Journal Entry 1 by yourotherleft from Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Sunday, March 27, 2011

What if you knew exactly when you would die?

Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home.

But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.


 

Journal Entry 2 by yourotherleft at Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Friday, June 24, 2011

In Wither by Lauren DeStefano, Rhine Ellery lives in a world where a virus allows males to live only until age 25 and females only to age 20. To sustain the population and ostensibly to find a cure, girls are being forced into polygamous marriages with those young men with the means to purchase a few wives. Rhine herself is robbed from the life she is eking out with her twin brother Rowan to become one of four brides to Linden Ashby, son of a sinister doctor who will use whatever nefarious means necessary to conduct his research. Wither is a vivid and, at times, frighteningly possible tale of a world where girls are again only valued for the offspring they produce. Though the story takes place almost entirely in the Florida mansion in which Rhine and her sister wives are held captive, the setting leaps off the page, portraying just the sort of forgotten paradise that might tempt girls to forget their lives and embrace a life of virtual enslavement. Rhine and her sister wives Jenna, Cecily, and Rose are compelling characters who are well fleshed out and sympathetic. Even Linden, a sensitive architect wrapped up in a mess hardly of his own making, inspires sympathy from the reader lending credence to the difficulty of Rhine's choice whether to surrender to this luxurious life that's been forced upon her or to flee back to the life she knew. If good stories and/or dystopia are your thing, Wither is not to be missed. This is one book I'm glad is a part of a series!

 

Journal Entry 3 by yourotherleft at Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania USA on Friday, June 24, 2011

Released 11 mos ago (6/23/2011 UTC) at Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to Xeyra by way of MsJoanna for the Teen VBB. Thanks and enjoy!  

Journal Entry 4 by msjoanna at Columbia, Missouri USA on Tuesday, July 12, 2011

This has arrived. I moved, so it's taken me a while to journal it. Found the postage as well. Thanks! 

Journal Entry 5 by msjoanna at Columbia, Missouri USA on Monday, July 18, 2011

Released 10 mos ago (7/18/2011 UTC) at Columbia, Missouri USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This was mailed as part of an m-bag to Xeyra. 

Journal Entry 6 by Xeyra at Palmela, Setúbal Portugal on Thursday, July 28, 2011

Thank you!