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finalefile 's review for:
Fever
by Lauren DeStefano
Warning: This review contains spoilers pertaining to Wither, the first book in the Chemical Garden Trilogy.
As the second novel in the Chemical Garden Trilogy, Fever starts to tie up the loose ends from Lauren DeStefano’s first novel, Wither. The story picks up right after Rhine and Gabriel run away from Linden’s mansion and steal a boat. Though the two characters are happy to be free, they soon find themselves as unhappy as they were before as they try to find Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan.
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed Wither. Perhaps Fever doesn’t have Wither’s magic because Rhine has exchanged her fairy-tale life in the mansion for a gritty struggle for survival in the real world. Also, the characters’ depth has changed. We no longer see the family of developed characters that Rhine was forced into in Wither. Jenna is dead, and Cecily is still at the mansion with Linden and Vaughn. Yes, Rhine is the main character of the series, but she didn’t interest me quite as much as some of the other, quirkier characters in Wither. Some potentially interesting new characters appear in Fever, but they are not developed much and serve merely to differentiate one setting from another as Rhine and Gabriel travel north. Moreover, first Gabriel, then Rhine deal with illness throughout the book (hence the title), and much of the narration is a detailed stream-of-consciousness account (with lots of sentence fragments and not-quite-strained poetic imagery) of how sick and exhausted Rhine feels. Most of the action and the most interesting revelations are packed into the last 60 pages of this 341-page book, setting the stage for Sever, the final novel of the trilogy. I hope that Sever will return to Wither’s fast-paced drama and finally answer the many questions raised by Wither and Fever.
Verdict: Read this book if you enjoyed Wither and want to know what happens next, but don’t expect an exciting story. Don’t try to read this book if you didn’t enjoy Wither or haven’t read it yet.
As the second novel in the Chemical Garden Trilogy, Fever starts to tie up the loose ends from Lauren DeStefano’s first novel, Wither. The story picks up right after Rhine and Gabriel run away from Linden’s mansion and steal a boat. Though the two characters are happy to be free, they soon find themselves as unhappy as they were before as they try to find Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan.
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I enjoyed Wither. Perhaps Fever doesn’t have Wither’s magic because Rhine has exchanged her fairy-tale life in the mansion for a gritty struggle for survival in the real world. Also, the characters’ depth has changed. We no longer see the family of developed characters that Rhine was forced into in Wither. Jenna is dead, and Cecily is still at the mansion with Linden and Vaughn. Yes, Rhine is the main character of the series, but she didn’t interest me quite as much as some of the other, quirkier characters in Wither. Some potentially interesting new characters appear in Fever, but they are not developed much and serve merely to differentiate one setting from another as Rhine and Gabriel travel north. Moreover, first Gabriel, then Rhine deal with illness throughout the book (hence the title), and much of the narration is a detailed stream-of-consciousness account (with lots of sentence fragments and not-quite-strained poetic imagery) of how sick and exhausted Rhine feels. Most of the action and the most interesting revelations are packed into the last 60 pages of this 341-page book, setting the stage for Sever, the final novel of the trilogy. I hope that Sever will return to Wither’s fast-paced drama and finally answer the many questions raised by Wither and Fever.
Verdict: Read this book if you enjoyed Wither and want to know what happens next, but don’t expect an exciting story. Don’t try to read this book if you didn’t enjoy Wither or haven’t read it yet.