318 Haunted By
190 Haunting
Stacia

Stacia in Progress

Sparkling water fanatic. Lover of random crap. Goodreads member curious to see if the grass really is greener on the other side.

Currently reading

Dreams of Gods & Monsters
Laini Taylor
Still Life with Strings
L.H. Cosway
Rated YA-MA : Adults Who Read Young Adult Fiction
Rated YA-MA 2854 members
A group for adult lovers of Young Adult fiction. We feature a different type of book for each mon...

Books we've read

Vampire Academy Vampire Academy
by Richelle Mead
Start date: September 1, 2013

Eve and Adam Eve and Adam
by Michael Grant
Start date: August 1, 2013



View this group on Goodreads »

Wither (Chemical Garden)

Wither (Chemical Garden) - Lauren DeStefano My feelings about Wither seemed to imitate the movement of a pendulum. One moment, I would swing one way and find myself completely invested, the next I would swing back in the opposite direction and find myself starting to lose interest. How did the book fare as a whole? Overall, when it was all said and done, I landed on the invested side.What drew me to this book originally was not the dystopian content (which I am generally a fan of), but the subject of polygamy. It's no secret that I've always had a fascination with polygamy. I love peering in the windows of people living completely different lifestyles, and discovering the inner workings of their mind. I was hoping that this book would be chock full of polygamy conflict.Instead, much of the focus was spent on main character's inner thoughts of escape, which in this instance, I didn't find myself caring much about. The first person present tense style of writing made for a slightly choppy read, but once I got used to it, I didn't notice it anymore.When the story finally started to delve into the intricacies of the polygamous marriage that Rhine had been forced into, things quickly became interesting. I was extremely disturbed at the creepy vibe being put out by the 20 year old House Governor (the husband) and the fact that he was all too eager to take the youngest bride of 13 to bed and get her pregnant. The way that he hovered over her and called her his "love" gave me a serious case of the willies. But, that's how polygamy can (and quite often does) happen, so I can't act like this shocks me.I'm usually able to find something likeable about the underdog, but in this case, I had a very hard time liking the husband, even though you find out pretty early on that he is just as much a victim as anyone else in the circumstance. It's apparent that he genuinely cares for his wives, but he also has no real moral trigger to let him know when his behavior is a bit skeevy. There was one scene where he was practicing every position of the Kama Sutra with his oldest wife (19), just because he felt like she needed to get pregnant, even though that particular wife didn't even like him, and that scene made me want to slap him.Did I like the book? Yes. Was I fond of the entire book? Absolutely not. Will I read the next one? Most definitely.