Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Publisher:  Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Page Count: 341 pages, Hardcover

Date Published:  February 21st 2012

 Goodreads Blurb:

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.

My Thoughts:

I'm happy to say that Fever didn't truly suffer from 'Second-Book Syndrome'. I enjoyed it pretty much equally as Wither so that was a plus. But that being said, it was slow. Quite a bit happened, but at a pace that had me getting distracted by other things, instead of plowing through the book.There was quite a bit more suspense towards the end and a lot more of what I really enjoyed in Wither, so I'm gonna say the last quarter of the book was my favorite. 


Fever starts right where Wither left off. Rhine and Gabriel have just escaped Linden's house and are trying to get to Manhattan. WELL. They don't get that far... They end up in a, well, prostitute camp run by a woman that we'll just call Madame. I did actually enjoy a bit of this part in the book. I felt as if we could see a bit more into Rhine and Gabriel's relationship, but once again there was something missing. I still haven't got a great feel on who Gabriel is. I can see that he loves Rhine and want's her safe, even when he's on a heroin-like substance, (Yes, heroin). But, I am seriously doubting her love for him. She does quite a few things within the story that made me want to scream at her ''Go back to Linden!!!!!''. Yes, I believe she loves Gabriel, but only in the slightest. He was more of an excuse for her to run away in my opinion.

 When they escape the camp with Maddie, the little girl whom Madame wanted to kill, they're now running even more so than before from Linden's father and trying to get to Rhine's brother. We get quite the glimpse of the outside world, but honestly I'm still pretty confused about it. So much doesn't make sense to me, but I hope that we'll finally get to understand the background behind DeStefano's world a bit better in the third book.

The writing was quite a bit better in Fever. The scenes flowed smoothly and  were vivid in my mind. But, I think what made the book not so great for me was the story in general. It didn't captivate my attention as fast as Wither and it didn't hold it either. I am still really looking forward to the final book in this amazingly awesome trilogy, but... I'm most definitely rooting for Linden over Gabriel. Let me know what you thought of the second installment in The Chemical Garden Trilogy... I'd love to read your opinions!

Have a great day/night everyone,
-Kristy