Eve (Eve #1)

Had I written this review immediately after finishing Eve, it would have been filled with paragraphs of me gushing about Eve, the people she met along her journey of self-discovery, and an ending that had me on the verge of tears. Unfortunately, I waited a while after finishing Eve, and now that I am trying to call upon those warm, happy feelings I remember having while I read it, all I can remember are the worldbuilding issues and plot holes.

Sometimes, Eve was a lovely protagonist. I found her her will to persevere, despite numerous obstacles that were determined to see her fail, was admirable and her innocence was often quite endearing.

"He cleared his throat in mock seriousness. “My,” he crooned, his voice completely out of tune, “balls are sweating, my balls are sweating, I can’t keep my balls from sweating, noooo, nooo, noooo!”

I leaned in, noticing the folds at the corner of his eyes and the faint brown spots that covered the top of his cheekbones. “Why is that funny? What are ‘balls’? Like the ball of your foot?”

But most of the time, Eve was ruthlessly selfish. She barely thought twice about abandoning her best friends, even after learning the fate that awaited them, and the vast majority of her decisions served only to further her purposes, regardless of who got harmed in the way. Whether it was endangering people by taking advantage of their hospitality, or letting those around her jeopardize their lives in order to protect hers, Eve always did what was best for herself.

Fortunately, Eve is written so well that I was able to mostly ignore how much I disliked its protagonist. While the prose was certainly nothing to write home about, it was seriously engrossing; much to my chagrin, I couldn’t put Eve down! The writing had a certain addictive quality to it, and the pacing was spot-on. While I didn’t always appreciate Eve’s choices, they did always serve to keep me on the edge of my seat in suspense.

There was also a tenderness behind Eve, that came as a pleasant surprise. Considering its dystopian elements, I wasn’t expecting so many touching or heartbreaking moments to litter its pages. There was a moment where a young boy asked Eve what love was, which damn near brought me to tears:

"Love is just caring about someone very deeply. Feeling like that person matters to you, like your whole world would be sadder without them in it."

It was moments like this that reminded me of the disturbing nature lurking underneath Eve’s fluffy exterior. Can you imagine a world where a child needs to have the concept of love explained to him?

Alas, now that it has been brought up, it’s time to discuss it: the world-building. To be completely honest, while reading Eve, I really had only very minor issues concerning a couple plot holes. Occasionally I would wonder how a child living with someone who had the plague could have avoided contracting it for themselves, or how governing officials were so quick to plan their future by organizing these schools during the midst of a pandemic, but I was able to mostly shrug off these fleeting concerns. After taking a few days to think over things though, less and less about the world-building made sense.

How did America fall so far, in such a short period of time, where they would be willing to revoke democracy and basic human rights? How am I expected to believe that in just sixteen years, society has morphed into the worst version of itself, where it encourages child slavery and cattle-like breeding techniques? Why bother educating these orphan girls if they were never going to be used for their intelligence? Why bother instilling an unhealthy dose of fear towards the opposite sex? What was the point if they were going to be used to bear children until they died? And if the end goal is to increase the population, why are only orphan children being forced into carrying children? What about all of those privileged women living in the desert city? Finally, and maybe most importantly, what’s going on with the rest of the world? We only heard about America’s struggles – are they the only ones affected by this Plague, or did it spread worldwide?

So while I truly enjoyed reading Eve, it’s these questions that I’m left with when I think back on my experience.

---The Run-Down---
Many children have been left orphaned after a deadly virus, Eve included. She, only many other girls, go to a special school. They learn things that most schools would learn, but they also learn things like "The Dangers of Men". Eve is the most intelligent, most obedient, and the most beautiful girl at the school, but when graduation comes close, she realizes what the school is really about, and what being the best really means.

---My Thoughts---
There was only one major problem that I had with this book: Eve.
Eve is a very ignorant girl. She's intelligent, as mentioned above, but that's in a school that lied to her, she's very ignorant to the world. I can understand why she was written as an ignorant girl, though. Her school lied to her almost her whole life and she never really went outside the school grounds. She didn't know the truth of the world. It's this fact that I an able to deal with her ignorance. Although, her ignorance does lead her to say embarrassing things and make stupid decisions. I get the feeling that she will be smarter in the next book.

That's really the only thing that bugged me. Sure, some things didn't quite make sense. But, overall, I did like this book. The idea was very interesting and I look forward to the next book.

At first glance, Eve isn’t a book that seems to have much going for it. It’s a packaged book for one thing, which tends to indicate that a book will be less than awesome. Carey’s chosen epigraph is a passage from The Handmaid's Tale, arguably the best piece of feminist dystopian fiction that exists. This is also yet another YA dystopian book that takes place in an inherently sexist society—women are used as disposable uteruses with no emotional needs. But somehow all those elements combined to create a book that was undeniably addicting. For whatever reason, I flew through Eve’s pages like a maniac.

This book is seriously well-written. Anna Carey’s prose may not be flashy or complicated or anything out of the ordinary, but it was engrossing. I didn’t actually care for Eve as a character too much, but the way her narration was written kept me engaged in the story right from the beginning. Even during the action scenes (I always skip those in books), I didn’t lose interest. Eve’s text had a fluid, steady pace that worked surprisingly well, and that is probably this book’s greatest strength.

Carey’s world-building was also well-handled. There wasn’t much of it it, but it was enough to satisfy me. I felt that, in a post-apocalyptic state, Eve’s version of America made sense and I had no unanswered questions in terms of what was what. Maybe the content itself wasn’t anything new, but I—for once—have found a dystopian novel that left me fully satisfied in terms of world-building. It’s rarer than you might think, in my case.

Even though Eve is narrated from the title character’s perspective, and even though I enjoyed her storyline, I’m not sure she was the best protagonist all around. For me, Eve was a bit flat and obvious. Similarly, her love interest, Caleb, was charming and nice, and I often caught myself smiling when he was part of a scene. But did he really have depth? On the other hand, Eve doesn’t try to be a serious and intense novel—I really didn’t get that impression. Yes, it deals with dark, tough subjects, but the author handles them with a brisk hand, focusing mostly on positive things. In that vein, it makes sense that Eve and Caleb, protagonists in a serious-yet-shallow dystopian world, would be congruently two-dimensional. And really, I wouldn’t even call them “two-dimensional” characters so much as “stock” characters. For myself, I liked both of them enough to become engaged in their lives and root for their happy ending.

Eve is an obvious book. It brings nothing new to the table, and it gave me nothing thought-provoking or earth-shattering. I was, however, massively entertained and addicted to this book. Maybe that style of dystopian won’t work for some readers—I really don’t think it will work for me a second time. This is a packaged book where the packagers seemed to have understood what they were doing, and I’m happy to have read this. I found very little wrong with this book, and I certainly had no major complaints.

Eve by Anna Carey
Published by HarperTeen
On Shelves Now
Reviewed by: Middle Sis Jenn
The Sisters Say: A chilling look at a crumbling world

I will admit, I didn’t even know what this series was about until I received an ARC of the third and final book, Rise. So, I figured, I have the third book—why not read them all back to back—no waiting, no “oh my gosh, what a cliffhanger” reactions. I will say, this is the perfect way to read a series! I loved being able to read them all back to back. I spent an entire week in Anna’s world, and I will say, I am so glad HarperTeen sent me the third book because, otherwise, I would have totally missed out!

Eve takes place in a ravaged America, after a deadly plague wipes out most of the population. A King has taken control of the citizens and forced many of the into unspeakable actions in the name of “peace” and “survival” and “hope.” Many people argue that the problem with Eve is the world-building. There just isn’t enough, and while I can see their argument, I will say that it didn’t bother me. I’m much more interested in the action and the characters, so I didn’t need to know more about how the world ended up that way and what not. I like that the book focused more on the characters themselves—their problems, their losses, and their doubts.

This was definitely a quick read—I read it in one sitting, and went straight on to the next book. I really like that it was a one sitter, but I wish there would have been more action near the end. There’s plenty of action throughout the book, but the ending just felt rushed to me. I wanted to see more passion, more anger, more fear; and I didn’t really get enough of that to really understand the motivations of some of the characters.

Surprisingly, my favorite character was Arden. She is argumentative and blunt, understanding the harsh realities into which they have been thrust. She is hardened, and I found myself taking an immediate liking to her, attitude and all. She wasn’t whiney, and she definitely wasn’t going to bow down to any man—and I really liked that about her. I felt like she was trustworthy and smart, and I would definitely put my life in her hands if I was Eve.

Eve was up and down for me. I really liked her character at times because she didn’t just stay in the mold that she was raised in; she dared to question authority and her beliefs, and as a result, she was rewarded with a great relationship. However, I felt like there were times when she was a bit daft and rash. She lunged into problems head first without thinking about the consequences, and that is one of my biggest pet peeves in a character. I know that these rash decisions are what create the action and drama in a book, but I think you can make just as many great scenes without the stupidity. Especially since Eve was the valedictorian, I would think she would have a bit more common sense, even if she was brainwashed by the teachers into believing false truths.

And of course, I have to mention Caleb—I just love the rough and tough guys. The only problem I had is that we didn’t see enough or hear enough from him. I wanted to see more of his talents and more of his background—what made him who he is and why does he care so much about this random girl. I wanted to see inside his head more, and I didn’t get that. Maybe a novella will pop out of this world at some point??? I really liked Caleb—he was caring, and strong, and protective. I just need more of him!

Overall, this was a great read, and I would definitely recommend it to dystopian fans! I can’t wait to see what’s next for Anna Carey.

Eve really fell flat for me. I’d heard so many mixed reviews going in so I was pretty wary, but I tried not to let it color my view while I was reading. Whether they did or they didn’t, the fact is Eve didn’t end up being my favorite. I’ll still read the sequel, but it may take me a lot longer to get to it.

Let’s do this list-style so I’m not writing a lengthy negative review. Thos make me saddy.

Dislikes:
1. Characters: none of them really drew me in and made me care about them, so everything that happened just felt really passive to me.
2. The world: I didn’t dislike it, but again, it didn’t draw me in.
3. Eve: Not only did I not connect with her, but she kind of drove me nuts sometimes. She wasn’t really whiny and she was mindful of others – most of the time. There’s one part where she gets a whole mess of people in trouble and that made me royally pissed off because she was only thinking of herself when she did it.
4. The relationship: It just really wasn’t working for me. It felt a bit rushed, but not because she trusted him too quickly like a lot of other people said. For me, it just felt as if the undying “love” they felt for each other kind of came on a little quick.
The Nutshell: Though I’ll be reading the sequel, Eve was a slow read that never really grabbed my attention and just left me feeling luke-warm.

This book just did not do it for me. I read it partly because I thought the cover was pretty and partly because I had heard both very positive things about the book and very negative things; I wanted to judge for myself. It was decent at first and then swiftly went downhill after the first 1/4th of the book; by the end of the book, I wanted to snatch Eve out of the novel and give her a good shake for being so selfish and reckless.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where the population was decimated, ‘Eve’ is the story of a young woman, Eve, who is about to graduate from an all-girls School where she received classical training as well as classes to teach her that men are evil and to be avoided. She is at the top of her class and admired by most of her classmates, minus a girl named Arden; she has also attracted the attention of the King of New America. Eve discovers that all of the training that she received at school is pointless since society has very different, insidious plans for the girls. Eve escapes the School and heads for Califia. She’s chased by government goons under orders from the King, eventually meets up with Arden (who also escaped the School), and is rescued by Caleb, one of many boys who escaped from a School for boys that was actually a labor camp. Along the journey, she must survive in the wilds of New America while learning that her future is not going to be nearly as easy or pleasant as she once thought.

All right, so I had quite a few issues with ‘Eve’. Mainly: the world set-up has serious issues, and I disliked the main character intensely. Oh, Eve. There’s a definite line between naïve and ridiculous, and Eve seems to happily skipped back and forth over that line throughout this book. For supposedly being a well-read and highly educated young girl, she makes a lot of silly moves that cannot merely be reasoned away by the fact that she’s an innocent to the dangerous world around her. She is illogical and puts herself and others in danger more than once. I never really felt sympathetic for her after she left her first set of friends behind to suffer at her old school, and she just continued to grate on my nerves as she usually let her new friends protect her or did something to bring trouble on them. On a more positive note, I did like that she was usually kind to others around her; I also liked that she tried to teach others to read. She had some good qualities, but I just felt that she was, in general, an annoying character.

One of my other major problems with this book was the reader is told that the world has basically ended and the population is teeny weeny…but they are wasting tons of time and effort to teach girls to sing, dance, play the piano, study classics and fear men. Why?? Especially when a major crux of the plot would be null and void if the girls were taught to embrace men and be happy to have as many children as possible. I’m trying not to give too much away, so I won’t say much more than that. There’s just not a lot of logic behind wasting so many resources on girls that are apparently never going to use the education that they’re given. New America’s School solution to the population problem seems contrived for the main reason of repulsing Eve and making her run away. Also, on points of things not making sense, Eve drops her life-long training of guy-hating quick enough when she latches eyes on Caleb. The romance just seemed to move too fast for it to have so much against it happening in the first place.

Although I’m not a huge fan of this book, there were some good points, like the writing style and the side characters. Carey’s style is engaging and kept me interested even when Eve herself was aggravating me. I really enjoyed the side characters, such as the boys who lived in the underground dugout, Arden, and Eve’s school friends. Arden was complex, dark, sarcastic, manipulative, snappy, difficult and bitter, and I was in love with her character. If the story had been told from her point of view, I think I might have liked it better. Caleb was a good male lead, if a little stiff and bland. Maybe in the next book, Eve will stay far away from the main action of the book, and Arden, Caleb and the rest of the boys will take over New America and live happily ever after. I'll probably never know, though; I'm not really planning on reading the next book.

Undoubtedly, the most terrifying dystopias for me personally are the ones that involve the role of women in society after a calamity. Eve falls in with the like of Wither, The Handmaid's Tale, and Bumped. If reproductivity suffers, if a large segment of the population dies in some horrific event, if people are dying off younger, then women quickly lose the status they fought for decades to accomplish and become property, needed only to push out babies.

This subset of dystopias is terrifying largely because it requires very little suspension of disbelief to imagine such things coming to pass should something catastrophic occur. For all that women are much more equal now, I have no doubt that our position would not revert back to slavery and breeding chattel swiftly if that was viewed as the only way to save mankind from extinction. What's worse is that on some level, that response does make sense. What if that really was the only way for mankind to survive? I like to think there would be other ways, but what if there weren't? Is it worth it?

In Eve, the population was decimated by a plague. Many perished, including Eve's mother. Orphans, of which there were many, were gathered up and put into schools and educated until they were old enough to be of use one way or another. In Eve's school, she and her classmates are taught about the evil ways of men, of how they only want one thing and of the dangers of falling in love. They teach these lessons with examples from literature, such as Romeo and Juliet and Anna Karenina.

For the most part, this was a really interesting read, although I did find my attention waning as I got further into the story. There was a lot of running around and not a lot of plot advancement. One weird thing was a scene where Eve mentioned that she didn't remember the date of her birthday, although she did remember her mom singing a birthday song to her. Eve was young when the plague hit and she went into the school, where birthdays were not celebrated, but what kid does not remember their birthday? I mean, come on. If she was old enough at the time to have such clear memories of her mom, then she would totally remember when her birthday was.

All in all, a decent dystopian read and a chilling view of how quickly the status of women could fall. I sure hope nothing like this comes to pass.