READING: Fever by Lauren Destefano

Fever by Lauren Destefano

Publication date: February 21st, 2012
Published by: Simon&Schuster Children's Publishing
Genre: YA Dystopian
Rating: 4/5

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.

Wither was one of my favorite reads of 2011. Fever was perhaps the most anticipated read of 2012 for me. Admittedly, it wasn't as amazing as Wither, but still very good.

First and foremost the writing, I was very relieved to find out, remained its glorious self. Wither was definitely not a fluke and I am now adamant that this girl can write and write well. Thing is, the feeling you had from Wither that something somwehere is incomplete, that you feel a certain kind of void, has unfortunately tripled in Fever. And that's the world building. It's obvious that DeStefano focuses more on the characters, Rhine basically, and her endless inner turmoil (I would have liked a little less of that) rather than explaining to us how this world she describes came to be, how it is to live and grow up in this dystopian world. I get Rhine's fear but at times I don't understand the reason she's afraid. Yes, bad things have happened obviously, but what was so traumatic and frightening to justify so much terror?

I was also a little disappointed in Gabriel on this one. He fell completely flat and he suddenly lost his personality. Also, he and Rhine spent the better part of the book fighting and that just felt weird. For a minute there I thought Gabriel will turn into a bad guy. But then I figured that they hadn't slept, eaten or showered for days. The last thing on their mind is make out. Then again, there is always a time for everything.

I loved the last 50 pages of the book because it gets us back to more familiar territory. People who liked Fever thought that it was an improvement from Wither and that Wither was boring. I feel exactly the opposite. In my opinion, Wither's plot was constantly changing and Fever's was static. So I guess people who liked Wither will like Fever, too. Maybe not as much as Wither, but they will like it. Now, people who didn't like Wither I honestly don't get why you would want to read Fever.

Just saying.