When we left Rhine at the end of Wither, she and Gabriel had just escaped leading geneticist Housemaster Vaughn's basement of experimental horrors. Her sister wife Jenna is dead too early, taken by the virus that kills all girls by age 20 and boys by age 25. And her other sister wife Cecily has just had her and their husband Linden's first child, Bowen.
Having escaped the gilded cage of her polygamous marriage to Linden Ashby (and the terrifying rule of his father), Rhine wants only to return home to New York and find her beloved twin brother, Rowan - and to show Gabriel that freedom in the real, destroyed world outside the mansion walls is better that living in enslaved splendor. Freedom isn't easy to come by, however - after crawling out of the ocean and leaving their stolen boat behind, Rhine and Gabriel strike out toward mysterious turning lights in the distance in an effort to avoid the Gatherers' vans. Instead of safety, they find themselves attacked and trapped in a bizarre carnival of scarlet district girls.
With Gabriel heavily sedated and the carnival surrounded by an electric fence, Rhine isn't sure how they will escape the watchful eye of Madame, the proprieter of the carnival who claims to only want to protect Rhine and the rest of her girls from the outside world. With the friendship of Lilac and her odd daughter Maddie, Rhine learns to navigate her new world. But when Madame betrays them all, Rhine discovers that her journey home has barely begun.
If you took crazy and put it on a cracker, you'd have the awesome that is this book! You thought Wither was a suspenseful funhouse ride of a read? Dudes, that book has nothing on Fever. I devoured this in one sitting on Sunday morning, and spent most of that time thinking What is happening?! Seriously, I think I stopped mid-chew more than once to process the labyrinthne plot of this one. Love really weird dystopias with a touch of gothic romance and a serious creep factor? Check out Fever @the library!
Megan
(who just finished the marvelous Starcrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce at the urging of Katie - I can't believe I didn't read this sooner! - and can't wait to start sequel Liar's Moon when I get home tonight!)