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A review by thatkorigirl
Fever by Lauren DeStefano
2.0
First reads winner.
I hadn't read the first book, although I got a summary, and I expected a book that wasn't quite the science fiction ya read of the century, but I was still disappointed.
Browsing earlier reviews, the majority of my complains have been listed, but here they are:
The science fiction reality, constructed by DeStefano, isn't believable. At all. Science fiction is a hard genre to write, in that even the best books will still be so far-fetched in places due to the unrealistic devices that authors tend to put in to spice things up, but in this book the author just seems to lack a recognition of what motivates humanity. Protip: Evolution might breed a supposed "better race" through natural selection (though not always), but that doesn't mean individuals drive forward with no goal other than procreation (as seen by a widely polygamous society) and continuing/improving (fixing the time bomb) the race.
Individuals care about survival, which the main characters are trying.
As far as the actual characters, like a great many books in the ya section nowdays, the vast majority of the plot ignores the background and focuses on romance tension (which never seemed to improve, due to the many memories and thoughts consuming them).
The main character and plot were enjoyable for the most part, especially the twisted carnival section, but neither Rhine or Gabriel ever really stood out to me.
I hadn't read the first book, although I got a summary, and I expected a book that wasn't quite the science fiction ya read of the century, but I was still disappointed.
Browsing earlier reviews, the majority of my complains have been listed, but here they are:
The science fiction reality, constructed by DeStefano, isn't believable. At all. Science fiction is a hard genre to write, in that even the best books will still be so far-fetched in places due to the unrealistic devices that authors tend to put in to spice things up, but in this book the author just seems to lack a recognition of what motivates humanity. Protip: Evolution might breed a supposed "better race" through natural selection (though not always), but that doesn't mean individuals drive forward with no goal other than procreation (as seen by a widely polygamous society) and continuing/improving (fixing the time bomb) the race.
Individuals care about survival, which the main characters are trying.
As far as the actual characters, like a great many books in the ya section nowdays, the vast majority of the plot ignores the background and focuses on romance tension (which never seemed to improve, due to the many memories and thoughts consuming them).
The main character and plot were enjoyable for the most part, especially the twisted carnival section, but neither Rhine or Gabriel ever really stood out to me.