[REVIEW] Eve by Anna Carey

Published: October 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins
Age Group: Young Adult
Series: Eve #1

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. (From Goodreads)

Confession Time.  I will admit that the only reason I borrowed this book was because of the cover and imagine my surprise when I read the inside blurb and it said "Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth's population, that world is a perilous place." Clearly this is a dystopic themed book and I was seriously considering putting it back on the shelf and walking away because at the time, I was seriously getting sick of dystopic young adult literature. After the not-as-exciting-as-I-hoped-book-Insurgent [review], I had decided that a break from dystopic literature was in need but nonetheless I still borrowed this book (mainly because of the beautiful cover!) and honestly, I'm glad I did.

Eve takes a new perspective of a dystopic world. Of course there are key elements, i.e. the world ending because of a catastrophe (plague) and the after plague world is attempting to build a corrupt utopia or a better society, and then  there are new parts that I found vey intersting. 

[SPOILER] First, orphans are being used as slaves. Girls for birthing and Boys for labourers.  [END SPOILER]

Perhaps this sort of stoy line has already been used for other books that I have yet to read but based on what I have read, this was very different.

The one thing that I absolutely loved about this book is that Eve instantly got me hooked, which isn't easy for a 300 page book.  After the first chapter I was instantly captivated and had to read more. 

What I noticed was that at the beginning of the story, it seemed that the book would follow the typical dystopic story line.  Escaping, joining rebels and then restoring the proper government. Half way through the story, it changed. I didn't realize it at first until I got to the end (kudos to Anna Carey's seemless transition!) but the story soon became a love story between Eve and Caleb with the whole government scheme as a sub plot. Odd but okay. Some other popular dystopic literature's have done that (e.g. Legend by Marie Lu and Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi) and it's fine. Just interesting how the plot is changing and advancing.

I never caught the foreshadows or predicted that something would happen while reading this, while I think is part of the reason why I was so captivated by it. Every climatic event and surprise was truly a surprise, which is hard to find in books sometimes.  Often events are forseeable and farily obvious but not for this one so yay to that!

Anna Carey is also really good at describing events and this dystopic world.  I could really picture the deslote world and what was happening.  I absolutely love it when I can immerse myself into a book and visualize what is happening. It makes reading all the more fun.
Now on to the negative parts:

• Eve. I seem to be on a character hating basis because I really didn't like Eve sometimes. Some of her actions were plain stupid and after it caused an event I would look back and be like "Why did you do that? Couldn't you see that this would happen?" (Of course I shouldn't be the one to say that since I: didn't even realize what was going to happen) [SPOILER] For instance when she foolishly calls Caleb on the radio which causes the troops to find her, well that was plain foolish. I think one of the main reasons why that happened may have been because the author needed to a) eliminate a minor character and b) advance the plot, not from a possible happy ending but to the growing love story.  Anna Carey might have forced the plot on that part. [END SPOILER]
• The blurb, I don't know why but it seems very inaccurate to what actually happened. The blurb states "Eve must choose between true love and her life." ... I never realized that there was a point where she had to make a decision...true that there were parts when she didn't want to leave Caleb but she did but that wasn't really a choice. More like a crying, begging girl saying good bye because she had to. The sequel's blurb (Once, releasing July 3!) ends with a line similar to this one.  I can't wait to see if it's actually true or not.

Overall this was a fairly lovely read. It's sort of like a combination of Shatter Me and Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari, both dystopic reads. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a nice love story or different dystopic lit.

Also, I know I said the cover was amazing but the font is absolutely gorgous too.  Whoever designed this is brilliant and hopefully the covers will be as good in the sequels.

MEH