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A review by mirrorchaser
Eve by Anna Carey
3.0
This is just a YA version of [b:The Handmaid's Tale|38447|The Handmaid's Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)|Margaret Atwood|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1578028274l/38447._SY75_.jpg|1119185]. So with that in mind, it totally makes sense that it's a little flat. It's a really complex idea for young people to process! As we've been running into a lot, books published between 2010-2015 were CRAZY full of poorly plotted dystopia to capitalize on the success of other YA dystopian successes like [b:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1586722975l/2767052._SX50_.jpg|2792775] (which was flawless), [b:The Giver|3636|The Giver (The Giver, #1)|Lois Lowry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1342493368l/3636._SY75_.jpg|2543234], [b:The Maze Runner|6186357|The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1)|James Dashner|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1375596592l/6186357._SY75_.jpg|6366642], and [b:Divergent|13335037|Divergent (Divergent, #1)|Veronica Roth|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1618526890l/13335037._SY75_.jpg|13155899]. This heated up even more when these books started rapidly getting optioned for TV and film. People were just eating this stuff up (myself among them).
[b:Eve|9297774|Eve (Eve, #1)|Anna Carey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389188190l/9297774._SY75_.jpg|14180376] is a perfect example of a book whose negative attributes can almost certainly be attributed to the rush to get in on the dystopia pandemonium.
I think one thing that Eve as a character lacks is... well... good traits. She is honestly super annoying and not in a "I've been sheltered my whole life I don't know anything about the world" way. More in a "I just suck" way. She's selfish, makes the wrong choice time and time again, and kind of just allows other people to get her through to the end. While I can respect this (honestly, most of us would act like this in her situation) we want to read about a fearless and loyal Katniss or Harry who will put themselves in harms way and be a real hero of the story. Eve isn't a hero. She's very much focused on her own survival. It's just something that is so different than other YA heroine books I've read and I just think the risk didn't pay off in this case.
I also hate the insta-love. I wish there was more substance there.
Speaking of more substance... what's up with the government/plague/oppression situation here? The author could at least give me SOMETHING to work with. Instead of being mysterious, the oppressor is just confusing. Did this king truly capitalize on a plague or was the plague something made by the king? No one has been able to stop this man? It's just flimsy worldbuilding and I think the author is building up a big bad but he doesn't seem all that scary.
[b:Eve|9297774|Eve (Eve, #1)|Anna Carey|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389188190l/9297774._SY75_.jpg|14180376] is a perfect example of a book whose negative attributes can almost certainly be attributed to the rush to get in on the dystopia pandemonium.
I think one thing that Eve as a character lacks is... well... good traits. She is honestly super annoying and not in a "I've been sheltered my whole life I don't know anything about the world" way. More in a "I just suck" way. She's selfish, makes the wrong choice time and time again, and kind of just allows other people to get her through to the end. While I can respect this (honestly, most of us would act like this in her situation) we want to read about a fearless and loyal Katniss or Harry who will put themselves in harms way and be a real hero of the story. Eve isn't a hero. She's very much focused on her own survival. It's just something that is so different than other YA heroine books I've read and I just think the risk didn't pay off in this case.
I also hate the insta-love. I wish there was more substance there.
Speaking of more substance... what's up with the government/plague/oppression situation here? The author could at least give me SOMETHING to work with. Instead of being mysterious, the oppressor is just confusing. Did this king truly capitalize on a plague or was the plague something made by the king? No one has been able to stop this man? It's just flimsy worldbuilding and I think the author is building up a big bad but he doesn't seem all that scary.