Eve (YA)

Eve. Anna Carey. 2011. HarperCollins. 322 pages.

By the time the sun set over the fifty-foot perimeter wall, the School lawn was covered with twelfth-year students.

Eve is an intense dystopian novel. It's very dark, very harsh. Carey has created a world with very few happy endings. Especially if you're an orphan like Eve.

The world has been devastated, and I do mean DEVASTATED by plague. And it has left the world in an ugly, ugly mess. Eve is an orphan, she is just one of many, many orphan girls being raised and educated by the school. She's been taught so many things, so many extraordinary things, really, when you think about the condition of the world.

But the night before she graduates, she realizes that something is wrong. That the promising future is NOT so promising after all. She learns that they are essentially sows. That they're existence will consist of giving birth to future generations. And this means multiple births each pregnancy. (She sees a room full of teenage girls--she recognizes some of them as former classmates--tied down to beds, each in a different state of pregnancy.)

She is determined to escape no matter the cost. She's recently heard of a place called Califia that offers a safe place to women just like her. But can she get there?!

This is further complicated--in a GOOD way--when she meets a guy. She's been taught to hate guys her whole life. Taught that they can't be trusted. That they are mean, violent, cruel, incapable of love and goodness. But what Eve sees in Caleb is undeniable. He is a good, good man. He's honorable and brave and good. What she wants is to be with him, to stay with him, but can they find a safe place to be together...or is the world to dangerous for true love?!

This one is exciting and oh-so-realistic. The ending may leave you wanting more...

© 2011 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews