Eve - Anna Carey

A Spoiler Free Bit About The Book

Sixteen years after the plague devastated the country, Eve is finally ready to graduate from School and learn her trade, excited about living in the City of Sand until one night when her world changes forever.  All of a sudden Eve goes from being certain of her path to unsure what's true and what isn't.  All she knows is that she has to run.

My Review

I read Eve in a number of days that would've been hours had I not had to work and whatnot.  It was so easy to read.  The story flowed and the action never let up for more than a chapter or so.  It was the easiest thing in the world to disappear into the pages and I think that's half the battle.  So well done Carey, you got me hooked.

I will start with the beginning, I've heard it's a very good place to start.  Eve throws you straight in with a letter from her mother who died from the plague when she was eight (I think it was eight).  This was a brilliant way to start the novel.  I at once wanted to know more about the plague and about orphaned Eve and how she survived without her mother.  And of course I now had an attachment to her mother after reading her words.  After that beginning, it was easy.  The chapters were just the right length that you didn't feel cheated because they were too short or bored because they were too long.  They were just short enough that I decided to read the next one when I got to a chapter break.  Meaning I read the book in no time.  When I read fast it means I'm enjoying it and I enjoyed Eve a lot.

Eve as a character was very different from what I was expecting.  Usually your painfully naive girl at the beginning is timid and cautious and then grows into a fighter and wins your respect as a reader.  Eve didn't follow that pattern.  Yes, she may have started the book being a goody-two-shoes, following all the rules and even ratting out her fellow classmates but that added to her character.  She was best in her class and she knew it, adding a level of arrogance to her which you don't usually see at the very beginning of a novel.  But of course she was arrogant!  It made perfect sense.  Since attending School she'd constantly been told she was beautiful, intelligent and witty by her teachers.  Why wouldn't she believe she was perfect?  I suppose this could put you off her a bit but I liked her all the more.  She was human.  She was cruel and full of herself like so many of us are.  It was the perfect balance of this and her redeeming qualities that made me want to read her story to the end.

As Eve continued there were a lot of profound moments about love and what love means that really hit home for me.  I thought they were beautiful and thought-provoking.  Most teenage fiction novels focus on the love-at-first sight, infatuation, head-over-heels love.  But in Eve it was softer.  I felt the love for her friends more strongly than the boring couple-y love that seems to be necessary everywhere.  Saying this however, she did fall in love with the love interest too fast - especially for a girl who has always been taught to fear men.  This part didn't make sense for me.  Regardless of the fact that most of the things you were taught were a lie, it would still be a struggle to let those things go.  Most certainly if you're eighteen and already stuck in your ways.

The description throughout was just right for me.  There wasn't huge boring chunks but little snippets here and there which made it much easier for me to picture a scene than to try and create it in one huge paragraph.  

I was also very fond of the ending.  I knew there was a little bit of information that was being held back from Eve and from the readers and when it came to light I wasn't expecting that to be it at all!  However, I didn't know that it was a trilogy and as I enjoyed Eve so much I'm going to  have to read the next two.  But to be honest, I wasn't ready to make that kind of commitment.

A little something stuck out for me, and I didn't know where to write about it so I'll stick it here at the bottom nice and random.  I found a lower-case letter after a full stop.  And yes, I did read over it to double check it wasn't correct and I was the idiot, but no.  I could see no reason for it.  Just a clear mistake that stuck out like a small kid on a basketball team filling in for the star player.  How embarrassing.

Evaluation

Plot - 7/10 - nothing original here, not saying that's a bad thing

Way Plot Was Pursued - 8/10 - thoroughly enjoyed jumping from place to place with Eve

Characters - 8/10 - Eve was great and I can't wait to see how she develops

Style - 9/10 - have nothing bad to say about style

Pace - 9/10 - mostly fast all the way through

Would I recommend it? - Yes. It's an easy read.

Would I look up the author? Yes.  But at the moment I've got far too many books to read!

Eve was one of those books that you just fall into, you blink and you've finished it.  And yes, that's a compliment.

Molly Looby

Author / Editor / Blogger / Reviewer / Wrimo / Movellian / ZA Ready

molly.looby@hotmail.com