Customer Reviews

Eva (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This story opens as 13-year-old Eva wakes up in a hospital bed to find that she has been seriously injured in a car crash and has been in a coma for months. As she slowly regains consciousness, she experiences strange sensations and dreams until she learns that her life has been saved with an unprecedented medical procedure in which her memories have been implanted into the brain and body of a chimpanzee. Eva is set in the future, in a dystopian urban world in which humans have destroyed most of the world and are isolated in super high rises and fed a steady stream of television. Eva's father is a researcher of captive, habituated chimps with whom Eva was essentially raised. Eva's operation and recovery were sponsored by a manufacturer of juice products, who contractually own her and exploit her to advertise their products. As she recovers and adjusts to her new life, she begins to identify with the chimp part of herself and relates to the other chimps, leading her to resist her handlers and her parents and campaign for greater autonomy for herself and her fellow chimps. Eva eventually becomes the poster child for animal rights activists and a figure to whom many people look as an inspiration as the human race is degenerating. Eventually, like her Biblical namesake, Eva is sent to an Edenic paradise with a troop of chimps to teach them to live in the wild and be televised worldwide for the entertainment of humans. As events transpire, Eva and her troop are left possibly to repopulate the planet and begin the evolution of the human race again. The story raises all kinds of existential questions about what makes us who we are, what is our relationship with animals, and what are our responsibilities to nature and the environment. These thought-provoking themes are balanced by suspenseful action and well-developed characters (including the chimps). With the highly introspective nature of this story and the slow and mysterious revelation of the plot, this is a challenging read. Eva is a terrific book for adolescents asking their own big questions and learning how to find their own opinions and voices.

I read this book for a boook report and i dont really like reading books. I usually end up finishing them up the weekend before there due. But as soon as I started to read this i couldn't put it down it was sooooooo good! My mind just got caught up into all the text. If you really like exciting books i suggest this book because it just traps you inside and you cant get out. if you read this book you wont want to put it down!

This book would have to be one of the best books i have ever read. Which isn't many. It explaines how a young girl was put into a chimps body and had to live like that for the rest of her life. She had to lern how to use the chimps body to move and comunicate with other chimps. This book is kinda like the kind of book that is boaring in the begining but is like "wow" at the end. I recamend this book to anyone who doesn't like to read. It will open up your mind and make you think about all the different storys and feelings there really are out in the world that is all writen on paper. But to expearience them "you" have to make the efert.

Well, I'll tell you one thing - this is not an easy book to read. It doesn't capture your attention, the way it is written. If it was written a little differently, even with the same plot line, it would have been more interesting. It kind of makes you think about the way we are heading, and I really didn't like this book very much. It wasn't interesting and, like someone else said, it was kind of sloppily written at times. Too many details at times, and too little details at times. Read this if you want to, but don't expect it to be extremely interesting or anything.

This book is about a 13 year old girl, Eva, who gets in a terrible car accident on her way back from her beach picnic with her family. When they go to the hospital, Eva is so badly damaged that the only way to save her is to do a surgery only tested on flatworms. When Eva wakes up in the hospital, she can't move and can only watch the shaper, a futuristic TV, or look out the window with a mirror she has in her room. She has many visits from her family but mainly she is sleeping and isolated. Eva knows that the scientists are hiding something from her and what that is leads to a world of adventure. It changes her views incredibly about the human race. Instead of with humans, she makes friends with others of her own species. Her Mom can't accept it. Can Eva even accept his incredible change, when reporters follow her everywhere and she watches herself on the shaper?
This author doesn't try to fit lots of things on each page. He writes kind of slowly so if you're looking for an exhilarating adventure this is not for you. He likes to focus more on the relationships and the feelings of Eva, instead of the really exciting, exhilarating parts. I like this style of writing and I really like this book.
I liked this book because it focused a lot on animals and how they look at humans and each other. It also focused a lot on the power in groups of animals and what they do to each other for power. That was really interesting and made me realize how complicated these animals lives and relationships are. I loved this book.

This wonderful book goes beyond the normal sci-fi book into the realms of social commentary, but without pushing it down one's throat.
The story really makes us think about how we would react, being thrust into someone else's body, unasked and unable to do anything about it, nor could the donor! It questions the rights of parents, doctors, sociologists, scientists to use their power in such borderline cases. The way this is handled is touchingly sensitive and surprisingly low-key for a book aimed at this age-group; it allows the reader to form his/her own conclusions, which generally arrive at the same point that author is aiming for.
The ending is is especially well done and one's heart leaps as Eva makes her decision - good on her!

Far better than many mainstream science fiction novels - this rates with the best of Sheri Tepper or Connie Willis. *****

This story was unbelievable in many ways, not just because the idea of transplanting a human brain into a chimpanzee's body is incredible, but also because of the lack of emotion in the main character. We had a very hard time understanding why there was no anger involved in this incident. How could Eva not have been even a little bit angry at her parents for doing this to her? Many of the students in our book discussion group could not connect with the relationship between Eva and her mother. Most thought the book was extremely unemotional, a surprise considering the topic. Some students, however, felt that it was an example of the coldness of our society.

This book really made me contemplate what I think could be the answer to that question. Are we really going to festroy everything thats truly valuble, including our sleves. I think this novel had many intresting and well-thought through themes, such as the one mentioned above. It deals with one persons own feelings and dealing with a completly nw identity and way of life, but it also deals with society and humanity as a whole, and the outcome of what we will be if we continue on the path we are following. I urge anyone to read this book, no matter their favorite kind of genre. It is exceptionally good, and makes a point we all need to hear.

Powerful writing; definitely moving, gripping, challenging. Anyone who thinks of themself as an environmentalist or animal lover ought to read this one. Too bad it's perceived as a "young adult" book so most adults will never know about it. But I think you will thank whoever turns you on to this one. You know what it's about, by now. But what you might not pick up on is that it's a love story - I felt this every page. A love story of chimps, of "wilderness" and "wildness," and of human beings, too. The whole sorry mess of it, from the future's standpoint. (God, I hope it's not ours.) It might just leave you the better for having read it, too. Forget Daniel Quinn's polemic "Ishmael" - this has the ring of some kind of mythic truth to it, if not literal. Dickinson dedicated it to Jane Goodall; I can only think she'd love it. The writing may be too sophisticated/intelligent for some - there's no attempt to write "down" to the readership; this is not light, "entertainment" reading, for all it's gripping entertainment. Much of the sentiments are subtle, as if by a tacit understanding between reader & writer that is somewhat akin to Eva's and Kelly's (although ours, at least, is by choice): we host the book in our minds as a kind of bridge. Its main character and her ideas cohabit with our own. I also liked, a lot, how the author lifted the stones of our civilization, turned them over, and uncovered moral and ethical dilemmas... and then left them for us to examine, wiggling like grubs, helplessly in the light of day. When you finish this book, you will know something about yourself. And I think you will add something to yourself. Literally, I advise you: see what you think.

It's one of the best books I've read in a long time. While being highly entertaining, it addresses important moral issues. Eva is a young teenager whose body has been mangled beyond repair in a terrible car accident. It is assumed that this book takes place in the future, when scientists have highly advanced technology. They can save Eva's mind and soul, by putting in the body of a chimp. Peter Dickenson takes us on a fascinating journey told through the eyes of Eva. You won't be able to put it down.