Review: Fever

Title: Fever
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Date Released: February 21st, 2012
Pages: 341
Rating: 4 out of 5

Description:
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.

Review:
Rhine can never seem to escape from being caged in and oppressed.  In the second installment of the Chemical Garden trilogy, Rhine is immediately caught after escaping the house of her husband, Linden, and father-in-law, Vaughn, and kept in a carnival full of girls being forced into prostitution.  It's almost like being back with Vaughn and Linden, except without the luxuries of a comfortable bed and servants to cater to your every need.  From there, the story is filled tension and questions; will Vaughn find her and bring her back to the mansion?  Will she ever find her brother?  Will Rhine and Gabriel ever be able to find safety in such a dangerous world?  All these questions run through your mind until the very end.

Fever was a great follow-up to Wither and continued on with the intensity and intrigue I found in the first book.  The originality of the novel is always a plus and I feel like the science aspect was really able to come out more in this novel, especially towards the end.

I always liked Rhine because of her strength to keep going forward, despite the challenges that lie ahead.  It is a dangerous world in this series especially since it is full of people who take advantage of girls her age and even younger.  Even though Rhine knows of these dangers, she still tries her hardest to accomplish her goal.  In this case, it's finding her twin brother.  Gabriel is such a sweetie and is always looking out for Rhine and Maddie, a new character that comes along in the novel.  The one character that did confuse me in the novel, however, was Maddie.  She's a child that Rhine and Gabriel sort of adopt (but not really) and she's a malformed.  Yet, she's incredibly smart, being able to spot a place to stay or a place to hide, even though she doesn't talk.  It's amazing, but perplexing at the same time.

One thing that was lacking in Fever was the like huge revolution/action part.  There was intensity since Rhine, Gabriel, and Maddie were on one huge adventure, going from one place to another.  Another huge spoilery thing happens about half way through the book, but that uprise that happens in most dystopian novels just didn't happen.  It was kind of like in Crossed by Allie Condie, the second novel in a dystopian trilogy.  I guess it's just a dystopian thing where the big thing that happens is played out in the last novel.  I guess we'll see soon.  However, in Fever I feel like I learned a lot more about the world that Rhine lives in as more things come together.

Overall, Fever was a great sequel to Wither, although there could have been the big bang.  The characters were amazing, the plot was compelling, and, as before, the writing was absolutely wonderful.  I definitely can't wait until Sever comes out in 2013 to find out how this will all play out.  I'm hoping that the whole "ticking human time-bomb" thing is cured by the end of the series, but we'll never know until it comes out!

Cover Review:
I love the cover, just as how I love the one for Wither.  The glittery dress and the circus props strewn around the cover mean a lot once you read the novel.  They're definitely not just randomly placed there for no reason other than to look pretty.

Cleo :)

*Description and cover from goodreads.com
**Review copy purchased.