BRT: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Fever

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Number of Pages: 341

Rating: 4/5

Date Published: July 26, 2011

SUMMARY

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary.

In the 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. (Goodreads)

REVIEW

When I read the first book of this trilogy, WITHER, I really didn’t like it. After a while I gave the book a second chance and liked it more than I did the first time, so I went ahead and bought the second book. I’m glad to report I wasn’t disappointed with my choice.

This was my big gripe in the first book: Rhine is more worried about her love life than about her life withering away in general (or so it seemed), and there was also the fact I was trapped with her in one place through the entire story. I like stories that MOVE around.

Fever helped alleviate those old furies of mine. Especially since it makes Rhine realize that, “Wow, the outside world is possibly even more dangerous than my old life. But that doesn’t matter, because this is the best chance we have.” I LOVE that cramped up feeling, where you’re on the edge no matter what direction you turn. LOVE. IT.

This book was one book that thoroughly surprised me. For that, I take my hat off to Lauren DeStefano. A book hasn’t been able to do that for me in ages. For those who want to know what the surprise was, get your (hardback) book out and flip to page... 282. (;

Lauren DeStefano’s dystopian and doomed world is driven by lust and science and I love how she’s managed to stick to that; but it’s also balanced by Rhine’s faith that she’ll find her brother. I break this book up into about three parts. The first part takes place at the carnival (the origination for the cover). This part of the book is focused more on the lust, and understandably so. We also pick up a new protagonist here. A strange one, but one nonetheless. (:

Part 2 is compromised mostly of wandering, and focuses more on the scientific and nostalgic aspects of Rhine’s life. It feels like the book covers everything it needs to cover, and I love it. We meet more characters that I hope return later, and I love how the main love interest has become a main character. (That was another peeve in the last book.)

The final piece of the book is a blast from the past of book 1 and I can’t really say much about it for fear of spoilers, so I’ll just say it’s mostly science-based and horror-based. This part of the book truly was horrifying. Finally some old characters come back and help Rhine out, and we reach a very sudden ending.

That’s fine with me. This is the preparation for book 3.

This sequel was amazing. XD