Fever (Chemical Garden Trilogy, The) [Kindle Edition]

Lauren DeStefano (Author)

Book Description

The New York Times bestselling sequel to Wither reveals a world as captivating—and as treacherous—as the one Rhine left behind.

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 ran away from. 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Rhine's struggles and pain are real, and her story is both heartbreaking and hopeful. I couldn't read this book fast enough."

--Beth Revis, NY Times Bestselling Author of Across the Universe

DeStefano’s rich use of language helps set this dystopian tale apart.

--Booklist

About the Author

Lauren DeStefano is the author of The Internment Chronicles and The Chemical Garden trilogy, which includes Wither, Fever, and Sever. She earned her BA in English with a concentration in creative writing from Albertus Magnus College in Connecticut. Visit her at LaurenDeStefano.com.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 1064 KB
• Print Length: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition (February 21, 2012)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0055OJCUU
• Text-to-Speech: Not enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,901 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The end of the book is where the action is, where the stakes finally rise and events occur that feel purposeful. February 21, 2012

By Abigail TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

WITHER was one of my favorite dystopian releases from 2011, and even though I expected FEVER to be a very different type of story based on the ending of WITHER, I think my expectations were still too lofty. FEVER picks up with Rhine and Gabriel having escaped the mansion where Rhine had been forced into a polygamous marriage. In sharp contrast to the affluent and pampered life in the mansion, Rhine and Gabriel find themselves abducted and forced into a brothel run by a demented and cruel Madame. Once again, Rhine must play the part of a biddable and grateful girl while secretly plotting her escape. Life inside Madame's sex slave tents is harsh and merciless. The girls are tragic and vicious, the men who patronize the tents are just as desperate and depraved as you would expect. Since this is YA, the details and descriptions are somewhat sanitized, but it's all to easy to imagine the atrocities that go on.

What was fascinating about FEVER, and what I was hoping to learn more about, was the world outside the mansion. The various factions, the politics, the first generation elderly mixing with the terminal youth. How would that society look? We get some answers in FEVER, and the promise of even more in the next book. What was less fascinating, was the romance. Rhine and Gabriel lived on stolen moments, fleeting glance, tiny moments in WITHER. In FEVER, they are together, but without that constant threat of being caught, their relationship became rather dull. Gabriel, in particular, became this flat and uninteresting figure that just roamed around in the background.

An inherent problem with trilogies is the often mundane middle book. FEVER kind of feels that way. I'm not sure it needed to happen. The end of the book is where the action is, where the stakes finally rise and events occur that feel purposeful. But the first 250 pages...I'm just not sure they really added much to this series. Lauren DeStefano is a tremendously talented writer, so even though the beginning and middle of this book lacked impact for me, I enjoyed reading her phrasing and descriptions, I just wish the plot had been given the same care as every lovingly crafted word. I am fully engrossed in this world, and the ending was powerful and ripe with excitement, so the final book in The Chemical Garden trilogy (currently untitled but scheduled for publication on April 1, 2013) is already on my wishlist.

Sexual Content:
Sex slavery. Attempted assault. Kissing

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Underwhelming (Possible SPOILERS) March 21, 2012

By Jenny W

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

I usually just don't review if I can't say something nice, but honestly this "bridge" book is irrelevant. It has zero forward momentum, because the book starts and ends in the SAME PLACE. The title is quite literal - either Rhine or Gabriel spend the entire book sick with this or that, which gets annoying quickly. Gabriel continues to be a cardboard cutout. After reading two books I still know nothing about him.

I still have problems with the world building of this series, although I try to suspend my disbelief. But honestly, now that Rhine spent a book out "in the world" instead of sequestered in the mansion, these issues only aggravated me more. I don't understand how there is such an excessive glut of young women in the world and why they are worthless and throwaway. Women are basically branded as too numerous to have value, which feels completely opposite of the world's rules where women die much earlier than the men and the ability to reproduce is at a premium. If women die earlier, there are probably fewer of them, so a single woman should have exceptional value. I get very confused about the world that is being represented as a whole. Sometimes it is demonstrated that the outside world is SO DANGEROUS that Rhine literally cannot walk a few feet without being kidnapped (even when escorted by a Big Strong Man). Yet other times, the world seems to be a simple extension of our own, where everything goes on as normal. Sometimes it seems post-apocalyptic, sometimes it's exactly what is outside my own window. The inconsistency of tone is jarring to me and makes me uncomfortable. I think the author attempts to make a distinction between the world of the the "first generations" and the world of the sick kids, but it never quite melds for me.

World building issues aside, the lack of forward momentum in this book was stifling. It was simply "to there and back again". Rhine and Gabriel go to Manhattan to find Rowan, and then Rhine goes right back to where she started. She starts and ends the book sick and in the mansion (well to be fair, she starts the book having just escaped). The entirety of the book can be boiled down to a few sentences, and the adventures in between those sentences are not interesting or character-building enough. There's the brothel run by a seedy Madame, and the first-gen couple who offer them shelter for the night, and the first-gen who runs an orphanage, but their contributions to the novel are too short and forgettable. The characters are not well formed, especially Gabriel, who should have a clear personality and back story at this point but still lacks either.

I did like Wither quite a lot, although it suffered from the same world building problems that put me off. But the characters in Wither were distinctive and interesting, and the story was compelling. I guess I should write a nice review about that book.

I will still read #3, but I think I could have skipped this one and be no worse off. Since it has not put me off the series, I'll give it two stars instead of one.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Suffers from the Fatal "Middle-Book" Syndrome March 6, 2012

By Radiant Shadows

Format:Hardcover

I was so intrigued with the ending of Wither, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of Fever. I was excited to see the world outside of the mansion, and to watch Rhine fight to get back to her brother. A lack of real plot progression, the absence of some of the strongest personalities and poor world-building has left me disappointed and unimpressed.

Fever picks up almost exactly where Wither left off - with Rhine and Gabriel washing up on the shore of some unknown beach. Almost immediately they are captured by "Madame" - a seemingly delirious and slightly senile old lady - and brought to work in her carnival. Madame mysteriously takes a liking to Rhine, dubbing her Goldenrod, and decides that she will not be forced in to prostitution like the rest of her girls - she will instead be forced to be intimate with Gabriel in front of men who have paid to watch. Fortunately for Rhine and Gabriel, they're both so doped up on heroin that they're mostly unable to distinguish between their hallucinations and reality. So naturally, I found myself hoping for her to overcome this obstacle and show her strength by devising a well-planned escape. When she's virtually handed freedom, after failing to help herself (or Gabriel) in any way, I couldn't help but wonder why these strangers were denying themselves their freedom in order to give Rhine hers. This theme continued throughout the rest of Rhine's journey to Manhattan - perfect strangers willing to bend over backwards for her, for nothing in return - and I had a hard time coming up with reasons why. What's so special about Rhine that she holds this kind of power over others?

As the plot continues, we follow Rhine and Gabriel (and their newly acquired ward, Maddie) as they slowly cross the country in search of Rhine's brother. Gabriel is mostly useless as he's going through withdrawal (which Rhine magically avoids), Rhine begins to realize that she might have idealized the outside world, and Maddie scampers around a lot on all fours (generally making better decisions then Rhine) but serving no real purpose. And nothing happens. Sure, they encounter some minor obstacles, but for the most part their entire journey from the carnival to Manhattan could have been removed and we wouldn't be without any vital information. I was hoping to see Rhine and Gabriel's relationship develop (as I found it quite lacking in Wither) but when Gabriel wasn't in a drugged-out stupor, he seemed to be angry with Rhine for withholding some important information about life outside the mansion. I felt like I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for SOMETHING to happen, something to explain why Gabriel felt so compelled to follow Rhine, why he continued to stay with her after realizing she pretty much lied about life outside of the mansion and I got nothing. There was no development of their relationship, no steamy scenes, no sexual tension - nothing. And Gabriel might have well been mute like Maddie - he had absolutely no personality and after two books I still can't tell you anything about him - including why he seems so fascinated by Rhine.

After finally arriving in Manhattan, and looking back on their journey, I kept wondering what the point was. What was the point in enslaving Rhine in a prostitution ring, if she wasn't going to be forced in to prostitution? What was the point in showing such physical child abuse, if the child seemed untouched by it's effects? What was the point in showing Gabriel's reliance on heroin, if it wasn't going to play a larger role in his development? I couldn't help but feel like a lot of the things thrown at Rhine and Gabriel were to create shock value, rather than for character or plot development. The repercussions of these experiences, the emotional toll they must have taken on both Rhine and Gabriel, were never touched on. The only response Rhine had to any of her traumatic experiences was her anxiety to riding in the back of a truck, as it reminded her of when she was first captured by the Gatherers. She begins to question her choice to leave the mansion and doubt whether freedom outside the mansion was worth all the obstacles they had overcome. Because of their complete lack of emotional reaction to...anything, I felt completely disconnected from Rhine and Gabriel and their struggles.

The newly-introduced characters were so underdeveloped I wasn't able to care for any of them - I missed Linden and Cecily and Jenna. I even missed Housemaster Vaughan! They were all such strong characters that their absence was felt in every page. Some slight cameos at the end were destroyed by another drug-induced Rhine stupor and we were left with a mostly-unresolved cliffhanger ending. Other then a couple of not-so-surprising revelations, Fever suffers fully from "middle-book syndrome" and does nothing to further the plot.

More About the Author

Lauren Destefano earned her BA in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing from Albertus Magnus College in Connecticut in 2007. This is her first novel.