Book Review: Wither

When scientists engineered genetically perfect children there was an unexpected side effect.  Now all the females die at age twenty and the males die when they are twenty five.  Now girls have live in fear of being kidnapped and sold to rich men so that they can be used as broodmares.  Rhine was one of these girls.  She lives in a gilded cage with two other sister wives but a cage none the less.

I found WITHER to be a very thought provoking book.  What will happen to the future when we keep messing around with nature?  The premise is all too plausible.  Everyone dying young really reminds me of an older book, Logan's Run, while the tone of the story is reminiscent of  Flowers in the Attic. 

I have to admit that this has been a difficult review to write.  I really enjoyed the book though I did find the world building to be weak.  Hopefully that will strengthen in the following books,  What makes this review hard to figure out is the fact that this book is classified as a young adult where as it really deals with adult issues.  Rhine herself is young as are her sister wives but we are dealing with childbirth, kidnapping and polygamy.   I am just now too sure how that fits into the young adult genre.  If I was recommending this to a friend, I would tell them that this is a rather enjoyable book but I am not as sure about recommending to a parent.  I guess that since I have pointed out the issue it will be up to each parent to decide if they want their kids to delve into it.

I rate this book a 3.75.