Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

I came across this book at my local library and I thought why not give it a go. I did have an inkling that I had heard some negative reviews about it, but I figured I would give it a try anyway. 

This book is about a dystopian future not too far off, where all girls and boys grow up to die at the ages of 20 and 25 respectively. This is apparently caused by some sort of virus, that seemingly originates in the fact that the elder generation was genetically manipulated to be superhealthy. I don’t really see how that works but anyhow. This world is now populated by the old and the very young. Some old and/or rich men pay people to kidnap young girls so that they can marry and procreate. 

Our protagonist, Rhine, is one of these young girls. She is kidnapped along with a bunch of others and married off to a young man, who lives in a mansion cut off from everyday life, with his father and his other brides. We follow Rhine’s stay in this mansion and her quest to escape while luring everyone into thinking she likes it there. 

I found the first part of this book really boring. There was not a lot of worldbuilding and I was quite confused about it. It sounds like a wasteland with outlaws running the game and people cowering in their boarded up houses, but then there are still shopping malls and parties and apparently a normal life in-between all the dystopian stuff. I also didn’t really see how the whole virus thing worked and why men die later than women. But so be it. 

The book starts off with a bang but then it quickly slows down and we just follow the humdrum of the mansion for a loooong time before Rhine’s plans to escape begin to take shape. Then it picks up a little but I honestly didn’t really care by that point.

As for the characters I found Rhine to be a mystery. She hates the mansion and everyone in it, but then she gets to know her new husband and maybe he isn't so bad, but she still hates him, but she feels sorry for him, but she still hates him….and so on. I get that it’s not so black and white, but the way she changed her mind back and forth within minutes was kind of jarring. The other characters really just felt like plot devices, like they had to be there. There was the evil father, the unknowing son, the spoiled child bride, the strong inspirational woman and the love interest. But we didn’t really get to know any one of them properly. 

I gave this book 2 stars on Goodreads and I won’t be continuing the series.