Eve by Anna Carey

Book stats:
Reading level: Young Adult
Trade paperback: 318 pages
Genre: Dystopian
Publisher: HarperTeen
Release date: December 1, 2011

Series: Eve, #1

Source: Purchased

Reviewed by: Helen

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

The year is 2032, sixteen years after a deadly virus—and the vaccine intended to protect against it—wiped out most of the earth’s population. The night before eighteen-year-old Eve’s graduation from her all-girls school she discovers what really happens to new graduates, 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 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.

Eve totally fell flat for me. Although the basic premise actually had the potential to be really interesting: in a future dystopia, girls and boys are isolated and raised separately. The girls are raised in an academy where they are taught that when they reach their 18th birthday, they will move across the river and choose a trade to work in for the rest of their lives. Boys are raised in their own separate work camps. The girls are taught to believe that men are evil and the only man who is honest and trustworthy is their King.

But soon, Eve finds out a terrible secret about the world around her. The girls aren't going where they've been told after their 18th birthdays. They are headed for a much darker fate. When Eve discovers the horrible truth, she piggybacks on another girl's escape plan to get out while she can. The two girls continue on a strangely paced, and much-too-convenient path that leads them to Caleb, the predictable love interest who will show Eve that boys aren't truly evil. Yawn.

Eve's character was frustrating for me. I didn't outright dislike her, but I didn't feel any true sense of connection with her either. She was sort of wishy-washy. Eve suddenly upends her entire world view in about 3 minutes and leaves the school and all she has ever known immediately. And yet, she doesn't seem to have a whole lot of guilt or inner turmoil about having left behind the rest of the girls she grew up with. She mentions it here and there, but overall, I needed her to be much more interested in rescuing the other girls she left behind in order for me to actually like her and not feel that she was shallow and self-serving.

Next comes another so-called plot twist involving Eve and the King of the land - problem is, it is completely under-developed and makes virtually no sense. It was a poor attempt to create drama, and it really just fell off the page as superficial and not at all probable. The 'why' and 'how' are never explained, and it just reads like a very obvious plot device to move the story towards the end. Unfortunately, this ill-built plot twist becomes the main driving force - it is what is supposed to drive the series and really ramp up the reader's adrenaline and pique their interest.

Here's the problem - it just didn't work. It was kinda boring, kinda out of nowhere, didn't really make all that much sense, and completely lacked any sort of explanation.

The entire book read like a first draft - that's really the best way I can think to describe it. The skeleton of a great story was there, but the execution was way off. This book could have been great with a few more critical eyes on it and maybe a little more back story and explanation as to why the world has gotten to the why it has (and also what the future plan is?).

I was expecting to love this series, but unfortunately, I don't feel very excited about continuing on with it. I will likely read the next book in the series, since I already own it, and hope that the writing and world-building have been better developed in the coming instalments. Fingers crossed!

Read an excerpt

by Helen at Thursday, May 30, 2013

Anna Carey, Dystopian, Harper Collins, Review, young adult 3 People left their mark

A Christmas With is almost over, but worry not, there’s fun until the end! I’m really happy to have Anna Carey by my side, author of Eve, to celebrate it’s release =)

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1- Eve is your first YA novel, was it a challenge to change from a middle grade audience to an older one?

The two series are very different, but it didn't feel challenge to write for an older audience. I'd had Eve's voice stuck in my head, and when I began the book I just wrote from her perspective and the process felt very natural. The book is actually an incarnation of another book I was working on in graduate school, which was solidly adult.

2- Eve is part of a trilogy, Once is the title of the second book, have you already picked the third book's title? How hard is it for you to choose your book's title?

I'm currently discussing the title of the third book with my editor. I can't reveal it yet, but soon! I can have a hard time picking titles and rely heavily on her opinion. I'm sometimes so close to the book I can't pin point the one message or feeling that the reader will take away from it. That said, the first and third book were much easer to title than the second one.

4- If your book was turned into a movie, which actors would you pick to play your characters?

Ahh yes...fantasy casting! Eve's been optioned for television, and there's a pilot in development. Eve is a genuinely kind person, but grows stronger (and fiercer) over the course of the series. I love Pretty Little Liars, and even though Sasha Pieterse (Ali) is a bit evil in that show, that actress seems to have a mix of sweetness and strength. For Caleb, I keep thinking of Jackson Rathbone from the Twilight movies. If you take off all that vampire makeup and get rid of his red contacts, he definitely has Caleb's look. For full explanations and pictures, check out the official EVE web site: http://theevetrilogy.alloyentertainment.com/anna-carey-fantasy-casts-eve/#1

Now onto some Christmas-y questions!

5- What's your favorite Christmas song?

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree. Whenever I hear it I think of that scene in Home Alone, when Kevin is pretending to have the party at his house. Growing up, I watched that movie hundreds of times with my brother, so that song always reminds me of him.

6- What is Christmas like in Eve's world?

For those who live in the wild, beyond the City of Sand, Christmas comes and goes like most other days. Presents are scavenged items wrapped in the pages of old books. Holidays bring up pain more than anything else, and remind survivors of the time before the plague, and loved ones they lost. Inside the City of Sand (which you'll learn much more about in Once) Christmas is a celebration, and an opportunity for the new government to show the citizens inside the walls all the City has to offer.

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If it got you curious, here’s a bit more about Eve

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.
Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

Harper Collins would like to offer 1 copy of the book (US only) and Anna is also offering a signed copy (US & Canada only)!

Giveaway Ends January 4th, 2012.

All you have to do is fill the Rafflecopter form below.

The only mandatory entry is to provide your name and email addy =)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Anna Carey is the author of the forthcoming EVE trilogy, which releases October 4^th, 2011. She grew up on Long Island, the daughter of a special education teacher and an astronomer. Early on she talked of being a painter, district attorney, flutist, physical therapist, or graphic designer, but eventually pursued writing—the one thing that allowed her to be all of the above. She studied Literature and Creative Writing at NYU, and took part in her fair share of snowball fights in Washington Square Park. After college, she worked as an editor in children’s publishing before getting a Masters in Fiction from Brooklyn College. She now lives in Los Angeles, where the apartments are bigger and the weather is sunnier, but she still misses New York.

You can visit Anna here.

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