Weirdly, Wither works- well (without world-building)

★★★☆☆

(3 stars)

I wonder what you picture me as. I wonder how you think I select these books.

Wither by Lauren DeStefano is a YA dystopian book from the dystopia boom. I know I generally pick up para-ro, but that’s only because I am obsessed with angels. I actually love dystopia but very rarely find it in charity shops. Dystopia is a powerful genre that has made some of my favourite reads, but the YA dystopia trend was… Less powerful than Only Ever Yours, to be polite.

Books from this time are extremely funny to a bad book lover like me because they have the worst worldbuilding, consistently. This was a time of one topic worlds, where the entire culture and government was built around just one thing to a stupid degree. You’ll know it from Divergent and its personality tribes, Matched and its oppressive soulmate assignments, Crossed with its ban of love. Dystopia has long been a space for examining extremes to make a point about the modern day, but people cashing in on the Hunger Games just totally missed that point.

I picked up Wither because of its stupid, stupid premise and world. Every dystopia essentially begins with a pitch of “in a world where…” and Wither from the outside is no different. In this world, humans seriously screwed up their genetics, and now their sons all die before the age of twenty-five. Women only get twenty. This has created- for some reason – a world where men pay kidnappers to abduct them multiple girls to marry at once, and force them to have children. This sounds very unpleasant, sure, but notably makes no sense on a bunch of levels.

However, to great surprise I found very quickly into Wither that… I liked it. It’s got good prose, good atmosphere, and is a slow, horrible, emotional story of confinement and despair. You just need to ignore the worldbuilding.

World

It’s a dystopia, so naturally everything is weird. It’s the far future- at least one hundred years, definitely more*- and a generation of humans are all getting genetically modified. Scientists have cracked some super biotech that makes people healthier, longer lived, better… Except whoops! Twenty years later they realise all their daughters are dying from a wasting disease around their birthdays. Five more and the sons go.

(*A house is at one time called 1000s of years old, which is insane. It’s in Florida which was colonised maybe around 1600? So we’re at least 2600. If we’re in 3600 this book makes even less sense)

These healthy people are the last generation- though actually called “The First Generation” in the book. All their kids turn out uber cursed. Unfortunately, somehow everyone in the world got modified, so no one is immune. The first gen is in their 70s now, allowing two full lifespans of kids.

A whole lot about the world building and how bad it is

I have to talk about some of the many issues this premise brings up. Firstly, everyone got this modification. It was a new generation, we know, so everyone born about 70 years ago was edited as a fetus to have this super mod. Yes, the mod had benefits beyond simple ‘good health’ and ‘long youth’- it also cured cancer and STDs. Perhaps the idea is that the government made it a requirement all infants get this mod, a la mandatory vaccine? Of course, we’re not talking vaccines at all, but very intense genetic engineering. Beyond this, if the idea is it was mandatory, absolutely you wouldn’t have 100% of people accept this new, never tested mod on their infants.

And obviously too- it’s untested, which is wild. Scientists somehow crop up ‘like ‘we cured cancer, STDs, the common cold, and hayfever ALL AT ONCE, but these cures can only be used at birth, and now EVERYONE MUST GET IT. No, we haven’t tested it, we just have a good feeling.’

I should probably now mention the world in this book is only North America.

A third world war demolished all but North America, the continent with the most advanced technology. The damage was so catastrophic that all that remains of the rest of the world is oceans and uninhabitable islands so tiny they can’t even be seen from space.

Dystopia from this time is famously US-centric, but this takes it to an extreme. I don’t know a lot about military technology, especially from the future, but I don’t see a way the entire world but North America could be flooded without also flooding NA- but this book takes place in Florida, very not underwater.

So. Everyone has this super genetic modifier going on, and it’s party time. Well, like forty years in once many of them have had kids, they notice all their kids are dying, consistently, from the same disease. This disease is only called a virus in the book. I don’t actually know it’s a ‘disease’, but I know that’s more right than a virus. It’s probably closest to being a genetic disorder, and the use of the wrong word drives me a bit mad. This children murderering disorder is split along sex lines too: 25 for men, 20 for women.

Why? Well, because the plot wants women to be extra disempowered, and have some men-outliving-women angst. It makes very little sense for a condition to be so perfectly exact on death years and sex. Of course, famously, women live longer than men in humans, so it feels extra pointed this book flips that. I also have to wonder about people who are intersex (a lot of people are). I guess they get like, 23 years? It’s not a to-the-date death, but without extreme fruitful medical intervention, it’s guaranteed.

Okay, first generation parents are seeing their kids all die extremely consistently from the same condition. Whoops!! Too bad everyone got modded, so there’s no genetically clean humans left in the world. How does culture adapt to this? First, let’s recall it takes an approximate 20 years for first gens to realise science accidentally has radically altered the human race. This book takes place about 50 years later. The following social and general changes all take place over about 50 years- that’s two full generations of new gen kids, or if they are reproducing extremely early, that’s about 4.

First, society collapses almost entirely. Before this, human society was at a real peak minus the death of several billion people: there’s a lot of hologram technology, and… okay, the most high-tech thing we ever hear about is holograms, and there’s a lot of them. Pool holograms to swim with! Pianos that project holograms! Video game holograms! Floor holograms! That is actually the scope of human advancement in the year ~2600. Still, life was good. The main character’s parents reminisce about their childhoods flying kites in the park and having a lovely time. The before times- 50-70 years ago- were lovely.

Nowadays, it’s chaos. There are leagues of orphans, everywhere, begging, stealing, and dying on the streets. Children start work at extremely young ages- the main character gets a personal servant who is about 9. Work on a cure starts, but is greatly halted when protesters who are pro-humanity dying out destroy it. Girls are abducted on the streets by roving gangs who sell them to wealthy men. Girls are forced into sex work at a very young age or simply attacked and murdered. It’s unsafe to be outside or live in general unless you guard your home with traps and vigilant watches.

Meanwhile, rich men (first gen or new gen) are acquiring multiple brides at once, usually new gen girls, whose sole purpose is to produce children for them. They flaunt them around openly at events and parties.

It feels sort of like everyone really took this short lifespan thing a bit too seriously. I’m not saying it sucks, but the cause and effect here is extremely broken. Think very carefully about any of the details here. Especially the core premise of the book, which is focused on the forced polygamous marriage abductions. Why are men doing this? Why has society accepted this so fast, and what is the benefit of living like this?

Everyone but the first gens are dying young. Everyone’s first mindset seems to be to reproduce as much as possible. But why? Either ways you won’t live to see your children. If you age down when people are marrying and reproducing, you can still get married, have a few kids, and die just as people do now. You just die faster. Either ways you leave behind children, who are going to have to be raised by servants- other youths a bit younger than you- or first gens. How does having several wives change anything but the amount of kids you can have at once. Do you really want to have six kids? With shorter lifespans, the more children you have, the more they will be competing for time in order to achieve anything. Either ways, you’re totally dead, so it’s not much of a legacy.

Of course, resources are pretty weird when you consider this world. There should be an excess. The population is lower when each generation only lasts an average 23 years. You would need systems designed to function with an ever-dying staff, but there should be no sea of starving orphans. I understand it’s a situation of duress, but this is where having large bodies and systems meant to function independent of any one person is a benefit. What the hell is the government doing?

Regarding the abduction of girls, this again is a case of supply and demand being out of wack. First, it’s really not hard to imagine if you’re a wealthy lad in a horrible dystopia that lots of girls would willingly want to marry you, or that your first gen parents might do arranged marriages as a business deal sort of thing. Second, there’s a lot of girls. There’s a lot of orphans, and people, because evidently everyone’s only reaction to hearing everyone’s lifespan is a quarter shorter is to have kids. Wealthy families are even doing polygamy with the apparent sole purpose of having lots of kids- and since we have a 50 year time period of that, we should be on the second generation. AKA, all those new gen polygamy couples who had six kids are dead, but their six kids are of age to start marrying other couples who had six kids… so why abduct random girls? There are girls to go around.

I think I’m missing many things and points, and got stuff wrong, but yes: this world makes no sense and is just, crushingly dumb, and I had to talk about it.

“Wait, you liked this?”

Yeah…

Well…

The trick is, a lot of Wither is pretty good, though maybe not in the exact way the author planned. Though to her credit, I genuinely think the book is well written (we’re almost always going to ignore world building from here on out). There’s atmosphere through most of the book, there’s very strong prose that captures the mood well, there’s imagery that is lasting and powerful. Legitimately.

What this story is at the heart is a tale of three young, doomed girls who have been abducted and are now trapped on one floor of an isolated mansion and expected to have children until they die with a man who they’ve been forced to marry. This is a psychological horror story that doesn’t fully know it. But it does a little.

The girls are Jenna, Rhine, and Cecily. They were rounded and gathered in a van with nearly twenty other girls and selected from there. The non selected girls were immediately shot, while the chosen were drugged and taken to their new home. For Jenna, 18, this means her two sisters were murdered right next to her. She approaches life in the mansion numbly, fully accepting and awaiting her death. She’s full of a cold rage, but sees no point in resisting.

Rhine, 16, is our main character and lacks the most personality because of it. She’s taken from NYC to Florida and away from her twin brother, who is her only person in this bleak world. All she wants is to escape and return to him.

Then there’s Cecily, 13. She’s goddamn 13. She was raised in a large orphanage, and for her this life is a dream, the best case scenario in this dystopia. She is excited to get married and have babies and play house- she’s bratty, but well, she’s a child. She’s small and immature and constantly being contrasted- horrifyingly- to her role now as a sex and baby object in this elaborate cage. She’s mostly happy here, but there’s increasing cracks as she struggles to convince herself this is what she wants.

One thing that was said when I was first talking about this book was the idea it was just being edgy for shock and edginess. I disagree. For one, YA dystopia at this time was surprisingly pretty clean. I mean, yes, there’s usually a secret teen murder scheme or whatever, but that’s just death as a fail state. Wither succeeds in being about- and following- the emotions around and after the dark subjects in the story. Shock value would be more… shocking. Wither is just sad and steady, consistent about its moods and pretty good at showing ideas of being moribund, a fractured society, and the bonds between these girls.

I did dislike more than just the world, I should note. Man this review is topsy-turvy. Anyway, the book is far from perfect. Not all of the prose rings true (“His eyes, like green exclamation marks, meet mine.”). The pace is slow and very little happens or changes. The main character lacks personality and drive. The romance with Gabriel the attendant is nice, but Rhine gaining feelings for Linden the husband isn’t. The evil stepfather first gen Vaughn has an unclear personality besides ‘evil’. The world-building sucks.

Plot

After so much time spent riding in the darkness of the truck, we have all fused together. We are one nameless thing sharing this strange hell.

Pg.3

Rhine is abducted off the streets and one of three girls selected by Linden to become his wife. His current wife, Rose, is still alive despite being 21 because Linden’s father Vaughn is a leading research scientist who is prolonging her life with medicine. Rhine, and the two other girls (Jenna, 18, and Cecily, 13), are married to Linden immediatly and left on the ‘Wives floor’ of the isolated Florida estate. Each has a personal servant- who are aged 10 at the max- and access to a library. That is it.

Rhine slightly befriends Rose, who resents being kept barely alive this long. Rose truly loves and knows Linden, and the three girls are her replacement on Vaughn’s behest more than Linden’s. Linden loves Rose in turn and isn’t particularly interested in his new wives. When Rose finally dies, this begins to change. Rhine, meanwhile, starts to get along with her sister-wives, and befriends a servant named Gabriel who is her future love interest. Not long after Rose’s death, Rhine also accidentally winds up in the mansion’s basement lab, where she witnesses Rose’s body. Vaughn however claimed Rose was cremated and even gives his son the ashes, so Rhine figures Vaughn is secretly experimenting on her.

Linden gets over Rose and starts to make his move on the others, with his focus being Cecily, an actual child. She’s happy about this and loves his attention, because to her this is normal and even aspirational. He has sex with her.

I tuck her in, and I notice the small bit of blood on the sheets.

I sit with her for a while as she drifts back to sleep. I listen to the robins that have nested in the tree below her window. She’d wanted to show them to me before, just a child looking for an excuse to talk to me. I haven’t been very kind to her, or fair. She can’t help that she’s oblivious, that she’s so young. She can’t help she grew up in a world without parents, in an orphanage that allowed her to be taken for either a bride or a corpse. She doesn’t know how fragile she is, how close she came to death in that van.

But I do. I push some tangled hair from her face and say, ‘have sweet dreams.’ It’s the best thing anyone can hope for, in this place.

Pg.117-118

Cecily becomes pregnant, a process that is extremely taxing on her because of her age and small frame. Meanwhile Rhine decides to win Linden’s favour as much as possible so she’ll be able to escape, or at least be taken to an event that gets press so her brother Rowan might realise she’s still alive. During a hurricane, she decides to make a break for it and is severely injured. She’s not doing great mentally- it’s been months.

Rhine becomes much closer with her sister-wives as time passes. As I’ve said, very little super happens in this book- she goes to a party, there’s some threat Vaughn might kill her if she tries to escape again, she catches mild feelings for Gabriel… Cecily gives birth to a son who she is rarely allowed to see as Vaughn takes him away almost constantly for ‘health checks’. Gabriel is reassigned to the basement after Rhine kisses him, and it’s because someone saw. Rhine feels sympathy for Linden, who she feels is as much of a prisoner to Vaughn as they all are. She plots her escape with Gabriel. Jenna becomes ill despite being only 19, and rapidly deteriorates.

Jenna opens her eyes long enough to watch Cecily flip through one of the many books piled on the nightstand, and then laughs again, and it’s more painful to hear than before. “That one’s not exactly deathbed appropriate, Cecily.”

I can’t stand this. I look at Jenna and all I can see is this thing that’s killing her. This voice doesn’t even sound like hers.

“I don’t care,” Cecily says. “I’ll read it anyway. There’s a bookmark in the middle, so I’ll start there. You should at least get to see how it ends.”

“Skip to the last page, then,” Jenna says. “I’m not made of time.”

Pg.304

Rhine concludes after Jenna dies that she was likely poisoned by Vaughn for being noncompliant, and finally leaves with Gabriel. Book over,

Her decision to leave at the point she does feels random. She did try to run away around halfway through the book, during the hurricane, but got lost finding the exit. She realises the whole mansion has a hologram forest around it and that’s why she couldn’t find the gate, and realises where the exit is. Despite this, she takes a few months to actually act on it. It, like the rest of the plot, is only another random event that seems to occur without much lead up.

Conclusion

Honestly I don’t have much more to say. I have some extracts I guess of bits I liked. I sort of covered it all, and I’ve written this review extremely sporadically- normally I do it in 1-2 bursts of focus, this has been in bed late at night or randomly during the day for over a week now. I’m scattered.

I could mention Linden being a creep for having sex with his 13 year old wife and getting her pregnant. It’s one thing for social standards about reproduction to change in order to reflect the shorter lifespan, but it’s another to view girls that young as socially acceptable partners. As in, I could buy people start marrying/having kids in their teens, since women only get to be 20, but a 21 year old and a 13 year old is still too big an age gap for people to get down with over the last 50 years. It should be similar-ages, or Linden should at least feel a bit weird about Cecily. He instead calls her beautiful and is enraptured by her and it’s like, that’s paedophilia. Also there’s first gen men marrying like, 14 year old girls, and I still don’t think society would be very down for that.

Other random note: the apocalypse feeling Rhine uses to describe her childhood and home is contrasted by everything she sees in Florida. She attends parties where there’s tons of wealth, the cities are bustling, new homes are being made, there’s no food shortages. There’s not enough contrast between this being rich people only or whatever to make it feel like anything other than a contradiction to everything else Rhine has told us. As in. Worldbuilding: it sucks.

I won’t bother picking up the rest of the series. Book 2 they go hang out in a circus/brothel thing (though Rhine continues to be a virgin- it’s made a point in this book too she avoids it, and it feels a little like shaming the girls who do have sex) and book 3 they uh, go to Hawaii or something and Linden dies in a plane crash. It doesn’t sound like the plot is very interesting or exciting, and the ultimate ‘best thing’ for me about this book was the atmosphere of the house. I don’t believe there’s going to be anything of note in the later books that will be as accidentally good as that.

Bye. I’m festering away.

• Three stars