Book Review: Wither

Why I read it: I heard a lot of buzz about this book all over the blogosphere, especially about the ultra-gorgeous cover. I also loved how it was a dystopia, and I was interested to see how she was going to handle the issue of polygamy.

What I liked: Wither certainly lives up to its cover. The book just ‘feel’ like the cover, rich but a little bit empty, dying and trapped but with a bit of hope. I loved the range of emotions that Rhine went through and how they all felt realistic. We see this new world through her eyes and we can’t help but both love it and hate it as she does.

I loved the other characters, the sister wives especially. Jenna and Cecily were both so different and well rounded characters. I would have liked to see a bit more of Gabrielle, the main love interest, but I really liked Linden, her husband. He was such a great character, so innocent and fragile, the sort of person you want to hate but can’t help loving. In short, I really felt for all the characters, stuck in this terrible situation.

What I disliked: A lot of people have brought up issues of believability with this story and I partially agree. I’m perfectly willing to accept the fact that a virus kills everyone at a certain age and that North America is the only continent that survived (it’s called ‘suspension of disbelief’ guys… plus, I have a thesis that the other continents still do exist and Rhine just doesn’t know) but I don’t understand how polygamy and kidnapping necessarily follow from that setup. Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to sell off the less beautiful girls rather than killing them? And instead of kidnapping, couldn’t they just choose brides from an orphanage, like Linden assumes they do?

At times I found it a little hard to understand Linden and his father, Vaughn. I loved how Linden was ignorant of everything that was going on, but he obviously still knew he was in a polygamous marriage. How did polygamy ever change from wrong to right? We’re not given a very solid idea of the history of polygamy and how acceptable it is. Also, Housemaster Vaughn seemed like a super evil character and I was never sure what he was doing and why. In short, I guess all my dislikes are just questions I had that weren’t really answered. Hopefully I’ll get more answers from book two, Fever.

From a Christian Perspective: Considering that this book features a polygamous marriage, it was much cleaner than I expected. She and her ‘husband’ never actually do ‘consummate’ their marriage, but Linden does sleep with both of the sister wives. Sex is talked about once or twice. Rhine kisses both Gabriel and Linden, but these kisses are fairly clean. There’s very little swearing, except for one quick occurrence at the beginning of the book. There are some slightly graphic descriptions of childbirth and illness but nothing too bad, I don’t think.

To buy or not to buy: I may well pick up a copy, whenever I actually get around to ordering something on Amazon. I think this is a book that I would read again, and I’ll certainly read the sequel, Fever.

IMM: Week of Dystopia

I didn't specifically plan to get so much dystopia from the library this week, but I guess since that's my favourite genre, it just kind of happened. I also got a couple books that are slight twists on normal dystopia, such as The Dead Tossed Waves which is more of a post-apocalyptic, and Leviathan which seems to be an alternate past story... but we'll see. Still, lots of great action novels which I can't wait to read.

I FINALLY got to read this wonderful book last week. It moved a little slower than I would have hoped, but the characterization was wonderful. Review coming soon.

I'm half way through this right now and it's better than the first one but I'm still don't really like the characters that much. I'll see how it goes. Probably three stars. 

I'm not exactly sure why I ordered this one because I thought it was a MG fantasy, but I just learned that it's actually a YA dystopia, so I'm really excited to read it now. 

I've been eager to read this book ever since I heard it was a book about abortion in a dystopian world. I'm interested to see how he handles such a tough subject.

I just realized how weird it is to be reading this right after Unwind, but it will be interested to get two very different treatments of the subject of organ donors. 

I have read the Pretties series yet, but I've heard that they were pretty good, so I'm looking forward to this other series. It looks like alternate history, sort of steampunk, so it should be good.

And that's what I got in my mailbox this week! I'm pretty excited about all these reads, so it's too bad that I have a really busy weekend with my final exam on Monday, so I won't have much time to read. 

Over to you... what did you get in your mailbox this week? Have you read any of these books, or are they on your TBR pile? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Believability In Dystopias

Lately, a lot of dystopian fiction has been flooding into the market. I think this is a good thing; I’ve never liked Paranormal Romance, and I’ve always loved Dystopia (even years ago, before it became popular.) The dystopian genre is different from paranormal in that it is supposed to be realistic. Most dystopians are set in a futuristic world, often after a sort of apocalypse, that’s either defined by chaos or by a strict totalitarian government. Scientific advances often play a role, but most of the time this is just ‘fake science’ and has no real science behind it.

 

In short, dystopia is a sort of ‘What if?’ genre. What if love was considered to be a disease? (Delirium) What if kids had to fight to the death in an arena? (The Hunger Games) What if everything was decided by a Society, including the person you were supposed to marry? (Matched) What if a virus makes females die at twenty and males at twenty-five? (Wither) What if only teenagers could get pregnant? (Bumped) What if your entire life was defined by what faction you decided to join? (Divergent) Those are just several examples of the ‘What if?’ questions raised by recent dystopian releases.

 

Like any genre, dystopia gets its share of bad reviews. I’ve read negative reviews for all of these books, and most of them seemed to center not around the writing or characters, but on the believability of the story. Lots of people didn’t like Wither because it doesn’t make sense that a virus would kill all girls at exactly twenty years old. People thought The Hunger Games was unrealistic because there’s no way a society would enjoy watching children fight to the death. One of my biggest issues with Matched was that I never understood why the Society needed to control every aspect of life.

 

My question for you is… does it matter? Can you still enjoy Divergent even if you think there’s no way a society could ever evolve into five factions? Would you still buy Delirium even if the idea of ‘curing’ love by frying part of your brain seems just a little far-fetched?

For me, it all depends. I haven’t read Bumped or Wither but I don’t think I’ll mind either of them since they’re obviously ‘What if?’ books. The science behind them may be absolute baloney, but I like the idea. I think creating a world where the teens need to get pregnant is a cool (if somewhat sketchy) setting. In The Hunger Games I think the idea of the tributes having to fight the death is cool enough to make up for the minor lack of believability. However, I just finished Matched and I was annoyed because I never understood why the Society needed to control everything and why they were so lenient with some things but so strict on others.

What’s your take on believability in dystopias? Does it bug you whenever a book’s premise is a little unrealistic? Or do you think that a cool idea is even better if it couldn’t happen in real life? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this popular genre.