Author: Lauren DeStefano
Expected publication: March 22nd 2011 by Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing
Format: eARC galley
What if you knew exactly when you would die?
Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.
When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.
But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.
Review: This book is extremely difficult for me to rate and review. I didn't like it, and throughout I felt incredible hypocrite since I've read other dystopian books about kids killing other kids (see The Hunger Games) but the idea that this kids are kidnapped in order to breed. It bothered me. A lot. However, I found the book very well written, and I continued reading and managed to finish the book.
When it comes to the characters, I didn't become invested in Rhine (stone) kidding! It's actually a river in Europe, or Gabriel, or Rhine and Gabriel as a couple. In fact, I found myself questioning Gabriel sanity. What in this world possess him to follow Rhine out and about for all he knows the girl is batshit crazy? Love I guess. Except the author doesn't go to great descriptions of it. Which is good for those who don't like romance.
I didn't like Rhine (stone) or dislike her, she was incredibly neutral, her voice is so passive that this book could have been written in third person and I would have felt the same way about it. I did however liked to hate Cecily, she was the most colorful of the characters, and the one that draws a reaction from the reader. Wheter it is to yell, "I hate you" or laughing or eye rolling, she definitely caught the reader's attention. The villain, that is Rhine's father in law, is omg!so-evil, but we never really do know why, or have any proof of it except Rhine's musings which again for all we know Rhine could be crazy. I suppose this mystery is being saved for the next book, unfortunately, it makes this book weak.
Rating: 2/5
Will I read the next one in the series? Don't hold your breath.
Cover Commentary: Gorgeous. Definitely voting for this one on the prettiest models in a book cover.
