Review: Eve, Anna Carey

Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 336
Genre: Dystopian, YA
Release: October 2011
Source: ARC from Book Ecpo America
Nice to know: Eve is Anna Carey's debutnovel, and the first book in a planned trilogy. There are currently plans about making the books into a TV - Series by the people who make the Vampire Diaries come to life on screen.

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.

A disappointing dystopian

Eve was one of the YA - books I was mostly looking forward to this year. The premise for the novel sounded interesting, even though there are a lot of dystopian books being published these days. Sadly the book didn't live up to my expectations.

A virus have killed a lot of people, and the remaing population are trying to build a new society behind the walls of a new town founded in the desert. Boys and girls are kept separate, and attend separate boarding schools. Eve is 16 years old, and was taken away from her mother when her mother got infected with the virus. Eve has lived most of her life inside the walls of her school, and she is looking forward to her graduation and to utilize some of the talents she has been tought over the years. The girls have been taught that life outside the school's walls are dangerous, and that boys and men are not to be trusted. They will only take advantage of a girl.

a relationship between two people can be judged by the list of things unspoken between them.

The day before her graduation, Eve makes a discovery that makes her question everyting she has been told. She understands that a horrible fate awaits her, and escapes from the school and out into a world where she does not know who she can trust.

for days in the wild, only the birds spoke to me. The stream was the only hand that touched me, the wind the only breath tht blew the dust from my eyes. I learned the strange art of loneliness, the weathered yearning that swells and passes, swells and passes, when you walk a trail alone.

Eve comes off to a good start. The author sets the atmosphere, and I am instantly interested in finding out more about Eve and her world. The suspense continues until Eve meets Caleb, from that point I lost interest in the story. Considering the things Eve have been taught at school, I find it hard to believe that Caleb and his friends gain Eve's trust so fast. The pace of the story also changed, and made me think of Lord of the Flies.

I also had a hard time sympatizing with Eve, my sympathies was with another female character. She had all the qualities I look for in a YA - heroine. Eve was to weak in my opinion, and I did not understand her motivations, for example I was puzzled that she chose to flee from school and leave her best friend in the arms of a terrible, terrible fate. Eve also has a hard time surviving by herself, she needs help from other characters.

Happiness is a moment.

Later in the book, when Eve meets Marjorie Cross, I thought that the author was inspired by the Stand by Stephen King.

On the back of the ARC Eve is compared to the Hunger Games. That is not a good comparison. Eve does not come close to Katniss, and the book lacks a lot of the depth one can find in the Hunger Games.

Eve is a light read, that will entertain you in the moment. But it is not a book I wil remember for long, and that makes me sad because the story had so much potensial. Anne Carey is a good writer, she knows her way around words, but Eve was not my favorite dystopian read.


Other reviews:
I Swim for Oceans
Reading Teen
Chick Loves Lit

Anna Carey's website can be found here, and you can visit the author on Goodreads here.

Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Publisher: Gyldendal (Norwegian Publisher)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 456
Release: 2009






















In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining district's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives. Collins's characters are completely realistic and sympathetic as they form alliances and friendships in the face of overwhelming odds; the plot is tense, dramatic, and engrossing. This book will definitely resonate with the generation raised on reality shows like 'Survivor' and 'American Gladiator.

Simply spellbinding

The Hunger Games was a fantastic and intense reading experience. I could not put this book down. It consumed me.

Katniss, or Catnip as her best friend Storm prefers to call her, lives in Stollen - a part of District 12. We are in the future, and North America is made up of districts with Capitol holding the power. As punishment for earlier rebellions, there is the annual Hunger Games. Each district must send a girl and a boy to compete in the games. There is only one winner; the person who survies until the bitter end. The competitors are chosen via a lottery. The Hunger Games is shown on TV in every district.

When Katniss' sister is chosen, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Together with Peeta, son of the local baker, she must travel to Capitol to fight for her life. But how do you fight for your life and still obtain your dignity? The competition is unfair. The tributes from the rich districts have been preparing for their participaton in the Hunger Games all their lives. But Peeta and the team behind him and Katniss have a plan...

The idea for this book is not original, but is much similar to Battle Royale, which came out as a novel in 1999 and became a movie in 2000. In Battle Royale a class of 42 students are kidnapped and thrown into a deathgame where there can only be one winner. In the Hunger Games, the number of participants is 24, and also here the state have the power and there can only be one winner. Both the endings are also a bit a like. Some might say that the Hunger Games also resembles The Lord of the Flies.

Suzanne Collins have created an exciting world I did not want to leave. I was hooked from the first page, and even had to sneak off to the toilet during a concert to find out what would happen next. The book kept me awake at night, and I was eager to reach the end and find out what would happen to Katniss and Peeta.

Katniss is a great female heroine. She is not one-dimensional and clearly the author wants the reader to like her. When Katniss kills one of her opponents, it is shown as a last resort and I as a reader can understand why she had to do that. She is not, as opposed to other participants in the Hunger Games, a sadistic and violent person. She tries hard to remain sivilized.

There is also a love triangle here, and we are never quite sure who feels what and why.

The Hunger Games kept me at the edge of my seat. I loved this book, and have already started the next installment. If you have not read this book, do so today!

Other reviews:
Presenting Lenore
The Literary Wife
Escape in a Book

In My Mailbok (4)

This is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, where we talk about the books that arrived in our mailbox the last week.

Since I didn't do a mailbox - meme last weekend, these books are for two whole weeks:

For review:
Wendy Delsol: Stork (ARC)
Gregory Maguire: Lost
Kirsten Miller: The Eternal Ones
Anthology: Kisses from Hell
Helen Grant: The Glass Demon ( in Norwegian)
Michael Grant: Gone (in Norwegian)
Michael Grant: Hunger ( in Norwegian)

Bought:
Philippa Gregory: The Red Queen
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games (in Norwegian)
Suzanne Collins: Catching Fire ( in Norwegian)

This is the first time I have gotten an ARC, and I am so excited about that. The cover is beautiful and the story seems great. Can't wait to read it.

What did you get in your mailbox?