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''Wither'' is a 2011 young-adult dystopian novel written by Lauren DeStefano. It was originally published on March 22, 2011, by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. It is set in a future where scientists succeeded in engineering a perfect generation of humans, free of illness and disorders, but as a consequence, also created a virus that plagues that generation's children and their children's children, killing females at age 20 and males at age 25. The fallout from this disaster drastically set apart the poor, who scavenge for food in a society that has few to no workers, from the rich, who celebrate each new building built as the continuance of the human race. It is the first book of ''The Chemical Garden Trilogy''. The second book, ''Fever'', was released in February 2012,.〔(The Chemical Garden Trilogy ), ''Fever''〕 The third and final book, ''Sever'', was released in February 2013. == Plot == ''Wither'' describes a future where genetic engineering has cured humanity of all diseases and defects. People worldwide have foregone conceiving children naturally in favor of this new science. This generation of perfect humans, later dubbed "The First Generation", lived very long and prosperous lives. Unfortunately their children ended up plagued with a virus that killed all females by the age of 20 and all males by the age of 25. Their children's children suffered the same fate. Humanity now scrambles for a cure as society has broken down into large gaps between the rich and the poor. Gatherers hunt for young girls on the streets to sell them into labs for research, and the unwanted ones go into prostitution or are simply killed. In Manhattan, 16-year-old Rhine Ellery is captured by the Gatherers and sold to Linden Ashby at his estate in Florida. Rhine finds herself forced to marry Linden along with two other girls, Jenna and Cecily. They join Rose as Linden's new brides, but the ailing Rose is already 20 years of age and does not have long left to live. Life in the Ashby manor is very comfortable. Cecily embraces it while Rhine constantly thinks of ways to escape. She befriends her servant Gabriel and behaves like a good wife in front of Linden and his father, Housemaster Vaughn, in order to earn the title of "First Wife", which would grant her additional privileges to roam the mansion. Rhine sets that as a goal in order to plan her escape. By the novel's end, Rhine successfully escapes the mansion with Gabriel and begins a journey back to New York to find her twin brother, Rowan. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wither (DeStefano novel)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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