The Chemical Garden #2 Fever

They escaped, and land themselves in trouble but can't seem to evade the in-laws at all. Presenting my views of Chemical Garden #2 Fever by Lauren DeStefano.

Here is the summary of the book:

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.


So Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion and are out in the real world but while the mansion had its own problem and troubles, there are worst in the outside world. In the mansion Rhine had to only worry about her psychotic father-in-law doing whatever mad things he did in the basement and being sister wives in what was like a prison to her. But out and about in the real world away from the comfort of the mansion, one not only are they falling into one trouble after another but her psychotic father-in-law is also not far behind.

All Rhine wants is to find her twin Rowan but its not that easy, once they are out of the mansion they fall headlong into a big trap of a carnival which has more to it that just giant spinning wheels and bright big light, and another problem begins, Rhine starts to feel ill. In that condition they escape the carnival with help and journey through to Manhattan, where her brother lives. But her illness is taking a toll on her and her conditions are also deteriorating and Gabriel is seriously questioning their decisions so far.

Book 2 is by far an improvement over the first, the one thing I like about the series is the world building and the concept of dystopia woven perfectly together. While Rhine life in Linden's mansion was an odyssey but so is her journey in the outside world with Gabriel. The outside world is not safe, there is too much at stake. The hardships they go through getting to Manhattan is very empowering and makes the book worthwhile. All Rhine wants is not to be tied down in a sort of a prison as a sister wife and definitely not give her creepy father-in-law Vaughn the chance to butcher her body after she dies for his insane experiments of finding the cure.

But even then she can't seem to forget Linden at all. That was actually the one thing that didn't sit well with me, Rhine claims Gabriel is her true love but what I actually felt was just a sort of an obligation between them, while Gabriel appears to really care for Rhine but there is not much chemistry between them whereas she may have come to love Linden but Wither had majority of scenes with Linden and Rhine together and in Fever Rhine can't seem to forget Linden at all, maybe she is actually supposed to be with Linden and not Gabriel. So that didn't really sit well with me. Vaughn proved again the best antagonist so far. And the ending proved just the icing needed. Lauren DeStefano has woven a wonderful storyline in this book with just the perfect setting and the perfect characters needed.

"A beautiful cover and a compelling storyline"

Genre :      Young Adult, Dystopia


Publisher: Simon & Schuester 


Rate:              4/5 (Really Liked It)