Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: March 22, 2011
Pages: 358 pages
Age: YA
Website Amazon Goodreads
Synopsis:
By age 16, Rhine Ellery has 4 years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day & feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape- before her time runs out?
Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her 17th birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?
Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her 17th birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?
My Thoughts:
This has become one of my favorite books. The story was very captivating. I couldn't imagine a world where all females died at 20. If that was reality, I would have died two years ago and that's scary to imagine. It really puts Rhine's life in perspective. She's a teenager who has been taken away from her brother, the only family she has left and is now one of three new brides of Linden. He's a man whose wife has died from the disease.
The writing in this book was really good. The characters were well developed and you could really connect to them. It was interesting to see Rhine's mindset change over time. She started out believing that Linden was this horrible guy and she wanted nothing to do with him. Then over time she learned that Linden wasn't as bad as she first thought. She realized he was being controlled by his father and began to feel a bit sorry for him. He was trapped just as she was.
Rhine's story was great to read. I loved discovering things with her and watching her develop a friendship with the other two girls and with Gabriel. It was fun to see her & Gabriel's attempts at escaping the prison that is Linden's home also.
I think it's a great story that everybody should read.
