Published February 12, 2013 by Simon & Schuster
1 Star
Goodreads Review
Time is running out for Rhine in this conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Chemical Garden Trilogy.With the clock ticking until the virus takes its toll, Rhine is desperate for answers. After enduring Vaughn’s worst, Rhine finds an unlikely ally in his brother, an eccentric inventor named Reed. She takes refuge in his dilapidated house, though the people she left behind refuse to stay in the past. While Gabriel haunts Rhine’s memories, Cecily is determined to be at Rhine’s side, even if Linden’s feelings are still caught between them.
Meanwhile, Rowan’s growing involvement in an underground resistance compels Rhine to reach him before he does something that cannot be undone. But what she discovers along the way has alarming implications for her future—and about the past her parents never had the chance to explain.
In this breathtaking conclusion to Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden trilogy, everything Rhine knows to be true will be irrevocably shattered.
Review: I am a literature sadist. I don't know why, but I have a sick need to finish every book that I've started, no matter how painful, stupid, or rage-inducing. I really did not like Sever, nor the Chemical Garden series as a whole. I think this story could have definitely been a stand alone because all of the plot really happened in the first book and the second and third were full of pretty prose of little consequence. I was particularly disappointed with this series because there were so many really interesting ways this story could have gone and a lot of great topics that could have been explored but none were really committed to which just left for a weak series that didn't say anything.
Sever was a very monotonous ending to the series where nothing really happened and none of our questions were answered. The first third of the book was Rhine hanging out at Lindon's uncle's house (did we know about this uncle before book 3? I don't think so, and this character suddenly living just down the road was very convenient) doing nothing. I thought finding her brother was really important but she's really not in any hurry to do anything other than putz around. I also was wondering what was going on with Gabriel, but Rhine must really have an out of sight, out of mind personality because I don't think she spared one thought for him for at least 200 pages. But you know what, Rhine and Linden should have stayed together because they're both as exciting as a bump on a log covered with a wet blanket. I seriously don't think I've read two more wishy washy characters in my life. The only semi redeemable character in Sever is Cecily (I know I was surprised too). There was some character growth there and Cecily actually took some action in this book. I couldn't believe it.
I also had huge problems with the general plot of Sever and how the big issues of the world were glossed over or just not addressed at all. I don't want to post too many spoilers, but the big revelations about Rhine's parent's work on genetics or Vaugh's motivations behind his terrible abuses or how the world because the messed up society felt so contrived, like the author didn't know how to tie things up so she just brushed it under the rug with the barest of explanations. The plot of this series is so sloppy, it's laughable. All of the pretty prose in the world can't replace a well thought out story.
The other aspect of Sever that is really damaging is sex, namely the lack of sex that our main character has. I mentioned this in my review for Fever, but to have a world where young girls are forced into marriage and prostitution as basically broodmares, and then put your main character into situation after situation where all of her peers are forced into sex but somehow miraculously she doesn't have to have sex is so ridiculous I can't even properly form words. This is the biggest cop out I have ever seen. If you're going to create a world like this and put your character in those situations (I mean, she was in a prostitution circus FFS) then you have to follow through, even if that means bad things have to happen to that character. If you don't back up your world building the entire series falls apart and I won't be able to take the story or the characters seriously. That's a problem with YA in general I think, writers don't want to do anything really bad to their characters so they put them in dangerous situations but don't actually put them in any danger.
Sever, and frankly the entire Chemical Garden series, is just a hot mess. Weak characters, weak plot, and very weak world building makes up this train wreck of a series. Flowery prose cannot make up for this pile of pseudo scientific drivel.
