You’ve probably heard a lot about this novel, and no doubt you’ll hear more. The premise is a near-future where genetic engineering has cured all diseases at a terrible price: The children of this perfect first generation all die early; females at age twenty and males at age twenty-five.

Indigo Teen Blog: What horrifies me about this novel is that there seems to be no recourse for what happens to these girls. It’s all on Rhine to escape, but that seems difficult given that her society treats these acts as “normal.” Did you research current polygamous cultures to help form the worldview in Wither?

Lauren Destefano: The topic of polygamy has always fascinated me. Long before starting this story, I'd already been watching documentaries, reading memoirs and have been entertained by the fictitious portrayals of it just because it interests me. But more than that, I'm a sucker for any type of family dynamic that could be considered complicated or strange. I've noticed that a lot of the time, polygamous marriages have a religious base that the members of that marriage agree upon. The polygamy in Wither, however, is brought on by a need to keep the population afloat. There's not always a shared sense that this is for the greater good. Nobody asks these brides, or cares, if they agree.

ITB: In our world, women outlive men. In The Chemical Garden Trilogy men outlive women by five years. Why did you make that reversal?
 

LD: The bottom line about the virus is that the attempt to save humanity didn't go according to plan. It's caused chaos. Nobody (as of the first book) knows what caused it to turn out this way.

ITB:  Do you believe there’s a parallel between the first generation in Wither and the baby boomers in our world?
 

LD: Any similarities between the world in my story and reality are purely coincidental.

ITB: If you suddenly found yourself in Rhine's dark world, how would you react?

LD: To me, the darkness of Rhine's world—or of any world—is not as terrifying as losing my freedom. Rhine grew up in a dreary, dangerous and polluted city, but it was the only home she knew, and it belonged to her. I'd feel the same way, and I wouldn't want to be placed somewhere more appealing at the cost of my freedom.

ITB: Who would you say is your biggest inspiration in both your writing and in your life?

LD: I would have to say TS Eliot. Sometimes when I'm in a writing slump, I flip through a book of his collected works and open to a random page. His dreamlike writing reminds me why I write. His poetry reminds me that the words we use for speaking are not the same words we look for in books; the words in books deserve to be carefully woven, should elicit strong emotion and make us braver as readers than we are in our lives.

ITB: When you aren’t writing, what do you like to do in your spare time?

LD: I really love anything to do with crafts, particularly sewing and knitting.

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If you’re looking for a great read about the dynamics of a polygamous relationship told in a way that’s accessible to teens, then Lauren Destefano’s Wither is the book for you.

Teen dystopian novels aren’t my preferred subgenre, so they have to be that much better to impress me (Delirium is still at the top of the list).

Wither was a fast read, and I really appreciated the effort put into the character dynamics. They are what kept me reading. I found Rhine’s sister-wives compelling characters. Admittedly, I did have trouble connecting to Rhine; she felt like a distant narrator to me. Much like Katniss Everdeen I’m horrified by her situation, but I’m never horrified for her.

When I read a near-future novel like Wither, the biggest interest for me is the change an author makes to our world to serve the purpose of her story. I do believe in that Destefano has successfully created a world where polygamy is accepted in the eyes of society at large, instead of among small “cult” groups. However, at this point in the trilogy I have a little trouble believing in the world beyond its function as that justification. The absence of details regarding the actual virus was disappointing for me and it gave me the impression that the specified ages at which people die are either an arbitrary decision or the author is withholding information from her readers for later volumes that I would have liked to see in this one.

Hopefully, future installments of the trilogy will go deeper in the reasoning of the world and make better use of it. Much like the Hunger Games, I trust I will have a better retrospective opinion of this first book of The Chemical Garden trilogy once all three have been released.