Review–Eve by Anna Carey

 

Where do you go when nowhere is safe? 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. In this epic new series, Anna Carey imagines a future that is both beautiful and terrifying. Readers will revel in Eve’s timeless story of forbidden love and extraordinary adventure.

Eve is a post apocalyptic or dystopian themed YA novel that takes place in a not too distant future America devastated by a plague that has killed a large part of the population. In their desperate attempt to rebuild, the powers that be make some drastic changes and enact some rather heartless policies.

Eve was full of action and suspense and I was sucked into the story very quickly, from the first chapter. There were many exciting plot twists that I wasn’t expecting and Anne Carey was none too gentle with her characters. There were a few times that I thought that events happened a little too coincidentally but it was easy to overlook those small instances when the story itself was so entertaining. I finished this in just one day, this was definitely a book I couldn’t put down once I started it.

The world that Eve inhabits is a fascinating place, however, it certainly pushed the boundary of believability in some areas. There were a lot of details mentioned but left unexplained regarding the hows and whys of this world. It raised quite a few questions for me as I was reading and I thought several times that there will be some readers who will dislike being expected to just take all of these things at face value. I honestly would have liked more explanation as to why it was so important, for instance, that the two sexes be kept strictly apart, what was being done with the children from the breeding programs, and how was nobody in this society having an issue with orphan children being forced to work in labor camps, among many other unanswered questions. I hope that some of these issues are addressed in future novels.

The characters were one of the strongest aspects of Eve. Eve herself wasn’t always a very likable character. But this made sense considering the absurd ideas that she was basically brainwashed to believe since she was five years old. I thought that in many ways, Eve reminded me of a typical teenager, often making stupidly impulsive decisions that she later regretted. However, in this society, these impulsive decisions sometimes had deadly consequences. The author was none too gentle with her characters and none of them made it through the book unscathed.

The relationships between the characters were emotionally charged and believable. I loved the dynamic between Eve and many of the secondary characters, especially the boys Silas and Benny. It was almost a “Wendy meets the Lost Boys” kind of situation, with the boys so desperately needing a mother figure. I hope I see more of them in future installments. The romance between Eve and Caleb as well as the friendship between Eve and Arden was flawed, interesting, and seemed very authentic. Each of the characters were allowed to grow and change a little as the story progressed. None so much as Eve, who slowly grew from a naïve schoolgirl to a tough and much wiser young woman. This made sense considering some of the harsh lessons she was forced to learn from her mistakes.

Overall, I thought that Eve was a thrilling dystopian that, even with its flaws, was an exciting read. Again, the characterization was where Eve excelled. The writing, pacing, and plot were also very well done. However, I’m only rating it a 3 because of the holes in the world building and because of the awful ending. I will definitely be picking up the second book in this series because, even though there were some flaws and it ended badly, I really enjoyed reading Eve and would recommend it to any fans of YA dystopian or post apocalyptic books.

Rating – 3

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