Pure Imagination

Release Date: February 21, 2012
Series: Chemical Garden #2
Age Group: Young Adult
Received From: Publisher
IBSN: 9781442409071
Blurb:
Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind.

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago – surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness.

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous – and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion…by any means necessary.

In the sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price – now that she has more to lose than ever.

I didn’t adore Wither as much as some. I mostly just thought it was okay. So I was a tiny bit wary going into Fever. Usually sequels aren’t quite as good as their predecessor, but I was pleasantly surprised with the first half of Fever. I even thought ‘Hey, this is better than Wither!’ I was really fascinated by the carnival and Madame. It was on the darker side and I do enjoy dark and twisty things, but unfortunately the second half of the book came about and I just didn’t like it as much.

The rest of the book just fell a little flat for me and I would even go so far as to say the last 100 pages were just a tiny bit boring.. It seemed like everything that happened at the carnival had no real purpose to the rest of the story.

Rhine also feels flat to me. I do think she was more developed in this one than in the first book. The thing that bothers me the most about her is that she never speaks up. She doesn’t take action until it’s too late and that is just tiresome. Also in book 1 I felt that the romance was pretty nonexistent, it was no different with this one. There no passion between Rhine and Gabriel. It seems like they are ‘together’ for convenience instead of any real feelings. I still feel like the most passion and personality in the entire book comes from Linden. There were some new characters introduced that I liked, Lilac, Maddie, and Silas. But they were a little irrelevant to the overall plot. I’ll be curious to see what kind of role they play in book 3.

This review sounds more negative that I would like, but I’m just being honest. I really want to love this series, but to me it’s only okay. I am definitely in the minority because most people love it.