Review: Wither by Lauren deStefano

3.5 yummy snickerdoodles.

Cover Love: There are a lot of things I like about this cover, the color, the dress, the circles on around certain things like the caged bird and her ring. But, for some reason I don't like the pose of the model. It is still an eye catching cover, though.

Why I Wanted to Read This:
Dystopian! One of my favorite genres. Here's the synopsis from Good Reads:

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.
When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.
But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

I Kept Reading Because:
It was intriguing and gave me so much to think about. Hard to put down!

Romance?: Yes. Once again, two guys that I really liked. Both equally clueless...

What I Liked (& Didn't):
I didn't like how Rhine made such assumptions about Linden. I understand that she was taken out of her life against her will, but if she truly wanted to get on his good side she should have gotten to know more about him.

The scope of this world Lauren deStefano created was amazing, so much to think about. Can the human race procreate fast enough? What happens when it is just a world of children? How long will it take until we are extinct?

And the destruction of all the other nations--the whole thing is just mind boggling! I like how she gave us that glimpse about what happened to create the world we get to experience. So many time the destruction of our current society is left to the imagination. She gives us just enough knowledge and leaves the rest to our imagination.

I also found it interesting how there didn't seem to be one government or dictator in control of this world, at least in this book. They don't really have one enemy to fight.

I liked that Rhine got to know and love her sister wives. That camaraderie was important to her and good for the book.

I wish we'd seen Rowan. He is what Rhine held onto the whole book, it would have been good to see him a bit.

What I Would Like to See:
An antidote, of course. And I would like to get to know Rowan.

To Sum Up: An interesting view of a futuristic world that gives you a lot to think about.

Book from Simon & Schuster's Galley Grab program. Thanks S&S!