Wither

“Eventually I realize that I am holding on to him just as tightly as he holds on to me. And here we are: two small dying things, as the world ends around us like falling autumn leaves.”

I've heard a lot of mixed things about this book, but when I saw it for $3 last summer I had to buy it. I'm not sure exactly what my expectations were for this book, but I can say I was really intrigued by the premise. The idea that girls die at 20 and boys die at 25 is fascinating. And I love the commentary on it happening because humans tried to cheat evolution and become the perfect beings.

Our main character in this book is Rhine. She is taken from her twin brother in NY to Florida where she is forced to marry Linden. Linden also marries two other girls. This made sense to me since with people dying at such a young age it makes sense to have multiple wives to bear children. What really irked me with this was how easily the girls accepted the whole sister wives thing. I understand they didn't want to marry Linden, but they seemed totally fine if he was lounging around with all three at the same time.

Lauren DeStefano's writing is beautiful. She definitely writes a very description heavy prose. These descriptions and thoughts are sliced with short instances of dialogue. At first it was really odd to me that there was so little dialogue, but after a while I did not notice it as much. For the most part DeStefano did a great job of keeping the mystery and plot going throughout the book. I definitely am convinced that Rhine being a twin with heterochromatic eyes is extremely important. The plot was quite slow and boring at times in this book, but I think it was to help set up the world and what Rhine is going through.

While this book has a horrible cover (I'm sorry if you like it but I find it to be horrible), the premise of the world is what convinced me to buy it and subsequently read it. The only thing the cover has going for it is the typography, it is really nicely done. After finishing it and digesting my thoughts I have come to a very “meh” feel. It was enjoyable at times but at other times it was either annoying or dry. I may or may not continue on with the series. Granted it will probably be a yes if I can find the books at good prices. Basically this was an interesting idea but I'm not sure it was the book for me.