Review: Eve by Anna Carey

Eve Anna Carey
Published: October 4th, 2011
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pages: 200
Source: ARC via Netgalley
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge 2011, 100+ Reading Challenge
Other: First book in the Eve Trilogy. The book will be made into a TV series.
Buy the book: Bookdepository


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.

Eve. Oh, Eve, where do I start. Eve lives at her all girls school in a dystopian world and she and all her schoolmates are taught that men should be feared. When Eve discovers that the graduates do not go on to learn trades and build the new city, but instead they are being used to give birth to litters of children, she escapes and tries to make it to a safe camp in the Wild.

For being a smart girl (top of her class!), she wasn't that smart when it came to surviving in the Wild. She barely makes it to a house where she spots movement - so of course she just shows herself without carrying a weapon. I mean, everyone is trustworthy int he Wild, right? Eve is on the edge of starvation and has run out of water days ago. Not all that smart, imo. But lucky for Eve, the person she meets there isn't that bad and together they go further into the Wild to find the camp. Instead, they find themselves picked up onto a horse by a rough looking man; Caleb. He saves the girls from the government officials who sweep the Wilds and are looking for Eve. Because she was top of her class, she was supposed to give birth to the Heir of the King. And even though Eve has no clue what that's supposed to mean, she runs and hides with Caleb and all of the guys in his group.

Let me start off that even though the plot souds a bit.. dubious when you think of it, I really enjoyed reading this book. No, it is not 'The Hunger Games meet Romeo and Juliet', but when claiming those things it often does not live up to it. I thought it was interesting to see how Carey formed the world. There were some things that didn't add up, but it didn't bother me while reading. The romance in this story was clearly there, but it didn't overshadow the rest of the story.

The ending bothered me a little bit. When you read the book, you will know exactly what I mean by this, but I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't read it yet. It felt like a bit of a letdown for this book, but I'm this will have a role to play in the sequel.

I enjoyed myself and I am looking forward to reading the second book in the series!

My overall rating:


Four stars for Eve - who will hopefully learn something more survival skills before we meet up again.