Fever

Fever by Lauren DeStefano

I'm going to cheat because I'm still reeling from the last chapter. I also made myself partially deaf by shrieking, "What? WHAT!? NO! WHAT?!?!?"

So here's the amazon synopsis of 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."

And now my formatting of this post is all screwed up. Two minute fix. Dum de dum dum. Okay, moving on.

This is the book description we are given, and I like how ambitiously vague it is. This is what a book description should be; exciting, kind of gives you some of the basics of what to expect from the book, doesn't reveal most of the major plot, and the mystery of what it isn't telling is enticing.

So onto the actual story.

I thought this was a good follow up to Wither as (IF YOU HAVEN'T READ WITHER AND WANT TO, STOP READING NOW, THIS WILL BE SPOILERS FOR IT) it began right where Wither left off.

It starts with Gabriel and Rhine ditching their boat and making it to land, as they find themselves a little lost as to exactly where they are, they notice some lights and head towards them after a little debate. Once they reach the lights they discover it's a ferris wheel and are seized by the people who control it. They've stumbled across a red light district. Madame takes Rhine and makes her into 'Goldenrod', drugs her, and lets her perform with Gabriel (although it's alluded that they only kiss and let people watch them). As Rhine is the narrator and she's drugged, this section of the book is rather unclear. They meet quite a cast of characters in their time at the carnival red light district and I don't want to say much more except that the story unfolds beautifully. I think there are times where I went "WHAT THE HECK" at Rhine because she gets into small traps of 'WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? HUR DUR HUR" that everyone seems to face when they know they're going to do (Rhine at age 20). I mean, it was good to ponder but...what?

I also felt that the book largely focused on: YAY WE ESCAPED FROM THE MANSION, Now we should find Rowan, CRAP WE SHOULD REALLY FIND ROWAN, Meh adventures and discovering who else is in this world around us.

Also there was a scene with Tarot card reading that was all 'prophesy DOOM' that I could have done without. Fever didn't need anything whimsical to it; there were already plenty of hallucinations from drugs and such.

Also, GOING TO SPOILER LAND, there are a few medically oriented scenes towards the end of the book that deals with gross things. I am a person who can't stand to watch medical shows because of the bodies and surgery and I'm getting goose bumps thinking about it. But I read this book and had little difficulty weathering through some of the more intense imagery.

I can't wait to see what happens in the third book. :) Happy reading!