Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

                                                  Book: Fever by Lauren DeStefano
                                                  Pages: 341
                                                  Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
                                                  Source: Library

Short Synopsis: Rhine and Gabriel have finally escaped the mansion. But their freedom doesn't last long, when they get trapped in a different kind of hell. They must work together to get out, and to try to find Rhine's brother.

My Thoughts: I loved it and I disliked it, but it certainly kept me interested. DeStefano delivers yet another must read.

Rhine and Gabriel have finally escaped the retched Mansion. But their freedom is short lived, when Gabriel notices lights in the distance. They decide to check it out and have stumbled into a different hell.
The so called Circus which is actually a brothel, is run by a woman with a French accent, called Madame. The circus has many girls, all renamed as different colors, who are sold for prostitution. Rhine is immediately thrust into this world. Madame notices that Rhine is different than all the others. She tries to sell Rhine to a Gatherer but things go horribly wrong. All the while, Gabriel is given huge amounts of Angel's Blood, a drug that makes people crazy and delirious. A plan is forged to get Rhine and Gabriel out. Upon escaping, Rhine and Gabriel now must care for a young child named Maddie, who used to belong to one of the girls at the circus.
Rhine's new plan now, is to get as close to New York as possible, to find her brother, Rowan. Along the way, Rhine comes across Maddie's mother's family members, who have graciously decide to take them in. But as Rhine starts to get comfortable, she also starts getting ill.
Vaughn, Linden's father, manages to track down Rhine, and tells her that she has been experimented on, and that returning home is the only cure for her. Rhine must survive this illness, get away from Vaughn as soon as she can, and is still determined to find her brother. Can Rhine make it all the way to find her brother, before anything worse happens?

Hm. What to say? At first I wasn't a big fan of the different direction DeStefano took with this series, but the more I read on, I felt like I couldn't get enough. Rhine is a strong, independent character, who doesn't always have a plan, but is very determined to get to what she wants.

I really didn't enjoy the part where Rhine was pulled into the brothel. DeStefano does an excellent job of disliking the paranoid Madame. There were so many characters that were back stabbing, and scheming and evil. I also felt that Vaughn and Cecily belonged in that group. Actually, I felt that Vaughn was the ultimate evil, doing experiments on people, for his own needs. But Vaughn also mirrors the society that DeStefano has built, when President Guiltree announced that the labs would be reopened to do experiments to cure the age disease. 

I also felt that Cecily was a backstabber, claiming to have Rhine's best interest but in fact she was helping Vaughn keep Rhine. Everyone in this novel seems to have their own agenda, and their own secrets. 

I loved the relationship between Gabriel and Rhine, and disliked the fact that he disappeared through out the majority of the end. I also kind of felt it odd that it wasn't addressed between the two, when Rhine called Gabriel, Linden's name. I know if I called my significant other someone else's name, that they'd be furious and vice versa. I could go on and on about this book, but overall, I felt that that it was brilliant. This was a novel that I was actually satisfied with how it ended, and can't wait to read the conclusion.

Would I recommend this book: Yes!

Rating: I give this book a 4.5/5.