Me on Waiting on Wednesday (12)

 Waiting on Wednesday is hosted every week by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Release Date: March 22, 2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Pages: 356 (Hardcover)

From Goodreads:

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 limited time she has left.

Okay, the cover is gorgeous. The girl, the hair, the dress, even the little bird. I will admit, the book premise sounds a little iffy, teen girls forced to marry grown men in polygamous ceremonies. Personally, I'm against it, but sure, when you die when you hit 20 or 25, you're really running out of options in terms of creating the next generation. Plus, it seems to be the year of the dystopia, and I'm willing to give the book a try. :)