Eve

Why I Read this Book: Bring on the Dystopia! 2011 seems to be the year for Dystopia reading and with the end of the world coming in 2012, I can only imagine there will be a plethora of Dystopian novels to come. Bring it! I enjoy reading YA Dystopian novels, especially ones with a budding romance, so when I saw Eve I knew I had to read it.

What I Liked: There’s an element to the story that’s not given away in the synopsis, and purposely so. When I found out about this particular element, it made an impact. My jaw dropped open.

I was so invested in Eve’s quest, her desires. It broke my heart to read that ending. It seems as though a decision has been made, by both Eve and Caleb, but a part of me hopes that it’s a false ending and things somehow change, for the better, in the next book.

The author creates an interesting world set in the future. This part put things in prospective:

Heading for the door, I stepped on a pile of green papers strewn across the titled floor, covered in sand and dust. I picked on up that read ‘100’, an old man’s stern face on it, realizing, suddenly, that it was a piece of old money. I crumpled the bill and threw it down, leaving it in the dust once more.

She crumpled up a C-note y’all!!

Now that I’ve read Eve, it reminds me of the book The Handmaid’s Tale – a book I have yet to read but am able to recognize a similar plot point based on what I’ve read from its synopsis.

What I Didn’t Like: I have to question Caleb’s motives and feelings towards Eve. There were times, like at the end for instance, when I didn’t understand his reasoning. Things just didn’t add up for me. And speaking of the ending, I wasn’t convinced of Eve’s decision. I wanted to shout at my Kindle “Don’t [removed to avoid any spoilers] Caleb!! Don’t!!!

Overall Impression: Eve moved me. I cried (quite a few times actually). But there were parts that baffled me, like the ending. A good read for Dystopian fans. The book ended with a cliffhanger so I’m anxious to read Once.


You can find this review, and many more, on my blog The Book Vixen. ( )

I would have to put Eve by Anna Carey in my..I enjoyed it but not overly wowed...category. I really like the overall concept of the story. Having a plague ravage the world leaving few survivors that have to rebuild society. It's not something we haven't ever heard before but everyone puts their own twist on it.



It was an easy lighter read for me, which is not a bad thing. I could tell that this was the first book in a series because there were many questions left unanswered. I couldn't say the ending left me hanging from a cliff and salvating for the next installment but I did enjoy it.



I noticed some familar themes....Eve herself has a little Wendy from "Peter Pan" going for her, with the exception of having to fight of sexual advances. This of course is no Neverland though with the wild strays having a bit of "Lord of the Flies" going for them.



The romance was cute not epic but I did believe the chemistry of the characters.



I will probably read the second book because I feel an authors writing grows just as much as their characters do. So I'm curious as to how some of the issues will be worked out and how some questions will be answered. I wouldn't run up to you on the street and say you have got to read this book.
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I would have to put Eve by Anna Carey in my..I enjoyed it but not overly wowed...category. I really like the overall concept of the story. Having a plague ravage the world leaving few survivors that have to rebuild society. It's not something we haven't ever heard before but everyone puts their own twist on it.



It was an easy lighter read for me, which is not a bad thing. I could tell that this was the first book in a series because there were many questions left unanswered. I couldn't say the ending left me hanging from a cliff and salvating for the next installment but I did enjoy it.



I noticed some familar themes....Eve herself has a little Wendy from "Peter Pan" going for her, with the exception of having to fight of sexual advances. This of course is no Neverland though with the wild strays having a bit of "Lord of the Flies" going for them.



The romance was cute not epic but I did believe the chemistry of the characters.



I will probably read the second book because I feel an authors writing grows just as much as their characters do. So I'm curious as to how some of the issues will be worked out and how some questions will be answered. I wouldn't run up to you on the street and say you have got to read this book.
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Man. Oh Man. I was so ANGRY at this book by the time I finished it. Just...ugh. It starts off slow and then builds into a massive trainwreck. The heroine, Eve, makes one bad decision after another after another, gets everyone around her into horrible trouble, says she's sorry, and then does it again. She's supposed to be a real smart girl but you wouldn't know it from the way she acts in EVE.

So we've got a dystopian novel in which earth's population has been wiped out by a horrible plague and efforts to re-build and re-organize are still in their early stages. The plague orphaned Eve and a lot of other kids, who are placed in sex-segregated Schools. Here's the first weird thing: Eve gets some pretty fancy schooling. Like, most private schools currently operating right now in the US aren't this fancy - she learns to waltz and play the piano and she's always yammering on about the books she reads, like Anna Karenina and The Great Gatsby and To The Lighthouse. Fancy, right? Yet, for some reason, this very elaborate education is dished out to the orphan girls...so that they can be tied down in hospital beds and forced to bear litters of children for the rest of their lives. It turns out all the orphan girls are "sows" whose sole function in life is to repopulate the earth as quickly as possible.

Now. I could buy some very basic schooling to keep the kids docile until they're of childbearing age. But I can't buy this really elaborate, intensive schooling that lasts all the way until they're 18 (well into those precious peak childbearing years), not when none of the schooling will ever be put to use. It makes no sense. I'm guessing the author was more interested in evoking the hip, dystopian shock of betrayal that Eve feels when she discovers the truth than actually creating a world that makes any logical sense.

And that's just the beginning. Like I said, it gets worse and worse. So next we find out that Eve has been selected to be the King of New America's broodmare. We don't find out what this entails; a special hospital bed? A life of luxury? Eve doesn't care - she is dead set against it no matter what! So suddenly that's our conflict. Once Eve escapes from school, the surprisingly extensive military apparatus of this destroyed, resource-starved country is mobilized to hunt for her, because even though she's a random orphan who's never met the King, she's THE ONE and he will STOP AT NOTHING to find her!

How does this make sense? If the whole point of the orphans and their Schools is how disposable they are, how they're treated like slaves (slaves who read Tolstoy!), it makes no sense for the King to waste resources searching for uppity little Eve.

I could go on. The world makes no sense. Neither does the story. And neither do the characters. Eve somehow manages to become MORE naive as the book goes on. When she meets Caleb, the handsome boy-hero, she's pretty wary of him. Things happen, lots of them bad, like assault and betrayal and attempted rape. These experiences lead Eve to reflect on how horrible and untrustworthy people can be, on how cynical she's become...and then she sees a lit window in the wilderness and runs right toward it, totally convinced that she will find a nice person inside to save her from her troubles. If I could have reached into the novel and slapped her, I would have.

Seriously people. Give this novel a pass. It may be chock-full of literary references (the school for slaves also teaches James Joyce, can you believe it?) but that doesn't make up for the author's lack of actual writing chops.
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I read this right after reading Nomansland by Lesley Hauge so at first I was struck by the similarities. ( )