Goodreads 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.
My review:
Eve is not a terrible read, but it is what I like to think of as "meh." I don't really have any love/hate feelings for it. I think I'm just getting tired of dystopian novels. Perhaps if I'd read this book a couple years ago, I'd have enjoyed it more. But I was annoyed by the extremely naïve main character and the lack of world-building.
The story starts off pretty well. The letter from Eve's mom at the beginning is very sweet and heartbreaking, and I enjoyed the prologue. I even highlighted a quote I liked on my Kindle. However, after the first few chapters, my interest started fading. I got seriously annoyed with the main character, the shockingly naïve Eve.
Oh, Eve. Where do I start? Many reviewers have pointed to this example, and it definitely made me annoyed, too. In the first quarter of the book, Eve is out in the wild and stumbles across a bear cub, and she thinks it looks like Winnie the Pooh, so she decides to pet it. Because that's such a smart idea, right? I just wanted to shake some sense into her.
After that scene, I pretty much lost hope for Eve. I know it's part of her character - that she was raised to be very innocent and naïve - but I just felt like she didn't have enough strength in her character to make me admire her. I kept thinking of her as a little girl instead of a teenager, which made the romance really awkward.
Yeah...the romance. What does Caleb see in Eve? Thankfully there was no insta-love, but it still didn't make sense for him to fall in love with her. I also thought Caleb was a bit too perfect at times. Sure, he's nice and sweet, but...that's all he is. It made him a very bland character. And no, I am NOT trying to say that I don't like "good guys," because I much prefer "good guys" to the "bad boy" type. I just wish he had more of a personality.
There's also the lack of world-building. I had so many questions I wanted explained, and I found the ending left me unsatisfied. It felt like hardly anything happened plot-wise. I've heard that the world-building improves later on in the series, but I don't really think I'm interested enough to pick up the sequel, unless I happen to see it at my library. I know some of my friends have enjoyed Eve. It just wasn't a great read for me.
My rating: 2 out of 5 stars
~ The Bookworm
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