Only Ever Yours

by Louise O'Neill

In a world in which baby girls are no longer born naturally, women are bred in schools, trained in the arts of pleasing men until they are ready for the outside world. At graduation, the most highly rated girls become “companions”, permitted to live with their husbands and breed sons until they are no longer useful.

For the girls left behind, the future – as a concubine or a teacher – is grim.

Best friends Freida and Isabel are sure they’ll be chosen as companions – they are among the most highly rated girls in their year.

But as the intensity of final year takes hold, Isabel does the unthinkable and starts to put on weight. ..
And then, into this sealed female environment, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride.

Freida must fight for her future – even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known. . .

Genres: Young Adult, Dystopia, Fiction, Feminism, Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 3, 2014

About the author

Louise O' Neill is from Clonakilty, in west Cork. After graduating with a BA in English Studies at Trinity College Dublin, she went on to complete a post-grad in Fashion Buying at DIT. Having spent a year in New York working for Kate Lanphear, the senior Style Director of ELLE magazine, she returned home to Ireland to write her first novel.
She went from hanging out on set with A-list celebrities to spending most of her days in pyjamas while she writes, and has never been happier.

Reviews

[Barry Pierce · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a truly great work. Since its publication it has become a pillar of dystopian fict...

*knock on the door*

Oh, one sec.

"Yeah, come in!"

"Barry, I heard you speaking out loud whilst you were typing and you mentioned The Handmaid's Tale?"

"Yeah, I'm reviewing it right now"

"Uhm, Barry, you read and reviewed The Handmaid's Tale months ago..."

"No I didn't! I literally just finished reading it," I hold up the book. "Look!"

"Barry that says Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill"

"Ha ha, good one!" I look at the cover. "Oh god! What is this!? I swear I just read The Handmaid's Tale!"

"No, that's Only Ever Yours, the debut novel from Irish YA writer Louise O'Neill. Look, it has a Jeanette Winterson quote on the cover"

"I'm 99% sure I just read The Handmaid's Tale. I mean, it's the same book! Same setting, same characters, same message!"

"No, Barry"

"B... but..."

"Come along with me Barry. Come along, into the van"

I stand up and leave the room with this stranger. When he opens the front door the sunlight almost blinds me. I can hear someone cutting grass somewhere. He grabs hold on my sleeve and begins to drag me towards a black van. The birds begin to sing.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow...where do I start?

With elements of The Stepford Wives, 1984, The Handmaid's Tale and Mean Girls' this book is ABSOLUTELY one of the more unusual, disturbing, and intriguing books that I have read in quite some time.

Apparently it was first published as a young adult book but is now being republished as an adult book.

This takes place in a "future" world where women (called eves) are created purely for male pleasure. They are no longer bred naturally but manufactured to become one of three things when they hit the age of seventeen....companions, concubines, or chastities. A companion is a version of a physically perfect wife who's duty is to bear sons and look after their husbands. Concubines are for the man's sexual gratification and the eve will likely live with many other women. Chastities seemed to be considered the leftovers (not good enough for companions or concubines) and they run the school and take care of the eves.

We see life through the eyes of an "eve" named frieda. She is in her final year at the school to learn to be perfect and she is hoping to be ranked highly so that she may become a companion to the boys that will arrive eager to choose one of them for a bride. For many years freida has been best friends with isabel and they are usually among the most highly rated girls in their year. They are sure they will be chosen as companions and remain best friends as they raise their sons together. However, when isabel starts to gain weight (the WORST offence at this school), frieda is torn between supporting her and maintaining her distance. She is terrified that she won't be chosen and will end up as a concubine or chastity.

But isabel is behaving very strangely and all is not as it may seem.....

The "eves" are cut off from the outside world and live in a school environment where they are trained on how to remain beautiful and learn how to make men happy. But they are commonly told "there is always room for improvement". They are ranked on their attractiveness and constantly forced to strive for perfection. Encouraged to compare themselves to their fellow eves to learn how they may improve.

The girls are discouraged from showing any emotions or anything that may make them less attractive. Crying is prohibited as is showing any type of intelligence. For example, when frieda was younger she was playing a game where the barbie doll mentioned "math". When frieda asked one of the chastities what "math" was the game was quickly taken away.

At times it was difficult to read especially when they were set in competitions against each other in a "forced" bullying way. For example a girl would stand at the front and comments would be thrown at her. Almost tame ones like "your hair is looking dull perhaps you should try a stronger conditioner" to horrid ones such as "maybe you should ask the chasties for more Ipecac and visit the vomitorium after your meals as you are looking fatter".

The author was incredibly thorough with details. For example all female names were in lowercase to show their "place" in the society. Then having subliminal messages saying things like "I am beautiful but I can be better" and "I will always be respectful" pumped through the speakers as the eves slept.

With similar issues to present times including eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia, peer pressure, bullying and self esteem issues. The school setting is very similar to the current high school environment, but creepier and with perverse learning plans.

An extremely dark but gripping book that will stay with me for a very long time.

Highly recommended!!!!

[Christine PNW · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unpopular Opinion Alert.

This book is very difficult to rate and review. It is not an enjoyable read - in some ways I intensely disliked it. But, at the same time that I was reading it and hating it, I was flicking screens as quickly as possible to get to the next page.

Where I run into trouble with this review is in that I must decide if I am going to treat it as a potentially important and serious treatment of misogyny and the oppression of women, through the medium of speculative fiction. Or, on the other hand, I can treat it as a piece of meaningless genre fiction.

Many of the reviews do discuss the importance of the book, and its relevance to contemporary culture. So, I'm going to take this book seriously, which means that I am going to raise my expectations above just "was it a page turner," and ask questions like "does this make sense?" and"what does this book say that is new or different from other dystopians?" and "am I convinced?"

There are obvious comparisons to be made to Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale. It also owes a great deal to the current infatuation (arguably over-infatuation) that publishers have with YA dystopians in which misogyny is the central focus of the world-building. I've said before that I'm tired of this type of dystopian, and I stand by that statement. This book is the ultimate example of that type of book - there is no world-building outside of the misogynistic premise.

This book is set entirely in the School where frieda (and the girl's names are always lowercase, a signifier of their lack of status and/or agency) lives in preparation for The Ceremony, which is where she will be told which "third" she is to be in: companion (wife of one of the eligible males), concubine (sex toy for any of the eligible males) or chastity (one of the women who remains in the school to "teach" the younger students). Girls have no mothers nor fathers - only male babies are born (more on this in a moment), eves - the females - are produced in a laboratory with various combinations of skin color, eye color and hair color, designed for ultimate sexual appeal.

There is an intense sense of claustrophobia reading this book - we never leave the school and all information about the outside world is filtered through either the chastities (who are almost universally cruel and unpleasant) or the young men who arrive in the second half of the book to choose their companions and their concubines. The girls are entirely uneducated, they cannot read and do not even know what "math" is.. They spend time on MyFace, obsessively checking their community rankings, which are based on their weight and superficial prettiness. Their lives are completely regimented. They lack all agency and have one personality between all of them: viciously competitive.

So, here is the first area I ran into trouble: "does this make sense."

No, it doesn't. Not even a little. And, yeah, I know, it's fiction, right. But if we're going to treat a piece of speculative fiction seriously as a cautionary tale, then the tale should be cautionary. It should be plausible. This book is completely implausible.

The world-building itself is pretty much completely incomprehensible. On the one hand, this choice could be defended because the narrative frame (frieda) is so sheltered from all contact with the outside world that she has no idea how the world outside of the school works (in fact, it is unclear if she has ever even been outside the walls of the building).

On the other hand, however, it is hard to wrap my mind around this world as something that could exist under the right circumstances when it is so incomprehensible. We are told some very limited facts about climate change and population die-off as a result of the loss of massive amounts of land mass due to rising seas. There's something in there about all of the female babies dying, although there's no explanation of how or why this happened, which necessitates producing girls in a laboratory as commodities.

So, why is this implausible? Oh, dear, let me count the ways:

1. There is sufficient technology to produce girls to physical specification, but no one can figure out how to fix the reproduction problem so that girls can be born naturally. 2. There is also, by definition, sufficient technology to perfect boys by producing them to physical specification, but no one bothers to engage in any of this genetic engineering to benefit our male characters, many of whom are, to put it quite kindly, not exactly appealing specimens of brains or brawn.

In addition, there are different "zones," which seem to correspond generally to geographic areas like Europe and the U.S. And, finally, the number of eligible males in frieda's year is disconcertingly low (10) and the number of girls "created" for their cohort is always 3x the number of possible mates, so there are a total of 30.

This was the hardest part of the book for me. I get it that using a larger number would make the story unwieldy. But it is impossible for me to wrap my mind around the idea that the number of eligible males in a geographic area for a single year would be 10. That is such a small number that, when combined with the technology available to the eves, I just can't make it work.

Why is this implausible: there is technology that would require many workers to maintain, yet we are supposed to believe that this community that is so small that it only has ten young men and thirty young women reaching adulthood per year is able to mass produce food in laboratories, do genetic research, run complicated utilities that keep the lights on and the internet functional, produce television shows, and all of the other accoutrements and trappings of modernity.

So, how is this supposed to work? This "zone" would have a high school class of 40 people (75% of whom are girls and who are therefore glorified sex dolls. Think about this: 75% of the potential talent pool serves no purpose other than recreational and reproductive sexual intercourse. Um. No. That is ridiculous). This is so tiny that it wouldn't even have a grocery store. Yet there is a judge and a cobbler? A cobbler? And there are two concubines and one wife for every guy? Seriously? Who is keeping the lights on here? Do any of the men stop having sex long enough to get any work done?

So, does this book break new ground?

One way to look at it would be to look at it as a parable of what the world might look like if one-half of humanity loses humanity altogether. And it is an ugly world - not simply because of the way the eves are treated, which is horrifying in its own right, but because of the commodification of children and marriage. It is a loveless, joyless place where only sexualized attractiveness exists.

There are inexplicably no animals in this world. There is no nurturing, no sense of the value of humanity that comes from valuing humanness as an end, not just as a means to reproduction and sexual gratification. It is extreme. Even the males, who are ostensibly pampered, have more agency than the girls, but they, themselves are trapped in the profession/social rank of their father, and their mothers are terminated at age 40. There can be little - if any - affection for any of the children being raised in this world.

This doesn't break new ground. It ignores human psychology and everything that makes a human being a human being.

It's interesting that, unlike The Handmaid's Tale, O'Neill's world doesn't have religious underpinnings. There are no religious beliefs at all, no sense of mystery or wonder. No art, no imagination, no beauty. The regimentation is to no purpose.

And this is where O'Neill lost me. In making her world so extreme, so endlessly dreary and superficial, I just can't believe that such a world could actually exist. It is so empty, so clinical, so bereft of all of the things that human beings crave: warmth, connection, love, story, nature, affectionate touch that the only possible response to such a world would be mass suicide and not just by the girls. The entire community is basically a violent and neglectful orphanage, and every person raised in this world would have reactive attachment disorder. Such a world could not thrive, much less survive.

In the alternative, don't take it seriously as trying to say something important or true. In which case, you might like it fine.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a good book buried deep in Only Ever Yours, a debut novel by Irish author Louise O'Neill published in 2014. Set in a Euro-Zone where ecological catastrophe has reset human civilization into a patriarchy, where women are genetically engineered and socially conditioned to serve men upon graduation from an all-girls finishing school at the age of 17, the book caters heavily to Young Adult readers. Where its target demographic might find this relatable, eerie and thought provoking, I found it repetitive, unimaginative and dull. I plowed through to see what O'Neill's idea of a worst case scenario for humanity would look like, and was hugely disappointed.

The novel is the first-person account of frieda, a sixteen-year-old "eve" we're introduced to ten months before something called the Ceremony is to take place at School (the novel's capitalization schemes are tiresome, with all the female characters' names printed in lower case). frieda is best friends with isabel, who has been ranked #1 in their class for 12 years on the basis of votes her foto garners by the men of the Euro-Zone. frieda was recently #3, but as their final year begins, she finds herself unable to sleep, increasingly addicted to the SleepSound medication doled out by the Chastities, the nun-type instructors who run the school.

Her restlessness drops frieda's ranking to #5 while isabel has become so withdrawn she drops out of the top ten altogether. The top ten are destined to be Companions, wives and male-bearing mothers for the Inheritants, the top ten most eligible Euro-Zone bachelors their age who will select their eves in a draft process during the Ceremony. The other eves will become Concubines or Chastities. frieda is unable to get through to isabel, who would normally be at risk of being sent to the Underground for disciplinary action due to her weight gain, but who seems to be under protection of the chastities. To survive, frieda becomes friends with the new top eve, megan, a mean girl set to go #1 at the Ceremony at all costs.

When megan is annoyed, her already irritating fake Americas-Zone accent takes on a nasal quality. Unfortunately megan gets annoyed a lot. Mainly at mealtimes. I have a theory that she views her need for food as her only flaw.

'I'm sick of eggies. They're disgusting. Why isn't there any other lo-carb option available?' she argues with the buffet, as if it could talk back. liz and jessie are murmuring encouragement, ignoring the line of hungry girls behind them waiting to be served.

'I'm starving,' a tiny girl in front of me whispers to her friend. She's about four feet tall, waist-length butterscotch hair tied neatly at the nape of her neck with a cerise ribbon, skinny elbows poking out of a cerise-and-navy striped polo dress.

'I'm sorry, did you say something?' megan spins around and places her hands on her knees, bending until she is eye level with the younger girl. 'What's your name then?'

There are ominous signs throughout the novel that things will not end well for the eves, even the ones chosen as Companions and even the girl who goes #1 in the Ceremony. The top-seeded Inheritant named Darwin later visits School and proves quite the dreamboat, the six-pack racked son of the Euro-Zone judge who also seems to be nice in a non-rapist, non-glutton way. To megan's displeasure, Darwin becomes fixated on frieda, who gradually draws information out of her future husband, like the fact that homosexuals have been marked as enemies of the state. frieda keeps her confidence with Darwin until megan manipulates her into betraying it, threatening her future.

Only Ever Yours has three major flaws, all of them critical:

1. A novelist unable or unwilling to muster one description or one line of dialogue that forces me to stop reading and scribble it down has failed somewhere, in my opinion. I read fiction to feel something I hadn't when I opened the book or think about things that hadn't occurred to me before I started reading. I am just not the demographic for nice, effortless and non-threatening stories that reinforce emotions or thoughts I already held. O'Neill's inability to provoke me as a reader, to contort her language or surprise with her dialogue, was evident throughout.

2. The author doesn't know where to begin. By setting the novel within the confines of School it settles into monotonous repetition. Carbs, clothes and TV (O'Neill's conceptualization of the future can be summed up by the social media network the eves use: MyFace) are discussed ad nauseam. Seating arrangements in the cafeteria become as integral as duels in an Alexandre Dumas novel. This is all backstory mistaken as story. A story would've been an eve sold into a marriage in the Euro-Zone, stripped of her support network and immersed in the world for the first time in her life, where she searches for clues to her existence. It also would've corrected the third flaw ...

3. Here we have another Young Adult novel in which the mission for the heroine is to get a boy. frieda is shown to care for isabel very much and makes efforts to help her friend, but her primary goal is the personal validation that would come by manipulating the affections of Darwin. She expresses no thoughts the boy doesn't approve of, no opinions the boy can't give her and no self-worth she discovers on her own as a young woman. According to this novel, females need the protection of the cutest, most powerful male, and even though O'Neill ultimately hints that the reverse actually might've been true, the behavior championed here is co-dependent and sick.

This novel was a gift from a friend who is a bookseller in Cork, Ireland. She not only resent me a copy when the first was lost in international mail, but gifted a copy to me signed by the author, which I value as a rare book regardless of how I felt about the material. This is a beautiful looking book printed and bound in Great Britain, with beguiling cover design by Nicola Theobald. I intend to make it a permanent addition to my library and plan on sending my copy of East of Eden purchased at the Steinbeck Institute to Cork. That is the only similarity the novels have in common, this being Young Adult fare that neither challenged or satisfied me in any way.

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apotheosis of neurosis wrapped up in dystopia narrowed down to a bitches' school. An extremely unusual take on popular topic demostrated in a set of a very persuasive world-building. The particularly unhappy end felt like an improvement on the messed-up world of this dystopian future.

There's lots of insight on bulimic/anorexic behaviour, drugs controversies, bullying, betrayal, self-image isses, digital nonsensicalities (do update your status online so world would know you're still alive!), one's control of oneself (good girls dont cry or experience any Unacceptable Emotions...) and room for improvement (and the last one is not meant in a cheerfully chirping positive way, once you read the book, you'll know).

What is most dusturbing about this book is that lots of things from it one could hear, feel or even say in real life. Makes one think the world is bent on self-destruction, one way or another. And the end might even be welcome, after all.

Q:>I am ready now too.
I am ready to feel nothing, forever. (c)

[Mary Books and Cookies · Rating 5 out of 5]

initial reaction: what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck

Review:
I’ve never felt so physically sick while reading a book. This is a dark, hopeless story, that will make your insides churn and frighten you with its similarities (exaggerated, but present nonetheless) to our current society. You need courage to pick this up and a lot of resolve to keep going once the story gets started.

We’re presented with a dystopian futuristic society, in which women are no longer born, but created (scientifically engineered), with the sole purpose of pleasing the men (whether by becoming wives - called companions - and bearing children, or becoming concubines, to satisfy their sexual urges; the ones who don’t fit either of these roles become chastities and are tasked with teaching the next generation of eves, as these girls are called). Their lives revolve around being physically perfect, flawless. They attend a School, where they are trained, so that one day they can join the ranks of society and serve the men. They’re illiterate, because being academically versed is unappealing to men. They need to maintain a target weight, because otherwise they’re unappealing and “fat girls are obsolete”. And there’s always room for Improvement.

I can’t stress it enough how difficult it was to read this book. I was repulsed from the very first page, but I kept going, because books like these are important. Especially because they show us how bad it can get. It’s not meant to be a book that you can love or even like, it’s meant as a book that can teach you something. It’s a wonderfully crafted story aimed at pointing out the flaws in our society, the strength of the patriarchy, the immense pressure that all women face to be skinny, to be perfect, to please. We’re seen as sexual objects, as people who shouldn’t think, who are less than men, who should know their place and not question it. It’s an exaggerated mirror of our society - the underlying issues that plague us today are blown out of proportion as a warning that if we don’t change something, this is where we might end up.

The characters aren’t meant to be likable. They’re selfish, shallow, cruel, always competing with each other, to see who is the skinniest, the prettiest, the most popular, offering compliments to each other one moment, then stabbing each other in the back in the next one - and it’s a competition that the school actually encourages, by ranking the girls from the most to the least appealing and having classes like Comparative Studies, where, every week, two girls are presented to the others, to be examined and have their flaws pointed out (anonymously, of course, so there are no hard feelings). And I think we’re not meant to find them appealing, because they’re not real women. They lack personality, empathy, feelings, because that’s how they were designed, with a single purpose in mind: to be physically appealing. You’re not supposed to root for any of them, because of the society that created them.

I loved the writing. It’s engrossing and absorbing and, despite the heavy subject nature, makes you want to keep reading. I was compelled to keep at it, because I just couldn’t look away. It’s quite fast paced and it never felt dull. But it’s not for everyone. The thing is that sometimes, we need to read more uncomfortable things, that actually scream in our faces that something is not okay. And this is one of those books. It’s a frightening wake-up call.

***Trigger warnings for: eating disorders, sexual abuse, body image, drug addiction, bullying.***

Favourite quotes:

“I want to hide, fold into the shadows and become invisible so no-one can look at me any more.”

“We are who we are. Sometimes, no matter how much someone might want to, they can’t escape that.”

★★★★★

To everyone who got this far, thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! Also, feel free to share your thoughts, comment or tell me anything :)

[Shannon Miz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a lot of feelings about this book. Just so many. Here's the general theme of them though: Read. This. Book. Seriously, I am not saying that because it was fun and enjoyable, because it simply is not. It is hell on paper. Exquisitely written, horrifyingly realistic hell on paper. Basically, I am just going to list why I absolutely implore you to read this book, okay? Great.

This book is way, way too close to how our society actually thinks/feels. frieda is terrified of gaining an ounce. She is terrified of her hair being out of place. Her whole life literally revolves around pleasing other people and appearing perfect. There were too many moments while reading this book that I had to put it down because I was shaking, eyes brimming with tears, realizing that I have absolutely, 100% said some of the exact same things frieda said to herself to myself.

If you are female, you need to read this book. Now, I know there is many a confident woman out there, and if you are among them, I both applaud and admire you. But far too many of us critique and criticize ourselves, each other, or both. Too many of us worry about how we appear to others, both physically and emotionally. Without a doubt, this book will make you take a good, hard look at how you treat yourself and others, even if it is not consciously.

If you are not a female, you need to read this book. Of course not all women think like frieda. Nor do all men want a stereotypically "perfect" woman. Here's the thing: society still treats women differently than men, and I don't think anyone would argue that. Women have made amazing strides, but there is so, so much more improvement needed. Whether you have female friends, a significant other who is female, a mother, a sister, a grandmother, this is a gritty look into the biases women face on the regular.

The writing is breathtaking. Take everything else out of the equation. The writing in itself is phenomenal. Each sentence has meaning, each word both poignant and necessary. Louise O'Neill is just so completely masterful at getting her point across in the most beautiful of ways, I would and will read any book she writes. (And there are no typos, the names are like that for a reason, one you'll likely understand.)

The plot is amazing. Yes, after all the other stuff that makes this a fantastic book, the plot just went ahead and was just as great. I stayed up until 5:30am to finish this book because I positively needed to know what happened. Then sat around for another 45 minutes in shock and awe and tears.

The characters will make you feel.... things. Vague, no? Well, different characters, different things at different times. Oh, still vague? Yes, yes. But they are so, so multi-dimensional. They have flaws, my goodness they have flaws. And isabel is such a huge mystery, both for frieda and the reader. megan will make you want to throw your book many times, but then... so will everyone else, just not all the time. There is a touch of romance too, but that comes into play a bit later.

Intrigued? You should be. This is probably the most gripping, gut wrenching book I have ever read. I didn't like this book, I don't know that it is possible to like this book. But I was captivated by it.  It is honest and brutal and so damn necessary.
This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight

[Stacey | prettybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased Only Ever Yours after it won the YA Book Prize. It was one of the few books on the shortlist that I didn't already own or hadn't read, but it was one everyone was talking about.

Louise O'Neill describes Only Ever Yours as The Handmaid’s Tale meets Mean Girls. It is startlingly, painfully real. I've read a lot of young adult dystopian fiction and I've been reluctant to think of Only Ever Yours as 'dystopian' – it's more 'speculative'. Even though our society doesn't mirror freida and isabel's exactly, if you break it down and deconstruct every judgement, expectation and attitude that the girl's are subject to, we're almost already there.

freida and isabel are two of many girls waiting to see whether they will be selected to be wives to wealthy, powerful men and go on to bear his sons. They have grown up in a school that teaches girls how to be pretty and, in the near future, will progress into one of three career paths: companions, concubines or chastities. They don't get to choose which. Popularity comes with being the most beautiful and the girls are ranked based on how they look and how thin they are. Eating disorders are encouraged and the girls are given opportunities to judge each other constantly. In one particularly dark scene, a girl stands naked in front of the class while improvements from her fellow students are thrown at her. Every time you think Only Ever Yours couldn't possibly get any more bleak, it does.

Only Ever Yours is a dazzling, well-crafted feminist satire. It all unfolds when isabel can no longer live up to what society wants her to be and we watch as frieda struggles to deal with what she thinks she ought to do and what she feels is right. It'll make you angry, shocked and outraged – and you'll want to tell everyone.

Asking for It is Louise O'Neill's upcoming book, about eighteen-year-old Emma O'Donovan, who is raped at a friend's party. It is a much-needed novel and will likely be even more difficult to read than Only Ever Yours...

I also reviewed this book over on Pretty Books.

[Helena Magalhães · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nem sei por onde começar a fazer uma review. Um livro descontinuado em Portugal e que me fez andar meses atrás dele.

Eu diria que é uma distopia que mistura A História de uma Serva com Mean Girls, num mundo pós-aquecimento global em que os continentes ficaram submersos e a população mundial morreu. Os sobreviventes criaram uma Arca de Noé humana para tentar preservar a espécie e, para dar continuidade, as mulheres são criadas numa espécie de laboratório para serem perfeitas, magras e bonitas e, então, agradar aos homens que (lá fora no mundo) estão a reconstruir a sociedade - são as Evas.

Explicado o contexto da história, este livro passa-se dentro de uma espécie de escola onde estas raparigas estão desde que nascem e onde são criadas para, aos 18 anos, serem entregues a um homem. O seu futuro divide-se entre serem esposas (as melhores de cada ano e que vão gerar filhos), concubinas (as que não são escolhidas para esposas e, como tal, vão servir apenas para prazer dos homens) e as que não servem para isso e se tornam "professoras" para ensinar as próximas gerações de raparigas.

E o que vivemos no livro é o mundo destas raparigas criadas para ser perfeitas e a vivência do último ano lectivo da Freida antes da cerimónia final onde saberá o seu futuro. E num local onde só vivem mulheres a competir umas com as outras, o resultado é uma narrativa intensa, louca, revoltante e, ao mesmo tempo, emocionante. Tem algum suspense e acabei de ler a querer saber mais sobre este universo e a desejar que a Louise escrevesse outro livro. O final é altamente chocante (nunca me passou pela cabeça durante a leitura) e deixou-me num transe e num luto pós-leitura.

As Filhas de Eva (tradução muito parva em português) é muito mais que um Young Adult porque nos faz confrontar e revoltar com as vivências das personagens, faz-nos sofrer com elas, faz-nos odiar a personagem principal - a Freida - e, ao mesmo tempo, chorar com ela. E dentro do género distopia, este foi, sem dúvida, dos que mais me prendeu e me fez acreditar num futuro em que isto poderia realmente acontecer.

God Bless Louise e a sua imaginação que me tornei a sua maior fã <3

[Jesse Baker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Am I the only person who was disappointed by this book? I was entertained enough to keep reading it because I had heard the ending was shocking, however I was underwhelmed. This book was very repetitive, and there was nothing underneath the surface.

[April (Aprilius Maximus) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This . . . this is a really hard book to rate because NONE OF IT is enjoyable. at all. but it's really thought provoking and anger inducing and well written, so??????

[Kirsty-Marie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once upon a time, there was a happy book. This is not one of them. Once upon a time, there was a clever book. This is one of them. It's funny because of course before you go into a book you never know what to expect, especially with synopsis's lately that sound amazing but turn out disappointing, again, this is not that book.

The world in Only Ever Yours is based upon Men's idealism of women, and what a dark world that is. Women are no longer made, they are genetically made and modified and are perfected to that ideal, but, there is always room for improvement. These new women are called eves, they were made for one purpose only. To please men. And while this will probably want to make you hit the book in various places, keep with it. It's worth it. The eves are trained in a strict boarding school, to squash all emotion, to stay at a target weight, to be everything a man would want in a companion- which brings me to the 3 sections. At their final year, 10 get chosen as Companions to the men, become Concubines (which are basically prostitutes), or become a Chastity, eve's that teach the future eve's in the school.

I'm not going to lie, Only Ever Yours isn't a light book, it's surprisingly heavy than I thought it would be. It's quite disturbing in a way that not even some religions and other countries portrayal and treatment of women know. It also brings up a lot of issues, and in a way, it would sound like a perfect dream, wouldn't it? You're made to be genetically perfect, they have tablets and medication to keep you healthy, to help you to not gain weight, calorie blockers. But even here, we have the same issues we do today, bulimia, anorexia, body dysmorphia and how we view ourselves. Even here, the pressure to be perfect is still there. eve's compare themselves to each other, how we compare ourselves to each other, an all consuming jealously and hate that are not to be shown are shoved down their throats with feelings they can't and won't express until it simmers and simmers, and with our main lead, freida, and downward spiral of her own destruction.

I loved how it was written, it's pretty clever when you think about it, with the names and capitulation. The eves are made, not born, so they have no names, it's like they're not human. They're not treated like humans. They are called and talked at by numbers by others, but talk to each other by names.

There's also two on-going mysteries in Only Ever Yours, both including isabel, one that starts making sense at a certain page over halfway through, but is only confirmed and realised towards the end, and the latter that'll creep up on you literally within the last five pages. Usually I'd hate that, having to wait all that time and wondering if it's worth it, but trust me. It is. While it's heavily based on perfection through a man perception, Only Ever Yours also holds a blurred lines card. Between friendship and love, and a fine line between a homosexuality gene. We've all heard at some point that being gay is a 'life' choice. And then you've heard people are born gay, and that there's even a gene. Only Ever Yours explores that, that though these girls, these women have been genetically made to be these perfect specimens, to serve and love mean, can also love each other too. Female aberrations that had supposedly been wiped out might still exist, because love is love and you can't wipe that out.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'd rather live in another disastrous dystopian book than this one. Not that I would say Only Ever Yours was dystopian, because it's not. I wouldn't even say it's a new age/ new world type of novel either. It's more idealism at its chokehold.


With Only Ever Yours, it shows perfectly that the worst things we can hear about ourselves, can come from our own mouths.


~~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.~

-----
Review originally posted on Studio Reads

[Ellen Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

"I am a good girl. I am pretty. I am always happy-go-lucky."



Sigh. I was so excited for this. A YA feminist dystopia given a blurb of approval by Jeanette Winterson, she of The Passion, which was dreamy and whimsical and everything I wanted Only Ever Yours to be. In a world full of genetically engineered women, aka eves, girls are trained from age four to please men. The story follows freida (non capitalized, like all eves names) who is in her last year of school. Her whole life has been leading up to the moment when she finds out whether she will be a companion, concubine, or chastity.

I have some problems. First, all of the characters are pretty fucked up. And not in the Game of Thrones, missing body parts, incest, and torture kind of fucked up. The eves at the school are vapid and blank, obsessed with perfect appearance and composure. Of course, this is how they were designed and raised. Unfortunately, what the reader gets is pages upon pages of social media, beauty, fashion, and girls constantly comparing each other and tearing each other down. Besides isabel (who would have made a far better main character imo), I can't think of one character that I actually like.

Also, everything is synthetic and I don't believe it. I don't believe in this future society with no animals and plastic grass where they can roll out women like Hyundais. I've enjoyed novels before where I never bought into the main concept, but there was nothing exceptional for me to latch onto here.



Finally, the focus on weight. I understand that having a perfect body is a requirement of being an eve, (you couldn't really write this sort of book without it), but reading about it is exhausting. Protruding ribs, the vomitorium, fat rolls, kcal blockers, 'the fat girl buffet'...I mean if they can engineer women, and obesity was so disgusting to them, why would they even give the eves the option of chocolate cake? If they can wipe out certain genes, why not just make all the eves skinny and save everyone a lot of work? It does not compute.

The book hints at possible attraction between freida & isabel, but doesn't go there. Their friendship is frustrating to me in a lot of ways.

Overall, it's not a bad book, just a frustratingly shallow one. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had lower expectations going in, and if I hadn't heard it compared to Mean Girls. Anything compared to Mean Girls is going to get crushed. It's like, the rules of feminism.

[Glire · Rating 1 out of 5]

What would you do if you failed to produce sons? Throw myself on the pyre before Termination Date so my husband can marry someone better. What would you do if a man asked you for sex when you where feeling unwell? Always be willing. What would you do if a man asked you to perform a sexual act you felt uncomfortable with? Always be willing.

I want to forget I ever read this book. On a scale of zero to 'Leonardo Dicaprio asking for a lobotomy in Shutter Island', I am Leo. Running to the lighthouse.

[Lala BooksandLala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating Only Ever Yours is difficult. This book is not designed to be enjoyed, but rather demands to be felt. It has a powerful message, and I felt the way the book intended, however I still struggle with a rating because my enjoyment level was so low. But was my enjoyment level low because of the subject matter, or due to something the book was lacking? I'm not sure myself.

[Reading Corner · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I was thinking more about this book and I've decided to drop it to 4.5 stars due to the ending.

This book is just wow, it is soooo good and incredibly engrossing,I couldn't wait to get back to reading this one every time I put it down.It completely surpassed my expectations and has weaved it's way into my highly recommend.The story is completely enthralling, it reels you in from the start as the dytsopian world that Louise'Neill creates is just so interesting.Although,the ending is slightly anti-climatic.

The story revolves around frieda,an eve who is in her sixteenth and final year in school where she has been training for her whole life to become one of the thirds,a companion,concubine or chastitie.A companion involves the life as a wife and mother of sons, a concubine is simply there to carry out a man's every need but a chastity which is considered the worst, is where they run the schools and train future eves.frieda faces the prospect of her nearing future but struggles along the way especially since her best friend,isabel is becoming more and more distant.

Only Ever Yours is a fantastic dystopian novel which delves into frightening possibilites.It deals with serious problems in our society today like the objectification of women,anorexia,bullying and negative body image to create an amazing plot.I was never bored while reading this or even zoning out,this book fully immersed me into the story,it was completely enrapturing and held every shred of my attention.

The characters are weirdly complex,they're bred to be a certain way but sometimes you see outbursts of their personalities,especially isabel who becomes incredibly intriguing as the story goes on.She seems to deviate the most but so do some of the others, including frieda.

However, the ending was a little disappointing as I sorta expected more and I think the novel could have been a tad bit longer.

Overall though Only Ever Yours is a novel with an amazing storyline and great characters which is all perfected with great writing.I'd highly recommend this book to everyone,it is incredibly good but the ending is a little bit disappointing.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up.

I enjoyed this more than I probably should have, but I’ve missed a good bit of YA dystopian fiction. This reads very well, it’s easy to follow and the plot itself doesn’t drag at all. I felt completely wrapped up in frieda’s world and found it interesting and thought provoking. Isobel in particular, with her hidden secrets and privileges, was intriguing and I felt for her while watching this decent into self destruction. I found frieda naive in nature. She’s described as ‘eager to please’ and a bit of a sheep - and she is, but I feel this is more a product of her surroundings and upbringing rather than her fault. Her need to love and be loved is particularly touching at times. Megan I hated just for being megan. I’ve known those girls, with their hate dressed up as smiles.

I would have liked to have seen more of the wider world outside of the school, and learn a little bit more about the outside environment away from the women and why the social constructs are the way they are. However, the inclusive nature of the school and its habit of keeping all of the eves in the dark regarding their future, and restricting the access to information, only helped propel the feeling of paranoia and claustrophobia within.

I didn’t like the obsession with weight and ‘fat talk’, and found it verging on unhealthy obsession. For a book aimed at younger teens, I found it a little disturbing to read these girls discuss weight as if fat girls are worthless, although when taking in context with the whole book, women are essentially seen as disposable play things for men. Good for breeding and ‘fun’ only, and this mentality is bred in the eves from birth. This whole aspect I recoiled at, and although it was well written into the story to highlight an extreme form of misogyny, I couldn’t find myself entirely comfortable with it.

The ending I found hopelessly depressing and despondent. It also ended quite abruptly, with no healthy outcomes for any of the women involved. They were either all married off, became concubines, or killed off. Bleak.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the cover, this book is hell in the new world.

Welcome to The School, where girls are designed and for the first sixteen years of their lives they are taught to calorie control, to look pretty at all times, to be controlled. They work out on running machines that yell at them they are fat.

They compete against their sisters to be the most beautiful girl in their school year. Every day of their lives is in preparation for the big day, the ceremony, where the men chose their companion to birth their sons.

Enter a world of eating disorders and sex slavery. A world where woman are always willing.

It's uncomfortable but it's definitely a page turner.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I read the final page of “Only Ever Yours” and was incoherent for about half an hour. Literally. Thats how good it was. Unbelievably believable, , compelling, utterly riveting and scary as hell when you think how much of this imaginary world could so easily be our reality given a simple twist of history or fate, I was completely undone by the whole reading experience.

We follow along mostly with frieda – she’s an “Eve”, a female bred for the pleasure or service of men. She is at “school” learning to be perfect, respectful, pleasing and beautiful, and hoping to be ranked in the top ten which almost guarantee’s that she will become a companion, wife to a man with the sole purpose really of bearing him sons. Each day is filled with a number of classes and activities to ensure perfection in all things – weight, skin, hair, and attitude. When Frieda’s friend Isabel starts gaining weight disproportionately, Frieda is torn between supporting her in her time of need and maintaining a distance. But Isabel is behaving strangely and all is not as it appears.

It is really difficult to put into words the impact this book has – Ms O Neill has a unique writing style which literally pops off the page – you are drawn into this strange yet oddly familiar world – where even when there is a drug for everything, the young girls face the same issues that can be found in our world. Bulemia, anorexia, self esteem issues and peer pressure. The school environment is very similar to high school – the popular girls rule, any sign of being different is frowned upon. As the time moves ever closer for the ceremony that will see the girls move into their next life as either companion, concubine (basically prostitutes) or chastities (those who remain in school and teach the next generation) frieda’s world starts to disintigrate into madness as she struggles to maintain her worth. It is heart pounding, captivating and often hard to read.

I am deliberately being a bit obtuse about plot details – it will shock you, enthrall you and completely absorb you during the time you are in it, but if I tell you too much of the whys and wherefores the impact will lessen. And that would not do, oh no not at all.

This book is most definitely “The Handmaids Tale” for a new young generation – Whilst it is dark, uncompromising and utterly daunting to read as a woman, it is and should be a classic in the making. If you want a happy read, an uplifting and redemptive tale then look away now – this is stark, unrelenting and absolutely gut wrenching, yet completely fascinating and will make you consider a lot of things. If my daughter were still a teenager I would be throwing this book at her. I’m probably going to throw it at her anyway. This one will stay with me for a long time.

Basically, just read it now. Thats all I really NEED to say.

**Review copy received via Netgalley**

[Bicho da Galáxia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este livro, título em português "As Filhas de Eva", é neste momento o livro mais procurado de sempre nas livrarias portuguesas e com bons motivos para isso. Surgiu no meio do mês por influência da @helenaimagalhaees e decidi mandar vir em inglês.
Para começar este livro é uma distopia (e eu adoro, ADORO distopias), onde o mundo é obscuro e as mulheres são meros acessórios de beleza e criadas em laboratório para satisfazer os homens que as escolhem segundo a sua beleza física, porque nada menos do que a perfeição será aceite.
Dentro da escola onde habitam até aos dezoito anos apenas podem ser selecionadas para três futuros, serem esposas de homens que as escolhem, concubinas que servirão apenas para dar prazer aos homens e as professoras das seguintes gerações de "alunas" que chegam mesmo a ter aulas de como dar prazer a um homem e como se manterem perfeitas, magras e atraentes.
Tudo neste livro é doentio, lembra-me demasiado algumas das lutas que nós, mulheres, temos de enfrentar nos tempos que correm e por isso mesmo acho que é um livro de leitura obrigatória. Eu não o conseguia largar e quando me aproximei do fim gostava que realmente houvesse uma continuação onde desse para saber mais sobre o mundo fora da escola. A escrita atraiu-me imenso por ser tão eléctrica, tão capaz de me entusiasmar mesmo estando, por vezes, a ler atrocidades.
Que lutemos por um futuro diferente e que distopias destas não passem apenas de livros bem escritos e interessantes.

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is 8 years old, and already feels like a relic. Do you remember that time when every teen dystopia was a variation of The Handmaid's Tale? Only Ever Yours is one of those. The world building is pretty wonky here, but I like O'Neill's punchy writing, and she has a talent for dialog. Lots of commentary on weight and dynamics among young women. I am a fan, but I think I just click with this author's writing style. Objectively speaking, this one won't be a crowd pleaser, but Idol will be!

[Elaine Mullane || Elaine and the Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read Only Ever Yours when it was released in 2014. To this day, it is still my favourite work of YA dystopian fiction.

In a world where girls are created and bred for the pleasure of men, the only important thing for the eves to do is be beautiful. frieda is in her final year of school and is being prepped to be handed off to a sixteen-year-old male Inheritant and live a life based purely out of service: to be willing and to reproduce. If she isn't good enough to be chosen, she will become either a concubine (prostitute) or a chastity (a nun-like teacher). In school, the lessons enforce the idea that beauty and perfection are paramount, as is submissiveness and obedience. The lessons the eves are subject to mimic the messages fed to and projected on girls in contemporary society: fatness is ugly; thinness is beautiful; saying no means you are frigid; saying yes means you are a slut; female friends are your competition; and being agreeable and subservient will win you a man.

Louise O'Neill is one of my favourite writers. I read a quote somewhere before that said she "writes with a scalpel" and think it is one of the most accurate descriptions of her work. She is utterly fearless, unwilling to be phased by uncomfortable topics, and her sharp, probing prose pushes you into dark territory and makes you question the world around you. The literary techniques she employs are very clever; I particularly like in this book how she takes away the girls' power by featuring their names in lowercase. Simple but so effective.

If you haven't read this book, I urge you to do so. It's an uncomfortable read but a tremendously important one. Louise O'Neill's work is incendiary.

[Lotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even after finishing it, I still have so many conflicting thoughts about this book. The story definitely kept me interested, but in the end I wished it had been more than it was.
Maybe I'll be able to form some coherent thoughts about this later, but for now I'm going to give it a 3, maybe even a 3.5 star rating.
(I also feel like reading a super fluffy, happy contemporary now, because this was pretty depressing.)

[Ömer · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

"Nihayet beden öğrendi. Kız bebeğin bir istilacı olduğunu, annesinin güzelliğini çalmaktan başka bir işe yaramadığını öğrendi. Kız bebekler tehlikeliydi."

Yorumu için: http://kronikokur.blogspot.com.tr/201...

[Seyma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ben şimdi ne okudum? Yazara olan nefretimi anlatmaya kelimeler yetmez. Konuyu düşündüğüm gibi işleyememiş olması hayal kırıklığına uğrattı beni..

[Charley Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the most disturbing dystopia-esque book I've ever read because it's so....real...damn
Full review to come.

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Assustador, real e pesado.
Um abre olhos para todos nós.
Estou indecisa com a pontuação, acho que são 4,5 estrelas porque foi bom... mas houveram coisas que me deixaram a odiar o livro, por exemplo: Duas personagens com nomes muitos idênticos, uma que se chamava "daria" e eu ficava confusa por aparecer em letras pequenas, além do mais o livro deixou-me irritada por ser tão real e ao mesmo tempo enrolar em certas partes... MAS WOW , eu vou dar as 5 estrelas arredondadas pois ele merece, do fundo do meu coração: ESTE LIVRO MERECE!
Amei, amei , amei, nem sei como escrever a minha opinião para o vídeo especial porém irei fazê-lo.
Se existem livros com o qual eu chorei, este foi um deles.

[Dora Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Distopia maravilhosa!!!
Recomendação, recomendo!!
A minha opinião em vídeo em Livros à Lareira com chá em breve!

[Esma T · Rating 1 out of 5]

Cümleleri toplayamıyorum öfkeden. Kitap Flashtvdeki reklamlar gibi,
Çakma ürünleri yeni gibi sunma; ePad, eFon..
Aynı şeyleri sürekli tekrar etme;kitapta sürekli aynı şeyi okuyorsunuz bazen acaba bu sayfayı okudumda yanlışlıkla geri mi okuyorum diyorsunuz.
Sinir bozucu sunucu, kitabın anlatıcısı kız o kadar sinir bozucuydu ki her sayfada biri kafasını patlatsa keşke diye okudum, nasıl tv karşısında o sunucular sizi delirtiyor freida ondan daha beterdi.
Ve pazarlama bir şekilde tuzağa düşüp ürünü alıyor ve okuyorsunuz. Sanıyorsunuz ki feminist distopya okuyacaksanız işte o noktadan sonra işler karışıyor.

Ben feminist distopya beklentisi ile başladım, okuduğum bir tanıtım buna sebep oldu kitabı araştırmadan okudum, genç yetişkin edebiyat ürünü olduğunu da okurken öğrendim. Neyse, işte ben feminizm, kadın hakları sistem eleştirisi bekleyerek kitaba başladım. Yazar kadınların ciddi ciddi eşya olduğu bir dünya kurgulamış, erkeklerin beğenisine göre üretilen havvalar on altı yaşına gelene kadar iyi eş olmayı öğreniyor ve sürekli kiloları ölçülüyor, güzellik testine tabii tutuluyorlar. İlk kırk sayfa okurken içim şişti, ama yazar dünyasını tanıtıyor ileride sistem eleştirisi olur diye umut ettim devam ettim. İlk bakışta yazarın kurgusu mantıklı ve günümüz dünyasını anımsatıyor, Victoria Secret melekleri nasıl günümüzde erişilmesi gereken bir mertebe gibi gösteriliyor ve kadınların psikolojisi bozuluyorsa bu dünyada da benzer bir şey söz konusu, tabii her şey daha ağır şartlar altında. Ya mükemmel olursunuz ya da yok olursunuz. Kadınlar sadece erkekler için var ve kırk yaşında son kullanma tarihleri doluyor ve yakılıyorlar!

İlk yüz sayfa umutluydum olaylar değişecek, yazar depresif anlatımdan kurtulacak, kendine güvensiz aptal anlatıcı bir şeyleri fark edecek sistem eleştirisi gelecek. Yok gelmedi, iki yüzlere geldiğimde umudum kalmamıştı, sadece yazar nasıl bitirecek merak ettim. Sinirden kudurarak okudum, hızlıca okudum ki bir an önce bitsin yoksa delirecektim..

Lafı çok uzatıyorum ama sinirliyim, yazar ne yapmaya çalışmış anlamadım. Bu kitapta zerre kadar feminizm yok, kurgu yok, olay yok, mesaj yok. Sadece yazar aklıma şöyle bir şey geldi yazayım demiş yazmış bırakmış, hiç düşünmemiş üstüne belli ki, insan şunu dönüp bir okusa kalkıp yayınlatmaz. Her satırda ayrı bir mantık hatası vardı, okurken yazar sürekli aynı cümleleri tekrarladığı için istemdışı tüm hataları beş kez kontrol edecek zaman buluyorsunuz. Mantık hatalarına çok değinmek istemiyorum, yazı uzadıkça uzuyor.

Kitap bir ara da iyice genç yetişkin aşk romanına bağladı ki yazarın bizle dalga geçtiğine emin oldum. Birde değinmeden edemeyeceğim, ailesiz sevgisiz büyüyen, sürekli rekabet halindeki kızlar böyle olmaz kimse kusura bakmasın. Daha yırtıcı olurlar, dedikodu ile değil icraatle de birbirlerinin ayaklarını kaydırmaya çalışırlar. Kitaptaki tek umut veren, mantıklı olan Pavlov'un yönteminin kullanılarak kızların uysal olması, o da rekabeti tamamen önleyemez.

Sonra Baba olayı var. Devleti yöneten yaşlı bir Baba var ve bu kadınların tanrısı gibi bir şey. Bu devlet kaç yıldır var, sistem nasıl oturdu, bu adam ölünce ne olacak vs milyonlarca soru. Adamın kendine kadın sipariş edip ürettirmesi, gel beni boğ diye bağırmasıda karakterin cilvesi. Karakter sinirlerimi oynattığı için fazla bahsetmek istemiyorum.

Distopya yazıyorsanız bir sistem kurarsınız, önce sistemi tanıtırsınız ve ilerleyen sayfalarda zaman zaman direk zaman zaman da kapı aralayarak sistem eleştirisi yapar, insanları düşünmeye sevk edersiniz. Sisteminizi geçekçi kurar, mantık temeline oturtur, okuru sarsarsınız ki okur o ürperti ile istemdışı düşünmeye başlar ve sistem eleştirinizin de yardımı ile DÜŞÜNÜR, İLHAM ALIR, GÖZLEMLER ve kendi fikrine ulaşır. Bu kitapta şu paragraftaki hiçbir şey yoktu, ürpetmek dışında ki bir süre sonra ürperti de geçiyor sadece yazara sinirleniyorsunuz.

Bu kitap ne amaçla yazıldı bilmiyorum (cinselliğe bakışını falan hiç anlamadım) ama kesinlikle feminist distopya falan değil, okunmaya değmez hatta yazıldığı genç-yetişkin yaş grubuna da okutulmamalı bence. Bu kitabı beğenip, ilham alanları da anlamadığımı belirteyim, distopya, sistem eleştirisi böyle olmaz sevgili okur. Çok uzun bir yorum oldu, daha kitapta eleştirilecek çok nokta var ama bu yorum akıllarda bir fikir oluşturmuştur umarım.

Kitaplara düşük puan vermeyi sevmiyorum, genelde yazarın emeğini göz önünde bulundurmaya çalışır, kitapları karalamak istemem ama en çok bu kitaba düşük puan vermek istedim, hatta 1'den düşük bir puan olsun istedim.

http://yorumatolyesi.blogspot.com/201...

[Cora Tea Party Princess · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 Words: Beauty, power, property, friendship, freedom.

YA Shot read-a-long March 2016

I really enjoyed this book, if that's even the right word, but by the end I felt kind of deflated. I felt that, just like the characters, all hope was gone, lost.

This is a good book, but it's also utterly horrible.

It takes the very worst aspects of human nature and exaggerates them and makes everything HORRIBLE, but you can't stop reading because it's so well written and right until the end you have this tiny shred of hope that maybe this is the beginning of change and things will get better but then your hopes are dashed and you just want to cry.

I felt awful reading this. I felt sick. It made me think about things I didn't want to think about. It made me think the very worst of myself and I hated it.

Back in high school, I battled with an eating disorder. I have never understood that books could be triggers until now, I haven't ever read anything that's go to me so much. Because what these girls were feeling? This is what I felt. Every day I'd mentally rip myself to shreds, just as these girls rip into each other. But I think it's good that I read this. As much as it hurt, as hard as it was, I know I am stronger for it. It reinforced that I can do this, that I can continue fighting.