Eve

Eve by Anna Carey
Release Date: October 4, 2011
HarperCollins (HarperTeen)

2.5/5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:
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.

I'm afraid that my expectations for Eve may have been too high- it's just that the description sounded so promising! But it just did not end up being as good as I had hoped. It kind of sounded like a Delirium-Wither hybrid, and maybe that was part of the problem: I loved those two books so MUCH and Eve just wasn't up there with them.

My biggest problem was that I felt like I was launched into the story so quickly and it felt jarring to me. Everything happened so quickly in the first few chapters, and I could not understand Eve as a character. At all. I was far more intrigued by the secondary characters (Arden and Caleb especially) but Even drove me crazy. None of her actions seemed logical or even seemed to match her personality; for example, within the first few chapters she's established as the wonderful little valedictorian who follows all of the rules and doesn't question things. So why is it so easy for her to question the School all of a sudden? What is it that draws her out of her room in the middle of the night to sneak away, nearly risk everything she has, all to go exploring? And this continues for the rest of the book.

And her big discovery of the truth of what happens to the female students felt like it came out too early. A bit more set up would have been better, perhaps so it would have felt more shocking instead of a climax that came too early.

But I also didn't hate the book, there were things I liked. Caleb was a bit flat as a romantic interest, and I wasn't swooning over him but I do want to know more about him. I actually really liked Arden by the end of the book- I'd probably like this series more if it was focused on her instead of Eve. And there were parts that broke my heart a little bit. It was interesting enough for me to keep my eye on it and see where it goes in the next book.

e-galley received from publisher via netGalley in exchange for my honest review; no other compensation was received.