Despite the other countries of the world are buried under the sea or fried away by nukes thereby collapsing globalization and the economy at large. But somehow there is still wealth to be had as well as flourishing technology, some stability (however shaky) within society, and a healthy housing market. Society is essentially controlled by patriarchal polygamists. Gatherers, who run around in gray and black coats, earn their living by finding and kidnapping young women who are able to give birth to children.
And this is where the book begins. Rhine (our main character) has been kidnapped with several other young women and they are being transported to an unknown destination. Rhine has a twin brother, Rowan, at home. She is worried, scared, and fearful. She has been within a large truck with several women for who knows how long and she is afraid for her life.
Suddenly, the truck stops and the girls are hauled out into the light. They are forced into a line while other people measure their hips, quickly examine their bodies, and look at their teeth (they are looking for signs of fertility, basically). Rhine has an unusual feature, she has a brown and blue eye and this makes her stand out from the line. She, along with two other girls, are chosen from the line by a young man. These girls are:
- Rhine - the 16 year old with the unusual eyes and blond hair. She is originally from New York City and until this point lived with her twin brother. Her parents, very famous and very intelligent geneticists, were killed in a terrorist bombing. Rhine was looking for a job when she was kidnapped.
- Jenna - an 18/19 year old former prostitute. She, along with her sisters, were forced into the truck. She has long brown hair and later discovers a love for romance novels. However, she is bitter and sad because when the boy rejected all the other women - her sisters were shot and killed.
- Cecily - a redheaded, brattish little 13 year old determined to make her husband happy. She originates from an orphanage and has no recollection of any family. She craves attention from anyone who will give it. If anything, she feels happy and blessed to have been taken away in the first place because now she will get to enjoy a luxurious life.
They are unceremoniously stuffed into a limo and knocked out with sleeping gas. However, just as the door shuts and the gas starts streaming in Rhine can hear gunshots outside, as the rejects are slaughtered like cattle. (Grim enough, yet?)
When Rhine wakes up she finds herself in a beautiful bedroom within a large, lovely mansion which itself is placed within some beautiful grounds. She eventually finds out she and the other wives were taken from New York City and have been brought to the Florida coast. It goes without saying (but I will say it anyway) she is a long, long way from home. Still, this does not quell her need and drive to somehow get back to Rowan.
She and the two other girls are married off right away to Linden, the boy that picked them out of the line. But wait - there is more! It turns out that Linden is already married to another woman - Rose (his childhood love). Rose is approaching her 20th birthday and is almost set to die. Rhine finds out that Rhine may have been stolen away from her own home and placed within the mansion in order to appease Linden. Thanks to Housemaster Vaughn (Linden's much older father) all four of these women have been taken away from their homes and placed within a pampered lifestyle just for his son (and for Vaughn's experiments - he is attempting to reverse the curse of young death by using the bodies of Linden's children and wives for his own purposes). Linden does love Rose (even though she was kidnapped away from her own home to basically become his pampered slave!) and in her own way Rose loves Linden, but loathes and fears Housemaster Vaughn.
It is the Housemaster that orchestrated the kidnappings (and by extension the deaths) of all these women. He controls the lives of everyone around him, including his own son, and is a figure to be feared. His own son is a weak-willed, naive, vile creature. He is ignorant of all the harsh realities around him (he honestly believes his wives came from a wife school... he does not or cannot fathom the idea that they were kidnapped and stolen away from their own homes and not one wife bothers to set him straight) and clearly enjoys his pampered, struggle-free existence.
He has no problem sleeping with and impregnating a 13 year old girl (who is 14 years old when she delivers his son, Bowen) and with a woman whose sisters he indirectly killed. Even though Cecily is devoted to Linden and is willing to do whatever it takes to please him and Jenna loathes him and his father (for good reason) but still sleeps with him just the same. However, Linden does not try to sleep with Rhine. Why? Even after Rose dies (she gets to old - yes, you are too old when are 20 years old) and Rhine later discovers one of the reasons Linden picked her out the crowd was because she looks so much like Rose. But why doesn't he sleep with her? Does the author want to keep Rhine virginal and pure? I don't know. It is confusing and doesn't really make sense.
Anyway, I do not want to keep going on about the plot of the book. That is for you to read and find out about! But I still have some points about the book as a whole that I want to put out here.
The Good:
- the three wives are developed pretty well within the book, as are the relationships between them.
- Some of the servants within the mansion are developed as well, giving us more characters.
- The technology in the book is very advanced - there are plenty of toys within the book for the wives to play with.
- The pace is pretty good and I like the flow of the words (most of the time).
- The cover of the book is very pretty and really stands out. Look it up for yourself and you will see what I mean.
However:
- The society of this world (country) is not all that well developed. Is there a government within this society? Where are the animals? Has global warming wreaked havoc on the world by now? How does media and entertainment work within this society? It is all pretty unclear.
- Is the U.S. the only country left within the world or is the entire continent of North America still there?
- Rhine continually flip-flops between her feelings for Linden and for running away. While it is understandable why she would change her mind, the character still has to be developed and we have to be given good, solid reason why Rhine changes her mind. The author doesn't really do at times and it seems like she put in all this flip-flopping to fill up some pages.
- I already made this point already but I will make it again, how is the economy still functioning if the world has been devastated by global warming (well I assume it was global warming) and a nuclear holocaust? Granted Rhine is only so young and only knows so much about the world but it would have been nice to be more clear on that!
- Linden is placed as this victim within the story but from my own analysis and those on Amazon.com (read the reviews, some of them are really great!) he is pretty vile in his own way. He blindly follows whatever his father tells him, he does not really seem to care deeply about anyone except Rhine and that is because she tells him stories and reminds him a lot of Rose. He has no problem sleeping with a 13 year old girl (EW!) and he loves living in blissful ignorance. He is going to die within four years and that is tragic and all, but he is responsible for a lot of actions that hurt his wives. He is part of a system that supports polygamy and keeping wives as pets or playthings, not as equals.
- MAJOR PLOT HOLE: I have to thank the reviewers on Amazon.com for this one because I never thought of this: So the population is stricken with the curse of this young death. While they are cured of every other disease they cannot fight off death. But the need to have and raise children (and create a new generation) is still there. People want their own children, even if they die young. Soooo... wouldn't it be VERY possible that there would be a lot of young women out there volunteering their bodies (and by extension, their wombs) for those couples who want to have a child? In exchange for a baby these girls could be given comfort, shelter, and food. Adoption is probably still very legal and if women wanted to give their children to people who could take care of it (because before that child reaches its teens, the mom is sadly dead), why not do that? If couples (and I don't think I made this clear, there is still a generation of older people. The Housemaster is supposed to be about 60 years old. He was born before all diseases were cured and therefore has the benefit of old age on his side, along with plenty of other people) wanted specific genes women who volunteered themselves for this exchange would probably have all of their genetic information listed on a database and these couples could pick and choose at their own will. So if this were to come about, there would be no need for Gatherers. Unless their was a very specific genetic type someone wanted, no one would have to be kidnapped. Hypothetically, there would be loads of volunteers with loads of genetic differences! This is a pretty big plot hole that is ignored within this book.
So you have my very long winded review (and like I said before, check out the reviews on amazon. com but look out for those spoilers!) of the book. But did I still like the book? Yes. Yes, I rather liked the book. There are some flaws within it but it is still a decent book. I am in the process of reading it again! There are two more books that will eventual come out. Hopefully the author will be able to explain away some of these plot holes and clean up her style. But the trilogy is off to a good start and I eagerly await the next book.
But - if you want to read something really good, check out The Handmaid's Tale. The nation of America has been taken over by the Sons of Jacob, an extreme Islamic terrorist group that assassinated the President of the U.S. and established the nation of the Republic of Gilead. Congress has been ousted and the Constitution suspended. Women are now basically slaves whose sole purpose of living is so they can breed and give birth to children. Those who cannot are shipped off to the colonies, where the clean up the toxic mess left behind by the past generations until they keel over and die. It is a really good but creepy book. Read this and Wither for themes of sex for production, social critique on men and their power, and the value of women within a sexist society. It is really developed and the creeps use religion as their excuse to rule roughshod over these women and strip them of their rights. More for adults than for teenagers.
