Review: Eve - Anna Carey

Eve by Anna Carey

Series: Eve Trilogy #1

Genre: YA, dystopian, romance

Published on October 4, 2011

Published by HarperCollins

Pages: 336

Read From: 7.5.12 - 7.6.12












SYNOPSIS

Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth's population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school's real purpose - and the horrifying fate that awaits her. 

Fleeing the only home she's ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust. . . .and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

Review

Cover Blurb: I love the metallic mint-green and blue color, and I like the title’s font - it rather resembles cracked asphalt, but has pretty curls. The girl on the front doesn’t bother me because you can’t see her face, and the bridge disappearing into the distance echoes a lot of themes in this story.

What I Liked: I didn’t think I would like Eve at first. She’s pretty useless. But I actually warmed up to her pretty quickly. She doesn’t know how to do much, but she doesn’t have a victim mentality, she doesn’t want to be a burden, and she tries to learn. I also thought that she became convinced of the school’s true intent pretty bloody fast, but she does go and gather conclusive evidence before she decides to run. And while Eve doesn’t trust men, she doesn’t have a man-hater attitude. She acts properly afraid for someone who has been brain-washed into believing that all men are dangerous, and then starts to realize that maybe it isn’t true about everyone. I also liked Caleb (though I honestly didn’t picture him with dreadlocks; not even when the book kept saying he did). He had a good sense of humor, but didn’t have a “I’m a chick magnet, so you should like me” attitude; not even remotely. And there was no love triangle! Yay! Yeah, Eve and Caleb end up liking each other, but Eve doesn’t end up liking Leif, too, so there’s no “oh my gosh, who do I choose?” scenario.

What I Disliked: The romance between Caleb and Eve happens super fast. Especially since there’s two more books in which the Author could develop their relationship in. Why couldn’t Caleb be fiercely protective of Eve in this one without him being romantically attached? And somehow, I just didn’t find the King threatening; his “job title” held no menace.

Believability: I have the same problems with this one as I do with all of the modern dystopian novels I’ve read. The regime was not convincing. If someone was not useful to the King’s society, he would kill them - he wouldn’t let them live outside of his “realm.” What was convincing was the brainwashing that went on at the Schools, and the promise of a future that they in fact never get.

Writing Style: The Author went into too many close-up details, like dried spit, dried tears, sweat droplets, dust particles, runny noses, bad teeth, dry vomit, and other nooks and crannies on the human body that are crawling with the type of grime that no one wants to read about, especially when eating. I wanted to take a bath in acid after I was done reading this book. Now, if an Author wants to emphasize the lack of showers in their world, by all means do so, but don’t get out the microscope and zero it in on clogged lymph nodes and the plaque coating so-and-so’s teeth like cream cheese.

Content: 1 g--damn. Leif tries to rape Eve (pg. 194-196), but it is interrupted in a timely fashion; before any clothes can be removed. The King keeps girls solely for breeding, so there is a constant theme of that, but never is there details or anything that happens, and the Author clearly depicts this as a bad thing.

Conclusion: It was, in all honesty, rather anticlimactic. It seems to me that a lot of pain and trouble could have been saved, too, if Caleb had just told Eve everything.

Recommended Audience: People who liked Pure and Divergent would like this one. I’d say it’s a girl-read, but some guys might like it, too. Definitely intended for an older teen audience.

Others in This Trilogy:

1)Eve

2)Once

3)Rise