Fever (Chemical Garden)
“Ms. DeStefano does a good job of capturing that push-pull dynamic that is so common among adolescents: I hate it. I love it. I’m not sure what I’m feeling. . . . This strength can also serve as the book’s greatest weakness for those looking for more explicit action. But if the reader is willing to explore a quieter tale in which the dangers often brew beneath the surface as well as in your face, Fever fits the bill.”
Fever is the second book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy. It takes up exactly where Wither, the first book, ended: Rhine and Gabriel, a servant-turned-burgeoning-love interest, have escaped the mansion. All Rhine’s needs were provided for except the one she desires most: freedom—the freedom to come and go as she pleases and especially the freedom to rejoin her twin brother, Rowan in their home in Manhattan.
Rhine is an unwilling bride to the kind, but clueless, Linden, whom she was married to after being taken captive by the Gatherers. This is a polygamous marriage, and it’s not easy trying to stay one step ahead of her father-in-law, Vaughn. He’s a mysterious, ominous man who keeps his true motives hidden from his son. Rhine suspects Vaughn is not above committing murder to achieve his goals.
In this dark and harrowing world, women live only to age 20 and men to age 25. As Rhine and Gabriel make the perilous journey toward a new beginning, dangers are present at every turn and everyone is suspect. Rhine’s time is limited. She will soon turn 17. Vaughn is determined to bring her back to the mansion. It’s Rhine’s biggest fear: What will happen to her if he succeeds?
The author excels at world building. Ms. DeStefano draws the reader into that world with prose that is subdued and evocative of the somber, and somewhat dreary environs of a place where death rules and rears it’s head at a moments notice.
Fever presents a dystopia that relies more on the sensibilities of its characters than the action of a more plot-driven story. It’s suspenseful, intriguing, and thoughtful as it digs into the rather nasty underworld in which it is set.
Ms. DeStefano does a good job of capturing that push-pull dynamic that is so common among adolescents: I hate it. I love it. I’m not sure what I’m feeling. Those components are supported and evidenced by the internal struggle of Rhine’s conflicted narrative.
This strength can also serve as the book’s greatest weakness for those looking for more explicit action. But if the reader is willing to explore a quieter tale in which the dangers often brew beneath the surface as well as in your face, Fever fits the bill.