Wither by Lauren Destefano

Author: Lauren DeStefano
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 358
Date Published: March 22 2013
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Introduction
       In this broken world, everybody knows exactly when they will die. Long ago, a generation of people were born. They were perfect. No life threatening conditions ever infected their bodies, and most settled comfortably  into old age. When this generation had children however, something went wrong. This newer generation is a ticking time bomb. Females will die at age twenty, and males will die at age twenty five. sixteen year old Rhine only has four more years left to live. One night, she is taken from Manhattan and chosen along with two other girls to become a wife of a wealthy man named Linden. Linden lives in a mansion where you could lose yourself in illusions, But Rhine knows the only reason she Jenna, and Cecily are in the mansion is so they can bear children. While Linden is really nice to all the wives, All that is on Rhine's mind is escaping. She needs to get back to her twin brother Rowen, and she needs to spend her few remaining years where she grew up. With the help of a servant named Gabriel, and her sister wives, she just might be able to make it back before it's to late.

Characters/Relationships
       I like Rhine and Jenna, but Cecily can be a bit of a brat sometimes. I mean, I know that she doesn't fully understand what's going on, but she's never nice to the people that bring her the food, and she is barley ever nice to Jenna and Rhine.
       Rhine starts of hating Linden, later in the book she realizes it isn't his fault that she's stuck in the mansion.  He's as much of a prisoner as she is.
        The girls are at the mansion so that they can have children, they do mention sex, but nothing really happens.
      Aside from Jenna, most of the characters have really cool names. Rhine is the name of a river. Which is pretty cool. I've never heard the name Cecily before, but I quite like it. The only problem I have is that the two names, Rowen, Rhine's brother, and Bowen, a baby, sound too close to each other in my opinion. All you have to do is change ONE letter.
      I saw Rhine and Gabriel's relationship come from a mile away. I don't know if it was like that for anybody else who read the book, but to me it was obvious.
       On Goodreads, a lot of people have been having discussions on whether they liked Gabriel, or Linden better. I don't really like either of them. Gabriel doesn't have much of a personality, and Linden is completely clueless about the fact that neither Jenna nor Rhine actually want to be at the mansion. Which I guess isn't really his fault because that is probably what his creepy father wants him to believe, but still.

Conclusion
       I liked this book. It's nice change from what I usually read. This is the first book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy. I will pick up the second book entitled Fever if I get the chance.