Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Series: The Chemical Garden
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2011
Genre: Science fiction
Sub-genre: Dystopian, YA
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood
YA really is the place to go if you want stunning cover art. "Girl in a pretty dress" has become a recurring theme in YA cover art, but it's one I can't complain too much about, because who doesn't like looking at a girl in a pretty dress? More to the point, this particular variation utilizes cover shorthand to its advantage in addition to the fantastic composition here. Not every cover makes such good use of empty space, but it really pops here. The portions of the cover in the circles is glossy while the rest is matte, and while having the circles around the cover model's head, the wedding ring, and the caged bird isn't anything subtle, it's a pretty accurate summary of the story. The colours are moody and dark, and the cover art was enough to draw my attention to the book in the first place, so it's clearly done its job.
There's been some debate as to whether Wither qualifies as post-apocalyptic or dystopian, especially with the way "dystopian" has become an over-used word lately, particularly in YA fiction. You can make a case either way, and I debated the question for a bit before ultimately deciding that for me, it comes closer to dystopian. While the story takes place in a world that's come very close to being entirely destroyed by war, with entire continents being unlivable, that bit of world-building has very little relevance to the actual plot of Wither. It's a background detail, something Rhine never deals directly with. I'm sure this will change in the other two volumes in the projected trilogy, and maybe those books would fit more snugly into the post-apocalyptic category. But Wither itself deals mostly with the fall-out of "man tries to tinker with things to bring it closer to perfection but fails epically," the result of which is an environment of fear and in which young girls are a commodity instead of people. We don't see much of the society at large, but in the confines of the world Rhine has been unwillingly dragged into controlling the commodities is the name of the game, which makes me want to label Wither as dystopian, even if its sequels are less so.
Generations ago, scientists got genetic engineering to the point where they could make every child "perfect." No birth defects, total immunity to disease... it does, however, come with side effects nobody was expecting. The children of this "first generation," and ever generation after them, have a very limited lifespan. Girls die at the age of twenty and boys don't live past twenty-five. Nobody's sure why, and while the first generation is working to find a cure, nothing has been found.
With everyone dying so young, girls in their child-bearing years have become an especially precious commodity. They're all under constant threat from the Gatherers, who kidnap teen girls to sell to the highest bidder, where they'll be forced into marriage so they can bear as many children as possible before their time is up. Sometimes diligence isn't enough to keep the girls away from the Gatherers, though. After all, in spite of the best efforts of both Rhine and her twin brother, she gets snatched and shipped across the country to a luxurious mansion, where she and two other girls are married to the same man and then kept under lock and key.
On the surface, this new life seems ideal, with anything she wants handed to her. But Rhine remembers a life of relative freedom outside the mansion, along with a brother she loves and who she knows will be looking for her. Escape is the only thing on her mind, but it's no easy feat to escape from a place where she's constantly watched. She'll need time to earn the trust of her husband and father-in-law and to figure out a plan of action. The longer she spends in this house and this marriage, though, the more she learns that nobody here is quite what they appear to be.
If you're in the market for something action-y and suspenseful, this is not the book you want. Wither takes its time, focusing on character development more than anything. While trapped in such a limited space, Rhine gets to know the people around her quite well, including her "sister wives," her husband, her father-in-law, and some of the servants. At sixteen, she's in the middle of the wives, with the eager and pixie-like Cecily younger than her and the sedate and removed Jenna older. Both Cecily and Jenna are delightfully complex characters, and while readers might not always like them, they're interesting to read about.
Ironically, I felt like I got to know the two of them better than I did Rhine. She has a fairly well fleshed out backstory, but a lot of her actions seemed to take place in a vacuum of emotions. I could understand how Cecily and Jenna worked, what drove them, what they might do in a given situation, but Rhine stayed an enigma. Her attraction to the attendant Gabriel could have been really powerful, but so much of it was told rather than shown, I never really understood what she liked about him other than that he was male, available, and not one of the ones holding her in the mansion against her will. That in itself might have been enough to ignite some feelings, at least on her part, but if we're going that route I'd like to see it explored a little more.
The relationship between the three wives and their husband was very nice, a delicate balance where each of them has to find their place. There were subtleties all over the place and it was well handled, especially with the constant shifting of relationships as Rhine got to know each of them better. There was one point, however, when she makes an important discovery about her husband, where I wondered why she didn't just tell him all the information he was missing. He might not have been able to change anything, at least not directly, but keeping her silence at that point only serves to keep him ignorant, which seems counter-intuitive. Bewildering decision is bewildering.
There's also a bit of Madonna/whore complex going on. As a lot of teenage girls are, Rhine is conflicted about sex, especially since it's something she's expected to do now that she's married to this man she doesn't know. In itself, this is a feature rather than a flaw, but there's a degree of judgement that goes along with having sex or even giving the appearance of having sex. Not every book has to be sex positive, but a little less "GASP you had sex with that person you're married to HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?" would be nice.
If I sound like I'm coming down hard on this book, I don't mean to. I enjoy an atmospheric, character-driven story, and this is definitely one of those. Problematic as it is, there are some wonderful and dark undertones going on, and I'm pretty interested to see where the story goes in the next volume. Fortunately for me, Fever releases next month.
Wither is available in trade paperback
.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2011
Genre: Science fiction
Sub-genre: Dystopian, YA
Rating: 3 1/2 pints of blood
YA really is the place to go if you want stunning cover art. "Girl in a pretty dress" has become a recurring theme in YA cover art, but it's one I can't complain too much about, because who doesn't like looking at a girl in a pretty dress? More to the point, this particular variation utilizes cover shorthand to its advantage in addition to the fantastic composition here. Not every cover makes such good use of empty space, but it really pops here. The portions of the cover in the circles is glossy while the rest is matte, and while having the circles around the cover model's head, the wedding ring, and the caged bird isn't anything subtle, it's a pretty accurate summary of the story. The colours are moody and dark, and the cover art was enough to draw my attention to the book in the first place, so it's clearly done its job.
There's been some debate as to whether Wither qualifies as post-apocalyptic or dystopian, especially with the way "dystopian" has become an over-used word lately, particularly in YA fiction. You can make a case either way, and I debated the question for a bit before ultimately deciding that for me, it comes closer to dystopian. While the story takes place in a world that's come very close to being entirely destroyed by war, with entire continents being unlivable, that bit of world-building has very little relevance to the actual plot of Wither. It's a background detail, something Rhine never deals directly with. I'm sure this will change in the other two volumes in the projected trilogy, and maybe those books would fit more snugly into the post-apocalyptic category. But Wither itself deals mostly with the fall-out of "man tries to tinker with things to bring it closer to perfection but fails epically," the result of which is an environment of fear and in which young girls are a commodity instead of people. We don't see much of the society at large, but in the confines of the world Rhine has been unwillingly dragged into controlling the commodities is the name of the game, which makes me want to label Wither as dystopian, even if its sequels are less so.
Generations ago, scientists got genetic engineering to the point where they could make every child "perfect." No birth defects, total immunity to disease... it does, however, come with side effects nobody was expecting. The children of this "first generation," and ever generation after them, have a very limited lifespan. Girls die at the age of twenty and boys don't live past twenty-five. Nobody's sure why, and while the first generation is working to find a cure, nothing has been found.
With everyone dying so young, girls in their child-bearing years have become an especially precious commodity. They're all under constant threat from the Gatherers, who kidnap teen girls to sell to the highest bidder, where they'll be forced into marriage so they can bear as many children as possible before their time is up. Sometimes diligence isn't enough to keep the girls away from the Gatherers, though. After all, in spite of the best efforts of both Rhine and her twin brother, she gets snatched and shipped across the country to a luxurious mansion, where she and two other girls are married to the same man and then kept under lock and key.
On the surface, this new life seems ideal, with anything she wants handed to her. But Rhine remembers a life of relative freedom outside the mansion, along with a brother she loves and who she knows will be looking for her. Escape is the only thing on her mind, but it's no easy feat to escape from a place where she's constantly watched. She'll need time to earn the trust of her husband and father-in-law and to figure out a plan of action. The longer she spends in this house and this marriage, though, the more she learns that nobody here is quite what they appear to be.
If you're in the market for something action-y and suspenseful, this is not the book you want. Wither takes its time, focusing on character development more than anything. While trapped in such a limited space, Rhine gets to know the people around her quite well, including her "sister wives," her husband, her father-in-law, and some of the servants. At sixteen, she's in the middle of the wives, with the eager and pixie-like Cecily younger than her and the sedate and removed Jenna older. Both Cecily and Jenna are delightfully complex characters, and while readers might not always like them, they're interesting to read about.
Ironically, I felt like I got to know the two of them better than I did Rhine. She has a fairly well fleshed out backstory, but a lot of her actions seemed to take place in a vacuum of emotions. I could understand how Cecily and Jenna worked, what drove them, what they might do in a given situation, but Rhine stayed an enigma. Her attraction to the attendant Gabriel could have been really powerful, but so much of it was told rather than shown, I never really understood what she liked about him other than that he was male, available, and not one of the ones holding her in the mansion against her will. That in itself might have been enough to ignite some feelings, at least on her part, but if we're going that route I'd like to see it explored a little more.
The relationship between the three wives and their husband was very nice, a delicate balance where each of them has to find their place. There were subtleties all over the place and it was well handled, especially with the constant shifting of relationships as Rhine got to know each of them better. There was one point, however, when she makes an important discovery about her husband, where I wondered why she didn't just tell him all the information he was missing. He might not have been able to change anything, at least not directly, but keeping her silence at that point only serves to keep him ignorant, which seems counter-intuitive. Bewildering decision is bewildering.
There's also a bit of Madonna/whore complex going on. As a lot of teenage girls are, Rhine is conflicted about sex, especially since it's something she's expected to do now that she's married to this man she doesn't know. In itself, this is a feature rather than a flaw, but there's a degree of judgement that goes along with having sex or even giving the appearance of having sex. Not every book has to be sex positive, but a little less "GASP you had sex with that person you're married to HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING?" would be nice.
If I sound like I'm coming down hard on this book, I don't mean to. I enjoy an atmospheric, character-driven story, and this is definitely one of those. Problematic as it is, there are some wonderful and dark undertones going on, and I'm pretty interested to see where the story goes in the next volume. Fortunately for me, Fever releases next month.
Wither is available in trade paperback
.