Lauren DeStefano

The New York Times bestselling sequel to Wither reveals a world as captivating—and as treacherous—as the one Rhine left behind. Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but they’re still in danger. Outside, they find a world even more disquieting than the one they ran away from. Determined to get to Manhattan and find Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan, the two press forward, amid threats of being captured again…or worse. The road they are on is long and perilous—and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and men die at age twenty-five, time is precious. In this 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.

Fever

Monicap

Current review to come.

Original review (like, from when I first got on Goodreads)
great series, great book. I am a fan of the dystopic-style books, but this one, i think, is halfway between post-apocalyptic and dystopic, which makes it that much better. now, i read the first book and loved it. and then i read this book, and it earned the place of #4 on my list of the Top ten Worst Cliffhangers of All Time. because, when I got this book, I said, “We had better meet Rowan in this book, or I’ll scream.” I read the book, got to the last page, and then screamed. A lot. Loudly. and i'm now waiting for the next one.

Tylar M

A lot more interesting than the first book, but the main character is so bland. I even forget her name and I can't even visualize what she looks like.

Nicole Dykeman

I don't know...it was just as good as the first one, really. It didn't take me that long to finish. I suppose I was kind of dissapointed with Rhine because of the fact that she didn't fight back as much as I assumed she would. I wish she was more of a role model rather than that princess who's always saved by the prince.

Allison Garrett

4.5 one of the only times I've liked a sequel better than the first book in a series

Maria Banning

Leah Patton

** spoiler alert **
           The second book in The Chemical Garden Series, Fever, was a good representation of the title. I'll rundown my review in order of the book.
The beginning of this book was seriously awesome. It started right where Wither, the first book, left off. Rhine and Gabriel are on the run from the mansion and get caught up in a Scarlet District carnival run by the evil Madame. I won't ruin this experience at the Carnival for you. Then, the escape from this carnival is just as good when they go to the fortune teller. However, after this, the story takes an tragic turn. It goes from Gabriel being sick from withdrawal to Rhine becoming horribly ill with a mysterious disease. I didn't like how horrible the disease and Rowan being missing and Rhine going back to the mansion and Linden not believing Rhine and treating her as he did. But I think that was just because I was emmotionally invested in the book. It was a really good book and I recommend it.

Terri Arnold

Despite how frustrating this book was at times I still enjoyed it a lot. The concept for these books, that is the combined the future and period-esque themes, is something that I find really interesting because it presented it as a way that made it seem like they weren't that different. However, the end was somewhat predicted and I was expecting something more.

Alexandra Mellas

After another agonising wait (what's with these authors teasing us with fantastic ideas for stories and making us what for their publication?) Lauren DeStefano brings us part two of Rhine and Gabriel's adventure now they've escaped Vaughn's Manor House. 
DeStefano creates a frightening world where freedom means everything when a women live only 20 years and men barely hit 25. In Fever we learn life outside the Manor might just be worse than imprisonment as Lindon's wife. 


What I Liked: There was more world building in Fever than we saw in Wither, and DeStefano's new characters were both deliciously creepy and heartbreakingly good in a broken world. We learn more about Rhine as we visit her home and all the places near and dear to where she grew up.


What I Didn't Like: Gabriel. I hate him, passionately, and unwarrantedly since there is nothing passionate about his bitter little selfish character. He is utterly boring and when he does perk up enough to talk, all he does is complain. I'm not pro-Linden but I'm definitely anti-Gabriel. 

Read More: http://raidingbookshelves.blogspot.co...

Isabella Brouwer

mary

This book was thrilling! Such a strong sequel, the plot left me on the edge of my seat. I can't wait to start book 3!

Shawna Gavas

** spoiler alert **
           This review contains lots of spoilers....be warned!!

I LOVED this book. I'm glad I only gave "Wither" 4 stars, because this second installment of "The Chemical Gardens Trilogy" is even better.

This book begins where the first one left off, with Rhine and Gabriel escaping the mansion. Their new found freedom is short lived however, as they are captured and caged in a carnival/brothel. Here they live within the confines of Madame Soleski's madness. Painted china doll faces, ferris wheels, angels blood. They befriend a girl called Lilac and her young malformed daughter, Maddie who ultimately help them to escape when Vaughn comes calling.


On the move again, Rhine, Gabriel and Maddie make their way to Manhatten. It's not an easy journey as Gabriel is going through withdrawl but they eventually make it. Rhine is home. But home turns out to be a burned out shell. Rowan is gone. There's nothing left.

With no where to go, they follow a random address in Maddie's storybook. It turns out to be that of Lilac's mother, who lets them stay in exchange for help. But Rhine quickly becomes sick. Very sick. All symptoms are mimicing the virus, but the virus is not due for another 3 years. Gabriel is sure that somehow Vaughn is responsible...but is that possible? Of course it is. 

Vaughn emerges out of the darkness, only to persuade Rhine to go back to the mansion. That he is the only one who can fix her. Whisked away, no one is aware that Rhine has even left. Rhine has now become a prisoner of Housemaster Vaughn's basement of horrors. Unimaginable experiments are carried out. Drugs are constantly administered for both sedation and testing causing unspeakable nightmares. Rhine is restrained 24 hours a day. Utter loneliness and despair set in. Truths are revealed. But Rhine is strong. Rhine is resilient. And Rhine is a fighter. With the help of Cecily, Linden is made aware that Rhine is back and being held in the basement. Linden in a state of shock, rushes Rhine to the hospital where she is slowly recovering. Rhine begins to enlighten Linden about who Vaughn really is. What he's really done. What he's really doing. As Linden leaves the room, Rhine glances up at the hospital tv. A face stares back at her. Rowan is alive.

How the heck am I supposed to wait until February 2013 for the 3rd book??? Now that's torture in itself. Right out of Vaughn's basement of horrors.

Samantha

This was quite possibly worse than the first book. There are so many holes in the story that just don't make sense, and like a typical second book in a trilogy, it just contained filler nonsense that was completely irrelevant to the story itself. You could probably skip this book altogether and go straight to the third book and not miss a beat. a little over 3/4 of this book was just worthless filler dragging though the mud. Nothing important happened until the last 50 pages or so of the book.

From here on in there may be spoilers, so beware, and I apologize for my thoughts being so scattered. I lost a few brain cells with this one. 

Gabriel. This boy has no personality whatsoever and I don't understand how Rhine, or anyone for that matter, could be attracted to him. all we know is he has blue eyes and his build is slightly bigger than Linden. Gabriel and Rhine have absolutely ZERO chemistry. If you're going to give us a romantic relationship or a botched love triangle, at least make the characters interesting 
Rhine spends the entire book either sick or drugged. how can anyone call her a "strong and interesting" female lead? she's bland and all she does is whine about everything. The only interesting thing about her are her eyes, and even that is overplayed. she has heterochromia. It's not anything special or fantastic, it is essentially a genetic disorder and in no way WHATSOEVER be a key to curing a disease, which is what they are hinting at.

So this whole time, Rhine never knew she had a tracker in her leg? and with her having the tracker, why on earth did it take so long for Vaughn to find her?
and I don't know why this bothers me so much, but when Vaughn shows up, Rhine thinks "that limousine looked so familiar"
it's a damn LIMO. they all look the same. how is she going to recognize that one car as being his. it's just stupid

When Vaughn tells her that the reason she is sick is because she's having withdrawls from the mysterious drug-candies, I literally wanted to slam my head against my desk repeatedly. IT'S BEEN MONTHS SINCE SHE'S HAD ONE OF THOSE CANDIES. WHY IS SHE JUST NOW GETTING SICK FROM NOT HAVING THEM IN HER SYSTEM?!?!
So now in the end she's back where she started at. so what was the point of the whole book? a game of hide and seek?

and of course Selfish little Cecily knew that Vaughn had Rhine trapped in the basement experimenting on her, and doesn't tell Linden. then all of a sudden she wants to act all concerned wanting to get her to the hospital after she cuts herself open to get the tracker out.

and if they say that Linden loves her ONE MORE TIME. good god he still doesn't even know her, and he willingly sleeps with Cecily. yeah no he doesn't love her. that's just warped

she spends the entire book under the pretense of finding her brother.... she only makes an effort to look for him once. and then she doesn't even find him until the last two sentences of the book, and even then it's only on a tv screen. WTF

how anyone can say this storyline is exciting/intense is beyond me. 

only reading the next book to see how this train wreck ends up

Emily C Peterson

Danielle H.

So intense, and heart-breaking! And a total cliffhanger. Can't wait for the next book.

Ally Wagner

This book took me a while to get through because I kept getting bored with it. It only managed to hook me again towards the last few chapters. 

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion and are trying to make their way to Manhattan to find Rhine’s brother. Along the way they run into some difficult, /interesting/ places and situations. Vaughn, Linden’s evil mad scientist father, is tracking them down, desperate to get Rhine back for his experiments.

The beginning was okay and ending was better, but the middle was dragging. I’ll probably read the last book just so I know how the story ends, but it won’t be anytime soon.

Fever

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