In this first installment of the Chemical Garden Trilogy, we meet Rhine, a girl stolen from the streets where she lived with her brother and sold as to a rich governor’s son as a wife. Polygamy is common in Rhine’s world, as a virus (caused by the over-sterilization and genetic purification of <i>our</i> generation) kills men at the age of 25 and women at 20. Rich men like Governor Linden collect wives (some from orphanages, some kidnapped and sold) for breeding purposes, and Rhine wants absolutely nothing to do with it, as you can imagine. This new dystopian novel is absolutely stunning – though the setting at time falls flat, and the reader, like Rhine, often finds it easy to forget the marrow of her situation as sister wife, this haunting novel is one you won’t soon forget.