BOOK REVIEW: Eve - Anna Carey

GENRE: Young Adult – Dystopian
FORM: Audiobook
NARRATOR: Tavia Gilbert
SERIES:  Eve - Book 1


SYNOPSIS (from Goodreads.com):

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.

REVIEW: I listened to this audiobook in one day, so it feels like this book just flew by. It’s not just that it was short, but there was so much action and suspense that I was constantly on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happened next. There were times when I was surprised by the violence, or maybe it was just the imagery…either way, I’m used to the suspense, I’m not so used to such graphic results. This is not a bad thing, mind you, it just took me by surprise.

After I finished Eve, I went back and read a few other reviews on what people thought of it. While the board was pretty divided between, “excellent” and “not for me” I was surprised by some of the reasons why. One in particular stuck out to me, as it claimed that the book was filled with blatant sexism. While I sort of can understand where this reviewer may have drawn those conclusions from, and by all means everyone is entitled to an opinion so I’m not trying to stir the pot or say that this person is wrong, but I do want to mention why I thought that this dystopian novel was pretty right on.

Think about our world right now. There are people who are just good people. They want to do good, help others, and just live their life the best they can. But then there are other people who view every new thing, every little action as an opportunity to get something out of it. For example; spam mail, people who want to get your password from you, people who try and con you out of money by posing as a relative who is stuck in a foreign country with no money, people who want to “give you” a million dollars because they are going to die and have no money, people who want to buy their car and then have you ship it to them in Argentina or where ever. These types of people are out to make a quick (and sometimes rather large) buck. They take advantage of the wonderful technology, the wireless transactions, the world wide access to other people and spin it around into something mean and hateful. So the fact that in this book, a setting where a large majority of the earth’s population has been wiped out by a virus and the people are left thinking, “what now?” there is for sure going to be those people who are going to take advantage of the situation for their own good. The hot commodity in this book…females. Why? Well to repopulate of course. One man can impregnate multiple women – so that makes the females more important. So yes, there are going to be people who are going to hunt girls down and sell them to the highest bidder – even if it is not to the established government based program. It is just how people (bad people, yes) are. The female shortage will also take its toll on otherwise “good” guys as well, because really – people want what they can’t have. So again, I’m not surprised that the men in this story behaved the way that they did. Does it make their behavior right, of course not. But I do think it’s fairly realistic perspective. What I think may have been the real problem with the story is, there were so few “good guys.”

I enjoyed Eve. She was so trusting and secure in her life – the life she thought she had, until she sought the truth out for herself. Even outside the walls of her school, Eve struggled between what she was taught, and what she was learning to be true; and having trouble figuring out what could be trusted. She was extremely innocent. Even after being chased, kidnapped, and attacked; it seemed like she still felt like she had no real concept of how much danger she really was in. She was a strong character regardless – and still fought for her life in the end.

I liked the strong backbone of Caleb, and the reluctant friend in Arden. I believe (or maybe it’s just hope) that in the future books we will see all three come together in to fairly strong bond. Eve is not my absolute favorite Dystopian of the year, but I did enjoy it quite a bit, and do look forward to finding out what happens next.