Fever

"<i>"Things will get worse before they get better. A little more agony before the fever will break."</i><br/><br/>I believe this quote to be an accurate assessment and theme of this novel. <i>Fever</i> has left me with conflicting thoughts. I wanted to like it, I generally did like it, but I didn't much like much of what happened in the book. How does this make sense? Well, I'll try to explain the best I can without many spoilers.<br/><br/><i>Fever</i> is a darker, grittier, more troubled look at the dystopian world of <i>The Chemical Garden Trilogy</i> (although I still feel like we know very little about this world). From the very outset, it is unyieldingly bleak. <i>Fever</i> picks up right where <i>Wither</i> left off, with Rhine and Gabriel's escape. But there is no rest for the wicked, and no chance for happiness between the couple before events take a turn down an even darker path. Rhine's escape into "freedom" brings with it the dangers of a hopeless world full of immoral individuals, prostitution, drugs, people who sell and buy flesh alike.<br/><br/>Rhine is left reeling with the consequences of her decisions to bring herself and Gabriel out into this harsh world. However, I feel like she is never touched by the events as much as she should be. Nothing she encounters seems to affect her deeply enough for me to connect with her character. Her obsession with the material luxuries she left behind rubbed me the wrong way. I understand her concerns that she left such a luxorious world for such a gritty one, but every subsequent time she brought up that white sweater, I wanted to slap her silly. It seemed to me like she cared about the <i>things</i> she lost than the people and situations around her.<br/><br/>Most of the meat of the book happened towards the end, as <i>Fever</i> sets us up for the final installment of the trilogy. When you have about 20 pages left, you're not sure how it is going to possibly come to a satisfying end. However, the great cliffhanger DeStefano leaves us with leaves me wanting for the last novel.<br/><br/>Overall, I would recommend this to fans of <i>Wither</i>. It's a different speed of novel, and not a whole lot actually happens in it (a condition I call "middle book syndrome"), but it is interesting all the same. I think you'll want to read this installment and the next if for no other reason than to see how it ends."

"Disturbing but couldn’t stop reading "