Fever

Gr 9 Up—This sequel to Wither (S & S, 2011) is set in a dystopian future where all children die in their 20s, which has caused society to crumble. Soon after escaping from Vaughn's home in Florida, Rhine and Gabriel land in the remains of an old amusement park somewhere in the Carolinas. The park is now a scarlet district where young girls are drugged and forced into prostitution, and the gritty scenes are realistic. With some help, they are able to escape and continue on their journey to find Rhine's twin brother, Rowan. When they arrive in New York, they discover that Rowan has burned down their home and is nowhere to be found. Then Rhine becomes sick, three years before the virus is supposed to take her. Gabriel thinks that this has something to do with the medical tests that Vaughn had been doing on her and his son's other brides. They decide to confront him, but before they can leave, he finds them and takes Rhine back to continue running tests on her in his laboratory. The story is unevenly paced and has little secondary character development, and readers unfamiliar with the first novel will be lost, as they won't understand how this virus started or why the society is in chaos.—Erik Carlson, White Plains Public Library, NY