Summer Reads

My summer reading dystopian books continues.  Most recently I finished reading Wither by Lauren DeStefano.  It was so good, I could not put it down and finished it in about a day.  That is saying a lot because it is very hard to keep me that interested in a book.  Without giving too much away, the plot centers around a 16 year old girl named Rhine, who lives in a future where females only live to be 20 years old and males live only to be 25 years old.  Rhine is captured by Gathers who sell her along with two other girls to a young rich man named Linden, who marries each of them.  By marrying Linden, Rhine lives a very comfy life, but resents him because she hates him for buying her.  She later learns that everything is not as it seems and that Linden is not the source causing her misery.  Rhine's only goal is to escape and make her way back to her twin brother.  While living in mansion, Rhine befriends on the the servants, Gabriel, and ends up falling in love with him.  Together they plan to escape.  I highly recommend this book especially if you want to learn what happens.

Before reading 'Wither' I read Matched by Ally Condie.  I had a bit harder time getting into this book because the plot felt very similar to Delirium and I had just read that book before this.  None the less it still had an interesting storyline and if you like reading dystopian books I would suggest reading this book.  'Matched' is about a future society where the "burden" of choices and decisions have been taken away.  Society Officials determine what individuals eat, where they work, who they will marry, and so on.  The story centers around Cassia who has just turned eighteen and has been matched with her best friend as her ideal partner.  Cassia is thrilled with this until one day she when she looks at the microchip that contains all the information about her match and the process of getting married.  Initially when she looks at the microchip she see her friends face, but his face fades and another face appears and then disappears.  We see how Cassia reacts to this and learn how the society she thought was perfect is not so perfect after all.  Cassia learns that the ability to make decisions and have choices are rights that everyone should have. 

Both books are the first of their trilogy so they definitely leave you wondering what happens next for these young women.  I can't wait for their sequels to come out!