delivered.
I mentioned in my review of the previous book that Vaughn was a crappy half-arsed villain, but he really stepped up his game in this novel. He made me sick to my stomach the way he treated Rhine as a test subject rather than a human being, beating her down with medication and inhumane experiments simply because she was both different and difficult. I also disliked Linden a little less when I realised that he truly had no clue about Vaughn's extracurricular activities in the basement. While I still think he's a thickheaded pig who is totally devoid of personality, it's a little preferable to thinking he just gave his wife over for experiments.
I could've cried with joy when Rhine told Linden what a monster his father is, but I was frustrated that she still didn't tell him the truth about how she came to be at the mansion! No matter how much Linden wanted to give his father the benefit of the doubt, surely killing teenage girls in cold blood in the back of a van is inexcusable, no?
I'm glad we finally got a glimpse of what Rowan has been up to. I hadn't formulated any theories as to where he'd gone, but I certainly didn't expect him to have adopted the anti-science mentality that killed his parents! I'm hoping that Rhine manages to unite with Rowan, show him the error of his ways, and they can live a life of rainbows and smiles back at the mansion with a dead Vaughn, dead Linden and healthy Gabriel.
Overall: While this book was less shitty than its predecessor, I still wouldn't recommend that anybody touch this series unless they also like to spend their afternoons casually self-flagellating with a spiked whip. The story picks up and some characters start to come into their own, but you'll still finish the book so frustrated that you want to scream and punch the nearest inanimate object. Instead of straight up rage at the crappy male lead, crappy protagonist and crappy universe, I now rage about the crappy male lead, crappy protagonist and despicable villain.