Wither- Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: March 2011
Summary: When scientists engineered genetically perfect children, everyone thought it would ensure the future of the human race. Though the first generation is nearly immortal, a virus causes all successive generations to die early: age 20 for women, 25 for men. Now, girls are kidnapped for brothels or polygamous marriages to breed children. Rhine is taken from her hardscrabble life and sold with two other girls to Linden Ashby. Though they live in a palatial Florida home surrounded by gardens and treated like royalty, the girls are sequestered from the outside world, and Rhine longs to escape. Her growing affection for her sister wives, her pity for Linden, and her fear of Housemaster Vaughn, Linden's manipulative father, keep her uncomfortably docile, until she falls for servant Gabriel.

Wither is a blend of 1984 and A Handmaid's Tale. Considering that these are two of my favorite books I was thouroughly excited to read this novel. Overall, the story was very good. The plot was interesting and unusual with the right amount of suspension and mystery. Likewise, the message was powerful and poignant and was definitely a social commentary on the exploitation of women. However, when I finished the novel I felt the end was anti-climactic. I am looking forward to the second novel to revive the series for me.

Theresa
The Book Nook

Tricks- Ellen Hopkins

Title: Tricks
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Synopsis: Five teenagers from different parts of the country. Three girls. Two guys. Four straight. One gay. Some rich. Some poor. Some from great families. Some with no one at all. All living their lives as best they can, but all searching for freedom, safety, community, family, love. What they don’t expect, though, is all that can happen when those powerful little words, “I love you,” are said for all the wrong reasons.

 Tricks
A Review

To say I enjoyed this novel,
would be weird. And somewhat
wrong. It is not a novel that a
person enjoys or has fun while
reading.Nevertheless, it is a poignant tale
that is worth reading.

The story begins with five separate tales.
Five teens from different areas, socioeconomic
status, and values. Their stories are slowly
and artfully woven together until they become
one larger story, a tapestry of sadness and desp-
eration.

Each person details their life and what
led them to the worst time of it- living
on the streets of Las Vegas, turning
tricks to subsist. It is more than that
however, because they also detail
their redemption and salvation.

This novel is a heart-wrenching tale
of what happens when we lose con-
trol of our own bodies and how to
begin to gain it back.

I highly recommend this moving story
and hope that if you find yourself in
this situation, you have the chance to
escape.

There's my attempt  at free verse writing. This will be my last review for a while because this is the last novel I finished. I am a quarter of the way through Frankenstein and will have a review for that as soon as I finish it.

Happy reading!
Theresa
The Book Nook