TITLE: Eve
Book 1 in the new Eve trilogy
AUTHOR: Anna Carey
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young Adult
GENRE: Dystopian, romance
PREMISE: Eve learns a terrifying truth about her school and runs away.
MY REVIEW: Once again, like Bumped there is technically nothing wrong with this. Plot was clear (mostly), there was a fast pace, every so often there were nice passages of writing. It was okay book when one looked at it writing wise.
But there was not one ounce of original thought in this book. Literally it is all the dystopian tropes that have been going around piled into one book. Like Wither it was trying to be A Handmaidens Tale by Margeret Atwood. Like Wither it failed because the author completely missed the point of A Handmaidens Tale which no was NOT about romance. The world building is also very sloppy. The biggest issue in this book though is Eve herself. She is what I call a passive Mary Sue. Basically she does not move the plot forward. Things happen to her and she reacts usually with people telling her she should react. Even running away from the school wasn't her idea! No, a teacher caught her and somehow knew she figured out their secret and basically told her to run off. Then of course comes in the naivete which I could see but was so over the top that I couldn't believe how dumb Eve was for a school valedictorian. I mean Arden wised up and she was in the same boat. Honestly I sort of wish this had been told in Arden's point of view because she was much more interesting to me then Eve. Also SHE was proactive.
So no, it's not the worse book I've ever read. But it is definitely one of the least original out there. If you just want a dystopian you don't have to use much brain power on, then go and check this out from the library. But if you read all the YA dystopians you've probably already know this plot.
WHO SHOULD READ: dystopian fans not looking for original plot
MY RATING: Three out of Five
You know, I haven't read EVE yet, but nearly all of the reviews I've read of it have said the SAME THINGS you mentioned. I think authors shoot themselves in the foot when they place the romance angle as the top priority in a *dystopian*. But that's just me.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this informative review!
It is not just you. I like romance as much as the next person but it can not be the only thing driving a book. Now if the genre is romance itself, then okay. I can get behind that. But if you're saying your book is dystopian then BE DYSTOPIAN don't be romance that just happens to be set in a dystopian world. If you must make the romance the point then for god sakes at least develop it. Don't give me dull instant love where I know they're going to be fine in the end. It just ultimately makes a dull and makes me a bored reader.
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