Reader's Choice Review: Eve by Anna Carey

Review: Eve by Anna Carey
Goodreads 
Release date: October 4th, 2011
 Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: Yes, #1 in the Eve trilogy
Source: Purchased
Length: 336 pages
Rating: I think I liked that more than I should have.



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, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. 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 Arden, her former rival from school, and 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.

In this epic new series, Anna Carey imagines a future that is both beautiful and terrifying.

Eve by Anna Carey, book one in the Eve trilogy:
A Reading Experience



Me: So Eve is a girl kept in this School (they always says School) for girls where they teach them that boys are all meanie evil rapists and Not To Be Trusted, and that when they graduate they will go on to Do Great Things, but obviously this is A Lie.

Me: Okay, well, that's all highly improbable.

Me: Let's roll with it for reasons, mostly because this isn't horrible yet, despite its lack of logic. Not-so-fathomable future indeed.

Me: YOUR LIFE IS A LIE! YOU ARE BEING TRAINED TO BECOME PROFESSIONAL BABY MAKERS! THAT'S APPALLING.

Me: Any time you'd like to start showing a personality, Eve, that would be lovely.

Me: THIS IS HIGHLY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING. I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT. This whole breeding house, young-girls-forced-to-procreate business is appropriately effed up.

Me: Aw, Eve. You're kind of cute when you're being too-stupid-to-live.

Me: OH MY GOD EVE STOP PETTING THE BABY BEAR CUB

Me: YOU ARE QUITE POSSIBLY THE DUMBEST HUMAN IN CREATION

Me: HOW DID YOU NOT DIE EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE

Tell me. Does this:



look at all like this:



I thought not.

Me: Dirtcaked manboy to the rescue.

Me: This is basically Eve right now:

"Is it ruffians? Thugs? Have they come for me?!"

Me: Eve, you were just utterly adorable and utterly punch-worthy in the same paragraph. You are a talented narrator.

Eve: "Eh? I was intelligent, I worked hard."

Me: Then why the comma splice, Skeevy Evie?

Eve: "I was told I was beautiful. I was Eve, the valedictorian of School. And all he could say was, Eh?"

Me: Part of me thinks this book would be better from Arden's point of view, aka the tough girl with Much Knowledge and a cranky attitude.

Me: But Eve can be a bit endearingly stupid and priggish, which is pretty funny.

Me: WAIT. Eve has BROWN hair?!?! *looks at cover* Chicka whaaaaat?

Me: OH SHEEET. A ROYAL TWEEEST! J'APPROVE.

Me: I friendship Eve and Arden.

Me: They call the girls sent to the breeding houses sows? That is awful.

Me: Eve is back to being hilariously naive. "Why is that funny? What are 'balls'? Like the ball of your foot?" TROLOLOLOLOL

Me: There is a lot of deer murder in this book.

Me: So Eve and Arden and Manboy (aka Caleb) are with this group of Lost Boys and Eve is their Wendy Mother. Okay then.

Me: This is a bit instra-trust-y here with Eve and Caleb, but Caleb's a sweetheart, so let's roll with it.

Eve: What are you doing with all these books?
Caleb: I do this funny thing sometimes. I open a book, and I look at each page. It's called reading.



Me: HA! My fondness is reaffirmed.

Me: They're bonding over reading. And Eve being sad that she slaved away at School only to fill her head with LIES. Awww. It must be tough to realize the only goal you ever had is worthless, and that all the information you have is skewed.

Me: (It's still kinda insta-love though.)



Me: *looks around for plot* *cannot uncover plot*

Me: I don't understand why only the "eighteen-year-old broodmares" have the babies. Why don't the wealthy adults in the cities have their own babies, too?

Me: TWUE LOVE BLOOMS! Too bad plausible world-building does not

Me: Like, post-plague, America is in ruins, how did Canada not come swooping in to save our sorry asses and prevent this royal dictatorship from starting? People over in England must be looking over at America and thinking, "America, you craaaazy". (So, just like they do today.)

Me: Then again, you could say that about every dystopian ever so carry on.

Me: Arden is the best. 

Me: Oh, plooooooot, where aaaaaaare you?

Me: Eve, you idiot. That is not what he said.

Me: Oh, of COURSE. I knew that was going to happen. DO NOT LIKE. Or maybe... ARGH. Confused. #vagueyvagueness

Me: What 

Me: Come on you have brains utilize them

Me:

Me: OH SHIT that was actually a good twist right there. I wish it hadn't been born of...that, though. Or that that had been done differently. #thevagueyvaguenesscontinues

Me: I'm back to loving this book. My brain is a complex creature. ACTION HIGH STAKES THINGS HAPPENING BAD THINGS

Me: Oh, it's like the Underground Railroad!

Me: I wish not everyone in this book was white, though.

Me: Every now and then Eve reveals a really sad, human, heartbreaking detail from her childhood in the School, and it just adds so much. And now she and the girls are learning about history and the world and my feeeeels.

Me: They watched the movie Ghost?! OF ALL THE MOVIES IN THE WORLD. "Hi, welcome to pop culture, here is Patrick Swayze's face, enjoy"

Me: Oh, Eve. This is why you can't have nice things.

Me: NOOOOOOO THAT WAS THE WORST

Me: Everything is terrible and it hurts

Me: Awesome actionnnnn yessss bad-ass Eve!



Me: Oh nooooooo

Me: Whyyyyyy

Me: Caleb, my baaaaaaby

Me: *sobbity sob sob*



End scene

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Reader's Choice Review: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay

Review: Of Beast and Beauty by Stacey Jay
Goodreads 
Release date: July 23rd, 2013
Publisher: Delacorte
Series: No
Source: a gift from Lili
Rating: A beautiful, imaginative, and wildly romantic fairy tale.



In the beginning was the darkness, and in the darkness was a girl, and in the girl was a secret...

In the domed city of Yuan, the blind Princess Isra, a Smooth Skin, is raised to be a human sacrifice whose death will ensure her city’s vitality. In the desert outside Yuan, Gem, a mutant beast, fights to save his people, the Monstrous, from starvation. Neither dreams that together, they could return balance to both their worlds.

Isra wants to help the city’s Banished people, second-class citizens despised for possessing Monstrous traits. But after she enlists the aid of her prisoner, Gem, who has been captured while trying to steal Yuan’s enchanted roses, she begins to care for him, and to question everything she has been brought up to believe.

As secrets are revealed and Isra’s sight, which vanished during her childhood, returned, Isra will have to choose between duty to her people and the beast she has come to love.

I am always willing to read books based on fairy tales, especially when it's my very favorite fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast". I love how much creativity it requires to put a spin on a classic tale and basically reinvent it, and to me, that's where Stacey Jay succeeds the most: in world-building and originality. There are no singing candelabras or dancing teacups (more's the pity), but this darker, more sinister version is haunting and fascinating.

I'll admit, I wasn't quite hooked in the beginning. The prologue is absolutely gorgeous, if distancing, and the prose is rich with imagery, but I wasn't connecting. We first meet Isra, the blind princess of the domed city of Yuan. She lives trapped in a tower with only one handmaiden, and her life isn't her own. One day, she will sacrifice herself for the good of the city. Yuan's queens have long been giving up their lives, spilling their blood on the magical rose garden, to ensure the city's success and keep the dome intact. It's the covenant they've made with the roses. If Isra does not give up her life when the time comes, the city will fall, and everyone one of the Smooth Skins in Yuan will be at the mercy of the unforgiving desert outside and the even more unforgiving Monstrous.

Gem is a Monstrous. He is bigger, stronger, and scaled, with claws and fangs that help him survive in the dying lands outside the domes. He seeks revenge on the selfish people of Yuan who've sucked all the life out of the desert and are dooming his people. Despite all this great setup, the beginning is rather slow, and it takes a little while to connect to Isra. She has fire, certainly, and it's a joy to see it emerge.

So, yeah. The worldbuilding. Jay creates so many interesting legends and creepy mythology, the best of which is the magical roses.



Yes! Exactly like that! Only picture it carnivorous and thirsty for blood and totally effing creepy. This book is set on an alien planet with a strong history of magic, but also technology and human greed.

Once Gem and Isra come to sort of trust each other, that's when the plot gets moving and the feels develop. All the elements start coming together and making it so I couldn't put the book down. Gem and Isra both want to do good, but neither of them quite knows how, or even what good is. They were complex, interesting characters who underwent a lot of change, and that was tons of fun to read about. Isra is sheltered, but she hates being so. It's a long journey for her to stop considering herself to be monstrous and to assert herself as the take-charge princess she is. I mean, she doesn't start out completely dormant--she has been jumping out the window of her tower and scuttling down the roof since she was ten, or something--but she really develops into a stronger person worthy and capable of love.

THE. WRITING. Perhaps that was the best part. It's lyrical and inventive and absolutely breathtaking. It never turns purple, always remaining on the right side of flowery, but still I'd find my eyes widening at some of Jay's gorgeous phrases. The sign of good writing is when an author pairs two words that I've never heard together before but that perfectly conjures the intended image, and Jay does it again and again and again. When writing a fairy tale, I suppose it's very easy to fall into romantical cliches, but Jay manages to explain Gem and Isra's connecting in such a unique way that it always felt about them, and them alone.

It's pointless. Hopeless. Even if she weren't afraid of me, at the core we'll always be enemies. She rules a wicked, selfish city, and my tribe suffers for her people's comfort. She's a queen; I'm her prisoner. I resent her and she fears me, and there are times when I fear her, too. I am her monster, and she is mine. But right now none of that matters.

 The concepts of beast and beauty get twisted around until you're not sure who is who in the original fairy tale and in this one. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so is beastliness. But once their romance gets going, WHEW, DOES IT GET GOING. *paints a proud Gem + Isra 4eva banner*

This has nothing to do with the book, I just wanted to put it here

I would have liked to have gotten a better handle on some of the side characters (Jujie, Bo, Isra's father--I'm still  not sure EXACTLY what made them tick, even though we're in Bo's head for quite a bit), but as I said, I loved the two leads. I am super glad Lili forced me to read this, because it wasn't like any other book I'd ever read in the best way possible. If you like dark, mysterious twists on fairy tales, I would definitely recommend giving Of Beast and Beauty a shot.

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Reader's Choice Review: The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

Review: The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner
Goodreads 
Release date: 2000 (Goodreads won't give up the orginal pub date)
 Publisher: first published by Collins Voyager, then Harper Collins, now Greenwillow
Series: #2 in the Queen's Thief series
Source: Gift
Rating: A fantasy classic and an improvement on the prequel.



Revenge
When Eugenides, the Thief of Eddis, stole Hamiathes's Gift, the Queen of Attolia lost more than a mythical relic. She lost face. Everyone knew that Eugenides had outwitted and escaped her. To restore her reputation and reassert her power, the Queen of Attolia will go to any length and accept any help that is offered...she will risk her country to execute the perfect revenge.

...but
Eugenides can steal anything. And he taunts the Queen of Attolia, moving through her strongholds seemingly at will. So Attolia waits, secure in the knowledge that the Thief will slip, that he will haunt her palace one too many times.

...at what price?
When Eugenides finds his small mountain country at war with Attolia, he must steal a man, he must steal a queen, he must steal peace. But his greatest triumph, and his greatest loss, comes in capturing something that the Queen of Attolia thought she had sacrificed long ago...


My review of The Thief

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU SHELVER, not only for requesting I read this, but for BUYING me a copy! You are truly the best blogging bud a girl could have.

The cover: MY GOD, it's beautiful. That rich green and the shiny OMINOUS HOOK and the gorgeous painting... it's even prettier in person, I'm telling you.

Spoilers for book one, The Thief, ahead

The story: I love when a book you've heard nothing but raves about delivers on its promise. The Queen of Attolia, while not perfect, is pretty fan-freaking-tastic. Eugenides is as clever and funny and flawed as ever, only now he's darker. He's suffered through some terrible things, and that lends a wonderful edge to his personality and the story that wasn't there before. And if you thought things were twist-y turny in The Thief, JUST YOU WAIT.

We left Eugenides, Queen's Thief of Eddis and first cousin to the queen, in pretty good circumstances at the end of The Thief. He stole Hamiathes' Gift right out from under the nose of the Queen of Attolia, causing him to become a hero to his people and her to lose face in front of hers. But at the beginning of TQoA, we find poor Gen in a horrendous position. Attolia is forced to make a decision about him, and it's a choice that will haunt her for the rest of the novel.

The biggest change between book one, which I loved but still had major problems with, is that MWT changed her POV. Book One is told in first person from Eugenides' POV, while TQoA is told in third person and jumps between Eugenides, the Queen of Eddis, and the titular Queen of Attolia. Which I LOVED. This choice was brilliant. At first I thought it was a touch distancing (though in CERTAIN HORRIBLE SCENES OF WHICH I CANNOT SPEAK that is a good thing) but by going third person, MWT managed to make her story more epic in scope and add more action. And my goodness, did I love going inside the Queen of Attolia's head. MWT, you genius.



I always say that my favorite part of any story, even fantasies with all their awesome mythology and worldbuilding, is the characters. And while MWT skimps on a lot of details that I like having, she never skimps on characterization. She's a bit difficult at first, to be honest. I almost thought her style was dry, but that's because I wasn't paying attention. There was humor in the dialogue, and the personality was coming through in the things the characters say (and in Attolia's case, DON'T say) and the things they do (or that they wish they did-- again, particularly in Attolia's case). But UGH I love these people, particularly Attolia. Well, and Gen, obviously. And Eddis is also tremendous. And the magus. And... everybody. Because they all have personality, and it's fun. And funny! Books get a million points from me when they have a sense of humor.

But let's focus on the titular Queen, shall we? She's such a complex characters. She's absolutely wonderful to read about. She's a totally layered onion/cake/parfait (though not an onion cake parfait, because EW). She's been twisted by her circumstances, ruling over a difficult country full of disloyal and power-hungry barons, and she's not the person she used to be. Finding out who she really is takes the entire length of the novel, and even at the end I'm not entirely sure. I NEED THE REST OF THE BOOKS. I can't get enough of Attolia.

TWIST. TWISTS, YOU GUYS. Like, I pride myself at being really good at predicting what will come next in a book or movie. It comes from having read 23456779876 novels in my life. BUT. BUT. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT ARE YOU SERIOUS HOLY OLIVE TREES



IT'S PERFECT IT'S AWFUL IT'S GENIUS AND THE BREADCRUMBS WERE THERE THE WHOLE TIME. The plot pulled a fast one on me AGAIN. And this one seriously, truly left me REELING. And then... everything that comes after... I don't want to get into spoilery territory, but Gen continues to make me laugh even when he's breaking my heart, and Attolia continues to fascinate me. FEELS. They come, readers. Oh, do they come. Feels from Eddis, feels from Gen's father, and feels from... A ROMANCE. No, seriously, there is an actual romance in there that surprised the HECK out of me but...!



My complaints would be that a lot of the war is told through exposition, and the section where Gen mopes and hibernates and sulks (or whines, rather, sorry Eugenides) drags. Not that I think the timeline is long, since he's recovering from something traumatic, just that too many pages were spent on his inaction. War breaks out between the three countries of Eddis, Attolia, and Sounis, but it all happens off the page, and this information is relegated to the reader in a very boring fashion. I wish that information had been conveyed in a more interesting, dynamic way. But MWT does such a fabulous job of showing the intricacies of war-time politics, the stress of rulers (two female queens duking it out! With the lecherous male king just kind of there), and how sometimes you have to do really crappy things, or things you REALLY don't want to do, in the name of peace (*chuckles knowingly because I just said a THING you won't get unless you've read the book*).

And the VERY best part about finally reading this book is that Shelver won't poke me every time she senses me not reading it!

 

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