Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Pages: 341

Received: Received from Ontario Blog Squad

Release Date: February 21, 2012
Buy from Amazon

Goodreads Synopsis:

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 Review:

I definitely enjoyed this book a lot more than Wither (see my review here). What really caught my attention with the book was that so much more happened to Rhine now that she is out of the mansion. I found this story was a lot more fast paced and had more action to it compared to the Wither. I felt more interested in everything that was going on in this book.

I find that Rhine is a lot better of a character throughout this story. I found her to be weak throughout the first one, whereas she does things for herself throughout the novel. She is able to take care of herself more. I also really liked that the characters throughout this story had more of a purpose (excluding Gabriel... I still don't like him). The only thing that disappoints me about this book (the same as the first) is Gabriel. I feel like his presence is not important to what Rhine is doing. At times I felt that he held her back from what she should have been doing.

There were many new characters introduced in this novel, that I enjoyed. These new characters made an impact on Rhine like the sisters did in the first book. There is a connection with some of them that adds to Rhine's character. This book was a lot more about Rhine and her different relationships. You really get to see more into how Rhine feels about things. Though Linden is rarely in it, I almost felt that he grew up more in the section that he is in. I respect his character more now.

The darkness of this book makes it seem a lot different from the first one. You get to see how different it is for Rhine to be on her own in the outside world, and how much harder it is (in the first book, Rhine only gives us little glimpses of the outside world, this book shows that it's much worse than she imagines it).