publisher: HarperTeen
pages: 336
source: NetGalley
format: ebook
appeals: dystopic, romance, adventure
content: a lot of good stuff
thoughts:
I kind of had mixed feelings about this book. Some things I loved, other things not so much.
This review has some spoilery bits, so beware.
The world Carey created was pretty creepy and scary. I could buy into a King of America, even his setting up schools for girls to be educated and getting work groups together to do manual labor to rebuild the city. Tyrants after disaster--good start.
However, I love dystopic world building that makes sense to me, and this one had some stuff that didn't make sense to me. First, why would the king educate these girls just...
HERE COMES THE SPOILERS
...to lock them up and have them have baby after baby to populate his new world. Incubators do not need to be educated, but neither do they have to be 18. Maybe he has a soft spot for children and can only abuse people once they're adults.
Also, there are really young boys found wandering around (which makes my above hypothesis completely off), why are those children unacceptable to the king to raise in his city? What makes the student's babies so much better?
Another issue I had was with Eve. She was destruction personified. Because of her decisions, so many other people suffered. I could see why she did what she did--she was a rather naive girl--but I was still angry with her. Especially at the end. I found that aspect of the novel frustrating and hard to deal with.
That is the end of the Spoilers
Besides the above, I did enjoy this book. As Eve goes about her journey, the landscape and people she meets really brought this waste of a world alive for me. I enjoyed the characters. Eve meets a lot of different characters and I felt they were well flushed out. I loved the little boys she meets and her semi-friend, Arden, who she travels with.
I loved the romance. Eve was raised to see all men as evil. Her relationship with Caleb is so well developed that I could see her perceptions of men (or at least some men) change. It wasn't sudden and it wasn't unrealistic. It was perfect. And the sacrifices Eve and Caleb make for each other are really great.
Enjoyable read, but not a must have.
summary:
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.
3 comments:
Hey great review! Maybe the purpose of educating the girls is in hopes of passing on the education to the children. You know, like how people back in the day looked for "distinguished" woman to bear their children?
I dunno I'm just guessing.
I definitely see some of your complaints and I had a lot of the same questions. However, I'm hoping more answers will be revealed in the next novel. Like you, I thought the author did a great job developing a romance between Caleb and Eve, especially in such a short amount of time. Great review!
Yeah, I hope that there is more revealed in the next book, too. Because it just doesn't make sense to me at this moment.
And I wish that the girls were educated so that they would be great mothers, but they actually don't get to keep the babies. Someone else raises them, leaving the birth mothers chained to a bed.
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