Sever by Lauren DeStefano Review

Sever (The Chemical Garden #3)

By Lauren DeStefano

Rating: 4.4

"Someday I'll tell you all of it," I say.
"I'd like that," he says.
"No," I say. "I promise you won't."

You can run away from the past, but what do you do if it refuses to stop chasing?

The virus is like an invisible bomb - the tension hangs in the air, on the tip of each person's tongue, swirling in the depths of their minds. No one knows when it will go off. No one knows who is next to succumb to it. It haunts Cecily. It haunts Linden. And it haunts Rhine.

Rhine, eager for answers and to get away from Vaughn's clutches, decides to go on a search for her twin brother, Rowan - to find him, let him know she's alive and to maybe even find some of the answers she is searching for. But Rowan isn't easy to find. Linden suggests that Rhine should stay with Vaughn's brother, Linden's kind and eccentric uncle Reed. She'll be away from Vaughn there. Safe. And away from Linden as well.

The truth will set you free, but those blind to it will break your heart.

Rhine and Cecily insist that Vaughn's supposed 'medical research' is evil and misguided, harming rather than curing. But Linden refuses to hear a bad word about his father; claiming that Rhine is lying. That she always lies to him. Hurt, Rhine tries to put distance between her and Linden, but Cecily refuses to leave Rhine's side. Caught between Cecily and Rhine, Linden slowly begins to waver in his convictions, his feelings in turmoil as the only life he's ever known may just turn out to be the biggest lie of them all.

Whilst some struggle with heartbreak and memories, others fight for change.

Word reaches Rhine that Rowan - still convinced of her death - is a leader of a resistance movement...violence, angry crowds and passionate speeches left in his wake wherever he goes. The news only cements Rhine's resolve to find her brother before he makes a terrible mistake. But is the resistance all that it seems? 

If you want something done, do it yourself - if they let you.

But though Rhine wishes to be set free, not everyone is willing to open the cage door. Despite the peril to their own persons, Linden and Cecily accompany Rhine on her dangerous mission - Cecily, to find a cure and to save her son Bowen, and Linden, to find the truth and to sort out his feelings for Rhine; the girl who used to be his wife, with the unusual eyes who could be Rose's ghost. But Vaughn is never far behind, and he's not the only one. Ghosts from the past can inflict pain too, and Rhine is about to discover a secret about her parents that may just change everything.

But hope cannot be severed. Even in the darkest times.

Rhine will continue to hope for some kind of happiness, for some kind of cure and to find a way for all of them - Linden, Gabriel, Cecily and Rowan - to live and have a future free of fear. 

No matter what it takes.