Sever: Chemical Garden

This final entry in the Chemical Garden trilogy finds Rhine upstairs once again in the mansion with sister wife, Cecily and husband, Linden. Desperate to find her brother, Rowen, Rhine teams up on her quest, meeting old "friends," typing up loose ends, and answering lingering questions.

DeStefano has breathed more life and emotion into each character making them more relatable and I found myself rooting for those I previously felt indifferent about. Bratty Cecily matures into a caring, thoughtful young woman; Linden becomes his own man, wriggling out from under his father's thumb; Rhine shares more of her inner thoughts and desires; and Vaughan shows myriad emotions (no spoiler alerts from me). There are gasp-worthy moments and the ending is satisfying and well done.

As one of the better YA writers, Lauren DeStefano creates an interesting premise, close to Atwood's, "The Handmaid's Tale." She imagines a haunting, eerie, yet hopeful world where the characters fight to live, find meaning, and fulfill their dreams. There's more depth and danger in her books. Truly a wonderful trilogy and wonder why it doesn't get more attention than some of the Twilight Copycats?

Never

Finish the story. I waited too long for the last book only to find that there was nothing extraordinary about Rhine and her brother. For all the mystery surrounding them they were not the key, just subjects of experiments. How Von stumbled upon the cure is unclear, and why Rowan insists Von was the mastermind of the cure when his parent's information clearly played a roll. Why was Rowan so oblivious. They had special eyes and special parents yet never displayed their supposed cleverness. Turns out their parents were no better than Von, yet no hurt feelings are present. Nor is anyone mad about anything, like being left behind, or for loving more than one guy at a time, or for being perpetually confused, lets just pretend sister wives could get along! When everyone's DNA was altered way back when, did it also alter normal human behavior? Could have been an angle, or that it's a different time so people have evolved slightly with different perspectives. Just trying to milk some reason out of it, to no avail! Maybe the author should have studied more about pretty much everything she tried to write about. I love the premise, how today we mess with genetics in foods and animals without concern for the future repercussions... I love a good mystery. So disappointing. Rhine was just meandering from one idiotic circumstance after another on an improbably pointless journey. Sort of reminded me of 'The Unfortunate Events' series for teenage girls, minus continuity and logic! And Linden dies from what... bumping his head, internal bleeding, while no one else is scathed from the poorly described crash. Apparently it was a bad wreck cause he died but it was described as a fender bender.

She did pretty well. Despite the perpetual malaise that Rhine was in, which can grate on a person, I think she played the part.

Frustration

No

Yes if they like Dystopian style books. i would because it was wonderfully written and read.

Matched, Delirium, Divergent, The Hunger Games, The Uglies, & Enclave, because they are all dustopian books.

She did wonderful with every character.

Yes, but in this 3rd book I wanted to strangle the main character for being so dumb. I hate when authors make there characters as dumb as the girl Bella from Twighlight. It almost ruined the book for me actually.

This book was a great ending to the series! i hope to see more from this author!