Review: Eve by Anna Carey

Title: Eve

Author: Anna Carey

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Date: 10.4.2011

Pages: 336

Genre: Dystopian

Series: Yes (Eve #1)

Source: ARC from a friend

Rating: A-

Summary (from Goodreads):

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:

Another day, another dystopian? While dystopian novels seem to be all the rage (vampires are so 2010), how many different ways can a futuristic world be altered to make mankind suffer? When I thought I had seen it all, Anna Carey went and surprised me. Don’t get me wrong, it has the whole “evil government that looks like it’s trying to save the world while really executing a nefarious scheme” dynamic, but this just seems … darker. I feel like the way Carey upped the ante (making young girls slaves to repopulate the world after a devastating plague and young boys just slaves period) was so dramatic and unlike anything else I’ve seen.

I’m sure it’s at this point that you are recalling Wither by Lauren DeStefano, but Eve has something that Wither doesn’t have: an innocence that breaks your heart. Eve, our main character and narrator, is so naïve to the ways of the world, I genuinely feared for her. She spent most of her life in School, believing she would graduate and then go on to learn a trade and live in the city for the rest of her days. At School, she was taught about the evils of men who only want one thing from women. When Eve discovers what is really happening, she flees. Of course on the road she does meet men (and boys), and that’s where things get interesting.

Seeing this world through Eve’s eyes was like watching a child learn things. Seeing her interact with new people and find her way was exciting. She was extremely bright, but extremely sheltered. She also trusted too easily, and it came around to bite her in the butt a couple times—hard.

As with any good novel, there is a romantic element. Caleb is a great romantic interest—especially for Eve. He is so patient and kind with her, teaching her that men (well, not all men) don’t want that one thing from a girl. I will say that the romance fell a little flat for me, but this is the beginning of a trilogy. It’s pretty freaking complicated to create a new world, a new government regime, characters, plot, and a love story. Now that the ground rules have been established, I have the utmost confidence that Carey will have me falling hard and fast for Caleb and Eve in book #2.

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