Series Review - The Chemical Garden Trilogy - Fever & Sever

Series Review

The Chemical Garden Trilogy

Lauren DeStephano

Review For Wither


Fever
8 Stars

I read this on my trip from Canada to New Zealand its my mission to finish as many of my started Duologies and Trilogies as is possible this year.
This is one of the rare sequels that rivalled the first novel. I finally thought that the characters matched the story and the world. During the first book Rhine's behaviour seemed childish and naive there was a whiny tone that I couldn't grasp considering the world she was living in and the life she had lived before. I was left in disbelief and the end of the last novel when she escaped the Ashby mansion.  I was not in love with Gabriel and was very much against a relationship between the two of them.

SPOILDERS BELOW, SEVER REVIEW



Sever
7 Stars

I also read this back to back with Fever during my flight.

While I really enjoyed this read, the sequel was my favourite of the three books, when I first began the series I fell in love with the world, the story and the side characters (Jenna, Deirdre, Celie, Rose), I was uncertain about my feelings towards Linden,  and outright didn't like Rhine and Gabriel, Gabriel most of all. As the novels progressed I started to like Rhine more and more but she never got to be my favourite, she was to naive, whiney, dependant, it was her going beyond hope and optimism and simply acting foolish that I really disliked. The ending of this book was alright but not what I wanted. I feel like something less concrete and more open would have fit the story a little better - with most stories the open ending is over used and a bad idea but with this story it would have been a perfect fit - I was really happy with most of the events up until Lindens death, I would have let him live, had Gabriel disappear, I would have had Vaughn die of a heart attack, have him assassinated by a rival scientist, killed by Linden, Rhine, Celie, Rhine, Reed, perhaps killed by Rowan - I wanted him to be an angrier, feral, mistrusting, wildcard Rowan would have killed Vaughn because he was honestly against the cure the way we were lead to think from his bombings - the novel in my mind should have ended on Rhines 20th birthday, stating that she was cured but leaving the reader without the answer. In this version Rhine would be torn between Linden, Gabriel, Rowan... Leaving, Staying...all the choices, who to find, what to do, the polygamist life when it is then unnecessary because of the cure.

I would love to read books from any and all the side characters perspectives. Rose, Jenna, Celie in one book? Vaughn, Madam, Rhines parents in another?