Review of Eve by Anna Carey

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Book review

Eve by Anna CareyPublished October 4, 2011
Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062048503
English
3.7 of 5 stars  | 29,724 ratingsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars

First let me say I went into this with an open mind. I read the reviews but didn't let them cloud my judgment of the book. And, honestly, Eve wasn't that bad. Ms. Carey is a talented writer, especially in her use of sensory description. She is also good at writing emotional scenes; one, in particular, toward the end, almost had me in tears The boys, "I love you, I love you." sigh I enjoyed her style and thought the idea was interesting. I read the book in one sitting; it was a quick read.

That said, I did NOT like the main character, Eve. She was one of those TSTL (too stupid to live) characters. I rolled my eyes and sighed at almost every move she made. And, just when I thought she was making progress/wising up, she would make another idiotic move The code at Marjorie's house to name one.



It boils down to good and bad.

The Good
*Arden - She was the most interesting character. The others seemed bland and/or like caricatures of people.
*Ms. Carey is excellent at writing description. 'Thick blankets of flowers, their blooms no more than a few inches wide.' or 'lungs caked with dirt.' Those were just a couple that I liked.
*M & O Marjorie & Otis - I almost cried. For real.

The Bad 
*Eve is a HORRIBLE friend, It really pissed me off  that the first thing she did was leave Pip & Ruby at school when she knows about the 'sows'. Even if she kind of made up for it with Arden, she still let Arden take the heat from the guards. Ugh....
*For someone who grew up thinking that men were bad, Eve latched on to Caleb very quickly. It felt almost forced. I know I would have been extremely wary of men if I'd been taught, for 13 years no less, that men were evil, couldn't be trusted, etc.
*Eve has no worries about others. People tell her its dangerous, that people are looking for her specifically & they can kill others for hiding her yet she still does pretty much what she wants. Talk about impulse issues! She just lets people die/get hurt/cover her ass without even thinking about them.

The bad is mainly because of the main character. She was impulsive, self-centered, silly, and ignorant. Now, ignorance isn't necessarily a bad thing if you learn from it, but she just kept on making the same silly mistakes and not taking other people's lives into account.

Overall, though, the book wasn't terrible. Make Arden the main female character and it might even be good. I plan to read the next one because I want to see if Eve gets any smarter. I have my fingers crossed. I think Ms. Carey is a talented writer and it would behoove her to have a better main character.



GoodReads - Tara