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Wither

By Lauren DeStefano (Author)

Paperback published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

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Wither

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About This Book
What if you knew exactly when you’d die? The first book of The Chemical Garden Trilogy is now available in paperback.

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years--leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement; her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next; and Rhine has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive.

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

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What if you knew exactly when you’d die? The first book of The Chemical Garden Trilogy is now available in paperback.

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years--leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement; her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next; and Rhine has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive.

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Product Details
Paperback (384 pages)
Published: December 6, 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781442409064
Other books byLauren DeStefano
(5)
  • Sever

    Sever
    Time is running out for Rhine in this conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Chemical Garden Trilogy. With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them. Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and about the past her parents never had the chance to explain. In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.
    Visit Book Page

    Perfect Ruin

    Perfect Ruin
    From the New York Times bestselling author of The Chemical Garden trilogy: On the floating city of Internment, you can be anything you dream. Unless you approach the edge. Morgan Stockhour knows getting too close to the edge of Internment, the floating city in the clouds where she lives, can lead to madness. Even though her older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. If she ever wonders about the ground, and why it is forbidden, she takes solace in her best friend, Pen, and in Basil, the boy she’s engaged to marry. Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially once she meets Judas. Betrothed to the victim, he is the boy being blamed for the murder, but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find—or whom she will lose.
    Visit Book Page

    Fever

    Fever
    The second book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy reveals a world as captivating—and as dangerous—as the one Rhine left behind in Wither. Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but they’re still in danger. Outside, they find a world even more disquieting than the one they left behind.      Determined to get to Manhattan and find Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan, the two press forward, amid threats of being captured again…or worse.      The road they are on is long and perilous—and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and men die at age twenty-five, time is precious. In this sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price—now that she has more to lose than ever.
    Visit Book Page

    The Seeds of Wither

    The Seeds of Wither
    EBook Sampler with Exclusive Short Story
    Step into the Chemical Garden with an all-new eBook sampler! Discover the world author Lauren DeStefano created in Wither, a riveting dystopian thriller. In the not-so-distant future, fallout from genetic engineering causes all females to die at age twenty, and all males to die at twenty-five. Kidnapped from her home and torn from her twin brother Rowan, sixteen-year-old Rhine is forced into a polygamous marriage and taken to live in her husband’s mansion. She has everything she wants—except for freedom. But her plans to escape and return home are complicated by a devious father-in-law, as well as Rhine’s growing attraction to Gabriel, a servant who works on the estate. Read the first 100 pages of Wither and be captivated by Rhine’s journey. This eBook sampler includes an EXCLUSIVE, never-before-published short story by Lauren DeStefano! “The First Bride” reveals the events leading up to Wither, from the point of view of the bride that came before Rhine. Delve even deeper into Wither with a map of the wives’ floor, the Wither book trailer, and a video that takes you behind the scenes of the Fever cover shoot. You'll also get a sneak peak of Fever, the second book in the Chemical Garden trilogy, before it goes on sale 2/21/12! 
    Visit Book Page

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BookReviews
126 Total Reviews

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  • December 07, 2012
    MELISSADORISH
    LibraryThing User

    Wither by Lauren DeStefano is a dark dystopian science fiction novel that takes place amid the remains of North America after WWIII. To make matters worse, a genetic consequence now results in a lifespan of 25 for men and 20 for women. Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery has just four years left before the virus claims her. But the feisty Rhine won’t get to live out those years in freedom.The Gatherers have kidnapped her, along with 13-year-old Cecily and 18-year-old Jenna - to be brides for Governor Linden, a wealthy 21-year-old with a controlling first generation father named Housemaster Vaughn. Vaughn, like many first generationers (who live out a normal life span) is looking for a cure for the virus, but it’s hard to believe that someone so sinister really wants to find one. Rhine won’t consummate the marriage as her two sister brides do, but she is sometimes torn between caring about Linden, her attraction to servant Gabriel and her overwhelming desire to be reunited with her twin brother Rowan. At times the reader almost believes she is beginning to enjoy her lavish new life, where many life forms must be portrayed through holograms. In the end, Rhine’s desire to return home wins out, but not before she experiences death, love and friendship.Themes like polygamy and teen pregnancy make this a novel geared more for ages 13-18. It would appeal more to girls, but boys might find the dystopian nature intriguing. Other themes in this novel are power, kidnapping, the quest for freedom, hope, mistrust, marriage, death, and sexism.I think this book should be part of a school library collection because it has some grounding in the sciences and can be used in discussions in other areas.

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    Wither by Lauren DeStefano is a dark dystopian science fiction novel that takes place amid the remains of North America after WWIII. To make matters worse, a genetic consequence now results in a lifespan of 25 for men and 20 for women. Sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery has just four years left before the virus claims her. But the feisty Rhine won’t get to live out those years in freedom.The Gatherers have kidnapped her, along with 13-year-old Cecily and 18-year-old Jenna - to be brides for Governor Linden, a wealthy 21-year-old with a controlling first generation father named Housemaster Vaughn. Vaughn, like many first generationers (who live out a normal life span) is looking for a cure for the virus, but it’s hard to believe that someone so sinister really wants to find one. Rhine won’t consummate the marriage as her two sister brides do, but she is sometimes torn between caring about Linden, her attraction to servant Gabriel and her overwhelming desire to be reunited with her twin brother Rowan. At times the reader almost believes she is beginning to enjoy her lavish new life, where many life forms must be portrayed through holograms. In the end, Rhine’s desire to return home wins out, but not before she experiences death, love and friendship.Themes like polygamy and teen pregnancy make this a novel geared more for ages 13-18. It would appeal more to girls, but boys might find the dystopian nature intriguing. Other themes in this novel are power, kidnapping, the quest for freedom, hope, mistrust, marriage, death, and sexism.I think this book should be part of a school library collection because it has some grounding in the sciences and can be used in discussions in other areas.


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  • August 29, 2012
    4SARAD
    LibraryThing User

    I quite frankly thought this book sucked. It's mostly a rip-off of Atwood's "Handmaid's Tale." I didn't like the characters. Cecily was too annoying and Jenna started off so determined that Linden would never touch her and then a couple of chapters later she casually mentions how often she sleeps with him and how it's "not bad." It just seemed like the author changed her character midway through the book and never went back to edit. The "villain" of the book never did anything scary at all. I was half convinced the book would turn out to be one of those where you find out the main character is crazy and made it all up because seriously Vaughn would say something completely normal and the main character would be cursing his evil guts in her head. The author also repeated herself endlessly and it got really old and boring. Really not a fan.

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    I quite frankly thought this book sucked. It's mostly a rip-off of Atwood's "Handmaid's Tale." I didn't like the characters. Cecily was too annoying and Jenna started off so determined that Linden would never touch her and then a couple of chapters later she casually mentions how often she sleeps with him and how it's "not bad." It just seemed like the author changed her character midway through the book and never went back to edit. The "villain" of the book never did anything scary at all. I was half convinced the book would turn out to be one of those where you find out the main character is crazy and made it all up because seriously Vaughn would say something completely normal and the main character would be cursing his evil guts in her head. The author also repeated herself endlessly and it got really old and boring. Really not a fan.


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  • August 23, 2012
    ALYSON
    LibraryThing User

    Great book but I am really tired of every YA book being in a series. They are all blurring together in my mind and I am tired of feeling like I need to reread everything when the sequels come out. Sorry to take out my annoyance on this book, because it really was good!

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    Great book but I am really tired of every YA book being in a series. They are all blurring together in my mind and I am tired of feeling like I need to reread everything when the sequels come out. Sorry to take out my annoyance on this book, because it really was good!


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Average Rating 4.5 out of 5
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