In 16-year-old Rhine Ellery's world, geneticists have perfected the science of children. Cancer has been eradicated, and there are no allergies, colds or other disease. The first generation of children born is all but immortal. But there is a dark side to perfection. Something went terribly wrong with the first generation's children - all girls die at age 20, boys at age 25. There is no cure for the death sentence of the mysterious, fatal virus hidden in the new children's DNA. In four years, Rhine knows she will be dead.When Rhine wakes up inside a dark van with more than a dozen other girls, she knows she's been taken by the Gatherers. Men in gray coats who roam the streets of New York, the Gatherers kidnap young girls to be sold into polygamous marriages to the sons of wealthy men desperate for a cure - and new generations to experiment on. Rhine is chosen, along with two other girls, 18-year-old Jenna and 13-year-old Cecily, to become the bride of 21-year-old Linden Ashby.
In the gilded cage of the Ashby mansion, the sister wives are given everything they could possibly want - exotic food, gorgeous gowns, extravagant games, and a huge library. Everything except their freedom, which is all Rhine wants - with only four years left, she doesn't want to spend them as Linden Ashby's wife. The wives' floor of the mansion is also home to Linden's first beloved wife, the delicate and dying Rose. Twenty years old, the virus is slowly killing Rose, despite the medicines and doctors Linden is frantically employing to try to keep her alive. It was Rose who asked Linden to choose new wives. Rose pleads with Rhine to replace her as Linden's first and favorite wife when she is gone - with four years left, happiness for Linden will be having a wife to die with.
But there is more going on in the Ashby mansion than Rose's dying wish for Linden's happiness. Linden's father, the powerful and terrifying Housemaster Vaughn, is an emminent, brilliant geneticist who is willing to do anything to save his son. With the help of Gabriel, a house servant Rhine strikes up a close friendship with, Rhine discovers dark secrets, danger, and hidden, horrifying human experiments being conducted underground. Soon, she finds herself facing a terrible choice - should she stay and try to protect her sister wives, and Linden, from Vaughn and their inevitable future? Or should she seek her own future, and freedom, outside the mansion walls?
Beautifully eerie, this elegantly written dystopian love story will trap you until you've turned the last page. With lush orange groves and gardens, extravagent wealth, gowns and parties, imminent death, sister wives, forbidden love, Lauren DeStefano has built a dystopian world lovely and rich with gothic horror. You won't want to miss this first book in The Chemical Garden Trilogy!
Megan
(who will be enjoying Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys with my jelly beans this weekend!)