Tagged: anna carey
Once by Anna Carey
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
For the first time since escaping from her School, Eve can finally sleep soundly. She is living in Califia, protected from the terrifying fate that awaits orphaned girls in The New America in the year 2041. But she was forced to abandon Caleb, the boy she loves, wounded and alone at Califia’s gates. When Eve gets word that Caleb is in trouble, she sets out into the wild again to rescue him, only to be captured and brought to the City of Sand. Trapped inside the city walls, Eve uncovers a shocking secret about her past and must confront the harsh reality of her future.
In this breathless sequel to Eve, Anna Carey returns to her tale of romance, adventure, and sacrifice in a world that is both wonderfully strange and chillingly familiar.
It’s very, very rare for the second book in a trilogy to be better than the first, but Anna Carey pulled it off in Once, the sequel to Eve. There were some times throughout the novel where I had my doubts, yet things aren’t always what they seem.
In Eve, we have a protagonist who is *gasp* completely loyal to her love interest, with no confused feelings about another attractive man! And, most shocking of all, she has more political instincts than a lemming. That’s incredibly rare in YA, trust me. Especially since we find out who the King of The New America really is and what he really wants from Eve. What’s surprising for me in Once is Eve’s growth as a character as she becomes more mature and realizes that yes, she truly does love Caleb.
The whole forbidden love aspect is often overplayed in YA books, but it really doesn’t feel that way in Once. It’s more of a sweet, very passionate first love for both Eve and Caleb and it feels more genuine than a lot of romances you’ll encounter in YA literature. Being in the City of Sand, things get a lot more complicated for Eve and Caleb, but I like how their love remains strong and they seem to trust each other.
Aside from the decent romance, what I really liked was the glimpse of a rebellion against a tyrannical king and the rebuilding efforts after such a devastating plague. I found it hard to believe there were no rebels yet when I read the first book, so the introduction of rebels in Once was quite satisfying. The Eve Trilogy is dark in general, but it’s uplifting in that (although using slave labour) humanity is starting to rise and rebuild once more. It’s sort of a testament to the strength of the human will, even if it is the will of a dictator who wants to conquer more territory in his rebuilding efforts.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
Eve by Anna Carey
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, but the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school’s real purpose—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.
I started reading Eve after I finished Kushiel’s Dart, which was around two in the morning. I intended just to read up to chapter 10, which would give me a good head start on tomorrow’s reading.
Yeah, right.
Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t stop reading Eve, something that’s extremely unusual in dystopic YA for me. That is how I came to read until four in the morning on Sunday. Staying up late to read on the weekend is not exactly unusual for me, but staying up late to read dystopic YA? That’s new. I have nothing against dystopian YA, but it like if you’ve read one book, you’ve read them all in terms of plot.
True, I could predict most plot twists in Eve. Really, it follows the basic plot arc of all dystopia, not just YA. Yet, somehow, Anna Carey managed to keep me in suspense, flipping pages furiously to find out what happened next. It may seem like a contradiction, but I did predict the basic plot of the story and find it suspenseful at the same time. Why? Because the characters intrigued me.
From the book’s blurb you get the impression that Eve and Caleb are your typical YA couple, but they’re not. Eve has led a very, very sheltered life and she has been conditioned not to trust men. They don’t fall in Insta-Love but you get the feeling that this is a typical first love with all those messy, intense emotions and all of the ups and downs of a rollercoaster.
The world-building is good, but it never crosses into the realm of “Wow! That was amazing!” The way the King of New America rose to power seems plausible, as do the labour camps for orphaned boys, but I would have liked more detail about the plague. What it was, how it started, etc. But that’s probably just me who likes the gory details, so I can’t really complain about that. I suspect it will be covered in more depth in the next two installments of the Eve Trilogy.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.