Eve [Kindle Edition]

Anna Carey (Author)

Book Description

Where do you go when nowhere is safe?

Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school’s real purpose—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 Arden, her former rival from school, and 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.

In this epic new series, Anna Carey imagines a future that is both beautiful and terrifying. Readers will revel in Eve’s timeless story of forbidden love and extraordinary adventure.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A gripping, unforgettable adventure—and a fresh look at what it means to love.”

About the Author

Anna Carey graduated from New York University and has an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College. She lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• File Size: 470 KB
• Print Length: 341 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062048503
• Publisher: HarperCollins; Reprint edition (October 4, 2011)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004W2YYRM
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,754 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #72 in Books > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
  • #85 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teens > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 87 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Eve (May contain Spoilers) August 23, 2011

By TrishNYC VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

It is the day before graduation and Eve is excited to walk into the next phase of her life. She is to be the valedictorian and has just been awarded an award for the highest achievement. She looks forward to her future, one where she will study hard to become and artist and eventually go off to practice her craft in the city. But as she sits enjoying the pre-graduation ceremonies, she sees a trouble making classmate, Arden, slip away from the celebration. On impulse, she decides to follow her and this decision will prove to be life changing. Eve discovers that she and the rest of her graduation class are destined for the birthing house as reproduction units, producing children for as long as they are productive. That night, Eve sneaks across the river and to her horror discovers that Arden was telling the truth. Eve escapes, leaving behind the only home she has known since she was five.

Eve journeys across a ruined America trying to find an enclave she has been told will help her and shelter her from her newly discovered fate. But her education at the school has ill equipped her for life beyond its walls. When her food supply runs out, she finds herself starving and desperate. By some twist of fate, she runs into Arden and after pleading not to be discarded, they become traveling companions.

I have so many mixed feelings on this book. As I got to the half way mark, I couldn't put my finger on what it was about the book that did not quite click. Up to that point, Eve was okay as a heroine, not particularly compelling but not annoying either. But something still nagged at me and as I read on I began to understand what some of what it was. For one thing, I found her willingness to escape, to run from into the wild a bit unbelievable.... This is a girl who never breaks the rules, believes wholly in all the propaganda she has been consuming all her life. But we are expected to believe that she undergoes so many revelations and personality changes in the space of a few hours that she is ready to escape and leave her best friends behind. Maybe if she had been portrayed as someone who had secretly harbored doubts and questions over the years, I would have bought it much easier.

But my issues with Eve continue as she hits the road. Her naivete is played up and displayed over and over again. It made complete sense that she would not know how to hunt, fish or set traps, she had after all grown up in a sheltered and privileged environment where she never had to wonder how her food made it onto her plate. But the problem with creating such a naive character is that it sometimes become hard to distinguish between a lack of common sense and whether or not naivete can explain away her inability to make simple decisions.

I wanted to see a real evolution of Eve and I never really got it. Maybe in the next book she will show more character development but in this one she was kind of the same person from start to finish.

Also certain scenes bothered/annoyed me. When she has an encounter with a bear and its mother ends up chasing her, I found it slightly amusing but predictable(complete with salvation in the form of man on horse back). Also the all too familiar trope of "girl gets cold and man takes off his cape, jacket or in this case sweatshirt and gives it to her" was a bit much. This had been done to death, there are many other ways to show the guy is thoughtful, kind and protective, lets put this one to rest for some years and come up with other things.

But there are also some issues with the logic of this whole enterprise. So these girls are raised to believe that a bright future awaits them, that their education and hard work in school will earn them a place in the outside world. But in reality they are being cultivated to become breeding machines. The question then becomes why go to all that trouble? Why not just indoctrinate them into believing that producing children was an honor and was a service to their great new world? The teachers had already indoctrinated them to believe that all men except one were rapist and users of women, why waste resources and time educating them when their destiny ended in the birthing room? It just didn't make logical sense to me.

The last half of the book felt a bit rushed and disjointed, like we were just marking time to till we got to the end. I was not particularly thrilled by the almost one dimensional treatment of the men in this book. There seemed to be only two good men here, her love interest and a older gentleman she meets for a day and half. All the other men were either rapists, potential rapists or too young to have come into their rapist tendencies. For a book that is trying to show the poisonous way that Eve was raised by her teachers, showing so few good men seemed to almost prove the teachers' point.

This was not a bad book by any means, it just failed to live up to its promise. I will check out the next book in the series because I hope the story gets better. Read more ›

58 of 68 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Fails on so many levels September 1, 2011

By Bookphile TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

My first instinct upon reading the description of this novel was to take a pass. But there was something so appealing in its being called a cross between The Handmaid's Tale (a book I've long wanted but have yet to read) and The Hunger Games (a series I adore) that made me decide to go ahead and give it a try. Would that I had listened to my instincts. And, just for the record, this book is *nothing* like The Hunger Games. I think that comparison was used solely in an attempt to cash in on the (rightfully earned) popularity of that series. Fair warning: the spoilers in this review will be plentiful.

First up, the dystopia. I thought Carey's concept was pretty awesome and showed a lot of promise. The problem was all in the execution. There is no logic whatsoever in the societal structure of Eve's "New America". None. Very early in the novel, the reader is told that something like 98% of the population of the United States was wiped out in a plague. I'm not sure how many that leaves behind, but it sounds like it could only be a viable population by the slimmest of margins. Because of this, Eve and the girls like her are turned into baby incubators at the age of eighteen, strapped down to tables and kept constantly pregnant. When Eve peers into the breeding grounds, she notices some women with bloodied gauze around their middles. My first thought was, "Um, shouldn't they take better care of those women to ensure they don't get infections or suffer from ruptured uteruses. Wouldn't the objective be to keep them healthy so that they can keep cranking out the babies?" Apparently, no. I won't even get into the negative effects of stress on pregnant women, and how the conditions in which these women are kept make absolutely no sense if a healthy baby is the King's objective.... The restraining and forcible insemination also bothers me. I mean, these girls are well aware of how compromised the continued existence of the human race is, right? No one is keeping this a secret from them. So shouldn't it follow that some of them might actually be okay with having as many babies as possible, all for the sake of keeping humans on Earth? Apparently, no.

Shortly after this, Eve makes her dramatic escape and finds herself being rescued by Caleb. Naturally, Caleb's got his own tale of woe, and he tells Eve all about the terrible work camps in which young boys and men are forced to toil for hours with abusive overseers, all so they can create a glorious playground for the King and the privileged few. Say what? If humans are so scarce, why would the King be working male children to death? This makes not one iota of sense to me. This is a huge, huge logical failure in the story, in my opinion.

The other logical failure that just irritated me was the question of why the girls receive this glowing, awesome education in which they learn how to play the piano, waltz, and read Russian literature, and are then strapped to a bed and made to bear one child after another. What is the point of this education? Where is the value in a presumably resource-strapped society putting so much effort and so many resources into an education these girls are never going to use? I mean, couldn't they have just walled them up and let them play with dolls all day and achieved the same ends--creating a docile population of girls who are undyingly loyal to their dystopian government? I can see no reason for this, other than to provide the opportunity for Eve to natter on about all of the great works of literature she has read.

Following along that train of thought, shouldn't Eve be delighted that she's been chosen to be the King's babymaking machine? I would think that someone who's always been such an obedient follower of the rules would feel like that was some sort of special privilege. The bounds of absurdity are then stretched further when the King's men begin their intense hunt for Eve. Why? Unless Carey's got some huge reveal up her sleeve in book two or three, I see no reason why the King would do anything other than shrug and find himself another surrogate.

From here, things just get worse. The characters are almost uniformly so generic that they blend right in with the paper on which the book is printed. By the time I finished, I had no idea who Caleb was. Sure, the reader learns about his escape from the work camps and also about a few pieces from his past, but nothing about what makes him tick. He is so spectacularly bland, I can't understand why Eve, who has been conditioned since early childhood to despise and distrust men, falls so spectacularly in love with him in such a short time. I can understand her devotion to boys like Silas and Benny, but not her devotion to Caleb.

All of the male characters in this book are given short shrift, really. In fact, I found the portrayal of males to be almost uniformly offensive. Nearly every male in the book is exactly the sort of vile predator about whom the girls in Eve's school have been warned. I really, really hope this is a problem that will be fixed in the future installments of the series.

As for Eve, I actively disliked her by about halfway through the book, which is never, ever a good thing--unless the author is purposely trying to create a despicable character, which was not the case here. For someone who's supposed to be so highly educated, Eve is about as dumb as a post. She constantly makes mistakes that result in the direst of consequences to other characters, and yet she is almost universally loved. What gives? What's more, I thought she was extremely selfish, putting her own safety above that of others on multiple occasions. When she had her hissy fit because Caleb didn't jump at her proposal that she stay in his camp--thereby endangering him and every other boy who lives there--I wanted to slap her. Not good, not good at all.

If there is any character that I really liked in the novel, it was Arden and, of course, she is given short shrift. Her only purpose in the plot--thus far, anyway--is to save Eve. She should have thrown Eve to the wolves, saved herself, and the book should have continued following her story. It would have been much better that way. Kudos to Carey for creating one female character who is capable of thinking for herself and shows some fire. Too bad I'm not writing that about her main character.

This is book one of a promised trilogy, and I can say one thing for certain: I will not be coming back for books two and three. There are far too many excellent books out there and far too little time for reading for me to stick with so disappointing a series. Read more ›

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely Worth it! October 20, 2011

By F. H. Faizal

Format:Hardcover

Eve is one of those books you secretly want to read, but end up debating with yourself after reading all those mixed reviews. But let me tell you: Eve was a pretty satisfying read.

Anna Carey's latest is action-packed, and full of suspense. Runaway fugitives usually have that effect. Though the main storyline was predictable, what happened along the way wasn't even close.

The story revolves around Eve, smart, well-behaved, and worth something to the king. She was orphaned at a very young age, due to the plague that wiped out most of the American population, including her mother. She is a very flawed character, making mistakes that cost so many lives. Maybe its due to the fact that she never left the School, she never had any idea of what life was like without the trust of her schoolmates and teachers. It was frustrating at times, but understandable in many.

Though the story lacked in its lasting emotions - the little nagging presence you sometimes feel long after you finish a novel - I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was most definitely flipping the pages in anticipation, eager to see what would happen next. I've read a few reviews that noted down the lack of world-building, and though I agree we don't learn much about the 'New America', I have a sense we'll learn a lot more in the installments to come - after all, this is the first in a trilogy.

So would I recommend this? Yes, I would. Anna Carey knows how to add suspense and action to every page.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Riddled With Cliche April 13, 2013

By Ana Mardoll TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Eve / 9780062048509

I picked up "Eve" from Amazon Vine because it was sold to me as a cross between "The Handmaid's Tale" (which I love) and "The Hunger Games" (which I also love). That was, as we will see, a dirty lie designed by marketers with black holes where their souls should be. And now I'm stuck having to write a review for a book that I flung to the ground in disgust at about the halfway point. However! I am nothing if not interested in helping potential buyers decide whether or not to spend their hard-earned money on a book, so here is my Very Useful Summary of the first third or so -- if you like this, PRESS THAT BUY BUTTON NOW.

EVE: It's the evening before graduation, where I will present the valedictorian speech because I am the smartest girl in the entire world! Which is not terribly hard because 98% of the population was wiped out by a plague, but still. Also, I have no personality whatsoever besides being naive, obedient, and utterly unsuited for a dystopian environment, and am therefore intended to be a generic blank for the reader to sink into.

ARDEN: Hi! I'm the social outcast of the school and everyone rightfully mistrusts me because I lie and cheat and bully people! I have a personality, though, so you'll wish I was your protagonist instead of Meaningful-Name-Eve over there. I'm going to flee the walled school because graduates aren't sent to college; they're strapped to beds and forced to churn out babies in startlingly unsafe conditions considering how valuable they are as baby makers.

EVE: I don't believe you because that makes no sense: why would they teach us waltz and Russian literature if that were true? (NOTE: This really does make NO SENSE....) But despite the fact that you are an established liar, I'm going to break out of the dormitory, nearly break my foot, nearly drown, and get my hands torn to shreds on thorns JUST TO BE SURE. ... Oh, crap, she's right. Welp, nothing for it but to escape -- I'll go get my best friend.

TEACHER: Halt! Oh, Eve, I see you've decided to escape. I'll help you, but there's no time to get your best friend.

EVE: OK, if you say so.

TEACHER: I do. Oh, but go into the crowded dormitory and pack everything you own including the last letter your mother wrote for you before she died. Wouldn't want to leave that behind.

EVE: Of course not. I have priorities. And I'll try not to trip over my sleeping best friend while I pack. [later] Wow, it's really hard to find food and water when I've only ever been trained in waltz and Russian literature. Oh! Arden! Can I come along with you, despite the fact that my presence will hinder you and possibly get us both killed?

ARDEN: Sure, but I'll glower at you while the reader again wishes that I were the point-of-view character instead of you who are so impractical you refuse to use blankets if they've had a dead person touching them.

EVE: While you hunt food for me, I'll just wander off into this Walmart. Oh! A baby bear! Baby bears are dangerous; I know that much. But it looks like Winnie the Pooh. (NOTE: I am not making this up.) I'll just pet him for a bit. Oh! Look at the plot twist that is so obvious a dead man would have foreseen it: an angry bear mother. Whatever will I do?

CALEB: Hi. I'm a literal savior riding a literal horse. Sadly, though, I am not the Old Spice guy.

EVE: Er, how do you feed and shoe and nurture a horse in a dystopia?

CALEB: Look, just get on so we can escape the bear.

EVE: 'K. Don't rape me, though.

CALEB: I'm not interested.

EVE: WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU'RE NOT INTERESTED. "The plague had killed far more females than males. As one of the few women in The New America, especially an educated, civilized woman, I'd always supposed I was every man's type. [...] I was intelligent, I worked hard. I was told I was beautiful. I was Eve, the valedictorian of School." (NOTE: That is a direct quote in the context of Eve being offended at being told by Caleb that she's "not [his] type" immediately after she's been indoctrinated her whole life -- and been worried for the entirety of the book -- that all men are degenerate rapists.)

...and that was when I threw the book at the wall, because if Eve thinks that rape is a compliment, then she's officially too stupid to live. (Also, I'm pretty sure the book maintains this rape-is-a-compliment theme, since -- if I gather correctly -- the King of America will decide that Eve will be his own personal baby-maker, come heels or high water. BECAUSE SHE IS JUST THAT SPECIAL. Obviously.)

The one good thing I can say about "Eve" is that it demonstrates how not to write a YA dystopia. Eve has no discernible personality underneath her whiny naivete, and it occurs to me that one of the reasons why I love Katniss Everdeen so much is because she's a distinct person -- she's not a blank for me to sink into, but an actual character worth following in her own right. And in "The Handmaid's Tale" -- which "Eve" wants to be so much it hurts -- Offred's gaps in her personality was part of the point; society was doing its best to strip her self away and that was a tragedy, not something for an author to aspire to.

While I don't demand walls of text to explain world-building in my dystopias, I do require the setting to at least make sense. The hand-wave for why a tremendous amount of resources are sunk into the girls' education is quite ridiculous; the Latin and Russian lessons were supposed to keep them occupied so they wouldn't become suspicious (and would make them erudite protagonists, obviously). The fact that a HUGE number of years and resources are invested into these girls only to then keep them in unhygienic conditions that I *guarantee* would have them dead in a few years flat cannot be chalked up to the Bad Guys being evil and stupid; the system literally should have collapsed on itself before we even get to Eve.

And if it had, we all would have been spared a lot of bother.

NOTE: This review is based on a free Advance Review Copy of this book provided through Amazon Vine, and which I am required to review as a participant of the program.

~ Ana Mardoll Read more ›

More About the Author

Anna Carey has been a gift wrapper, face painter, nanny, horrific cocktail waitress, sofa saleswoman and children's book editor. She graduated from New York University and has an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College. She currently lives in Los Angeles, where she can be found writing, reading, and doodling on the giant chalkboard in her kitchen.