Fever

Authors: Lauren Destefano

Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #Action & Adventure, #General, #Social Issues, #Death & Dying, #Dating & Sex, #Science Fiction, #Dystopian

Praise for W
ITHER

“[A]
HARROWING DEBUT.
”

—
Publishers Weekly
, starred review

“C
REEPY AND ELEGANT.
”

—L
ISA MCMANN
,
New York Times
bestselling author of the Wake trilogy and
Cryer’s
Cross

“T
HE KIND OF BOOK
I
’VE BEEN CRAVING.
”

—C
ARRIE
R
YAN
,
New York Times
bestselling author of
The Forest of Hands and Teeth

“W
ith a sinister series name (The Chemical Garden Trilogy), an ominous title (
Wither
), and a gorgeous cover (can’t stop looking at it), expectations will be high. Luckily author Lauren DeStefano’s writing clears the bar with ease.
Wither
strikes a delicate balance between creepy and elegant, shocking and romantic, dreadful and rewarding, and delivers unexpected twists around every disturbing corner of Rhine’s mansion prison. It’ll leave you horrified, mystified, and longing for book two.”

—L
ISA
M
C
M
ANN
,
New York Times
bestselling author of the Wake trilogy and
Cryer’s Cross

“[A]
harrowing debut. . . . DeStefano has an observant and occasionally pitiless eye, chronicling the cruelties, mercies, and inconsistencies of her young characters. . . . It will be intriguing to see how DeStefano develops [the larger world] as this promising trilogy progresses.”

—
Publishers Weekly
, starred review

“T
his beautifully written debut fantasy, with its intriguing world-building, well-developed characters, and intricate plot involving flashbacks as well as edge-of-the-seat suspense, will keep teens riveted to the plight of Rhine and her sister wives.”

—
VOYA

“S
ets up an arresting premise that succeeds because of Rhine’s poignant, conflicted narrative and DeStefano’s evocative prose.”

—
Booklist

R
HINE AND
G
ABRIEL 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 this 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.

L
AUREN
D
E
S
TEFANO
earned a BA in English with a concentration in creative writing from Albertus Magnus College in Connecticut.

V
ISIT HER AT
THECHEMICALGARDENBOOKS.COM
LAURENDESTEFANO.COM
.

J
ACKET DESIGN BY
L
IZZY
B
ROMLEY
J
ACKET PHOTOGRAPHS COPYRIGHT © 2012 BY
A
LI
S
MITH

SIMON & SCHUSTER • NEW YORK

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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Book design by Lizzy Bromley

The text for this book is set in Bell.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
DeStefano, Lauren.
Fever / Lauren DeStefano. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (The Chemical Garden trilogy ; bk. 2)

ISBN 978-1-4424-0907-1
(hardcover)
[1. Science fiction. 2. Genetic engineering—Fiction. 3. Orphans—Fiction. 4. Youths’ writings.] I. Title.
PZ7.D47Fe 2012
[Fic]—dc23
2011016961
ISBN 978-1-4424-0912-5 (eBook)

Summary: In a future where genetic engineering has cured humanity of all diseases and defects but has also produced a virus that kills all females by age twenty and all males by the age twenty-five, teenaged Rhine escapes her forced marriage and journeys back to New York to find her twin brother.