Review: Wither

Purchase Wither (Chemical Garden Trilogy) here.

Synopsis:

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males born with a lifespan of 25 years, and females a lifespan of 20 years--leaving the world in a state of panic. Geneticists seek a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. 

When Rhine is sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Yet her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement; her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next; and Rhine has no way to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. 

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Review:

The Handmaid's Tale is one of those books that makes you want to scour the library to find something else like it to read.  Lucky for me, one of my best friends had just recommended this series.  Also lucky for me, this is one of very few YA dystopian series I've read where ALL OF THE BOOKS were out before I began reading.  

Imagine a world where modern medecine has gone too far.  Where generations live and die in under a century.   How far would the rich go to continue on their genetic line?  This is much less political than the last dystopian novel I reviewed, but it's still weighty - portraying an America that is fast approaching a world without "grown ups".  Add to that themes of lost innocence masked by false glamour that echo throughout the novel and its characters, and you have an intriguing, layered novel that will draw you in and allow you to get lost.  

This book is not an intense political statement, nor is it high literature.  It's not an inspiring romance, but it is a good story and a fun read.

Until next time, happy reading!
-Amanda

Review: The Handmaid's Tale

Purchase The Handmaid's Tale here.

Synopsis:

In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies?

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable.

Offred can remember the days before, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now....

Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.

Review:

Another day, another dystopian novel for me to fall in love with.  The Handmaid's Tale, though, is in an entirely different experience than any possible future I have heretofore delved into.  Perhaps it is how immediate the novel is, how swift and plausible the overthrow of the state by the church is.  With the ongoing discussion of the control over women's bodies, The Handmaid's Tale becomes more and more relevant with each passing day.  Margaret Atwood seamlessly blends a horrifying dystopia with a religious critique and a resonating political statement.  If you haven't read Atwood before, now would be the time to start.

Until next time, happy reading!
-Amanda

Review: Don't Worry, It Gets Worse

Oh, hello internet!  Fancy seeing you here.  It turns out that when your computer is stolen and then you move into a house that doesn't have internet yet, it's pretty tough to write reviews.  Never fear, I am back from hiatus, and I've been reading plenty in the meantime.  Now on to your regularly scheduled review.

Purchase Don't Worry, It Gets Worse here.

Synopsis:

other, eager to trade in parties and all-nighters for “the real world.” But post-grad wasn’t the glam life she imagined. Soon buried under a pile of bills, laundry, and three-dollar bottles of wine, it quickly became clear that she hadno idea what she was doing. But hey, what twentysomething does?

In Don’t Worry, It Gets Worse, Nugent shares what it takes to make the awkward leap from undergrad to “mature and responsible adult that definitely never eats peanut butter straight from the jar and considers it a meal.” From trying to find an apartment on the black hole otherwise known as Craigslist to the creative maneuvering needed to pay off student loans and still enjoy happy hour, Nugent documents the formative moments of being a twentysomething with a little bit of snark and a lot of heart. Perfect for fans of HBO's Girls and Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half, and based on her popular Tumblr blog The Frenemy, Don’t Worry, It Gets Worse is a love note to boozin’, bitchin’ ladies everywhere.

Review:

If you are the parent of a twentysomething (or soon-to-be), for your own sanity, do not read this book.

If you are a twentysomething, for your own sanity, read this book.  Alida Nugent manages to perfectly capture what it is to be in college (and to be just out of college) in this economy.  Her stories are funny in a way that kind of hurts.  Nugent hits close to home - too close.  This book will make you feel less alone.  It will make you laugh, then cry a little bit, then make you want to have Nugent alongside you on a night out.  To be honest, I'm just incredibly happy she writes the Frenemy blog so I get to read more of her writing on a regular basis.  Nugent's writing is a vital companion to anyone stumbling along in the grey area of oh-my-gosh-is-this-really-adulthood.

Until next time, happy reading!
-Amanda