Rise by Anna Carey

 The Eve Series 

Eve, Once, Rise 

Published: April 2nd 2013

Publisher: Harper Audio
Website: Author’s Website
Series: Eve
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged 
Narration by: Tavia Gilbert

Quick Review

Introduction

            Taking place after the events of the last book, Eve has to live in the palace of the City of Sand. Caleb has been executed, she has married Charles against her will, and she soon discovers the repercussions of her one night with Caleb. Life in the palace plays against the backdrop of a growing revolution in the city, and Eve wants revenge against her father for killing the one man she has ever loved. Luckily, the elusive Moss is there to help.

Characters

            The characters in the last installment face many changes. Eve has been separated and reunited with most characters. Most are satisfying, and some will break your heart.

Arden is absent for most of the book. Where she does go, I saw it coming, but it made me cheer inside. This book cements her sheer awesomeness, but she really needs her own book series.

Clara has changed in this book for the better. She still carries the same bossy attitude, but she moves forward with Eve in many ways. She is an example of a character that changes with the tides of the world but still keeps her essential characteristics. She is another character that I do not want to say goodbye to. She doesn’t get much of an ending for herself, though the reader can assume her fate in the end.

Charles, poor Charles. He tried so hard with Eve, but she was forced to marry him. He could have forced himself on her, despite her love for a dead man, but he doesn’t. In fact, he goes out of his way to protect and help her. All for a woman who doesn’t love him – a woman who wants to tear down the very society that has treated him very well.

Rebellion

            I have to say that the rebellion aspect was a little underwhelming, though that is because the reader is delivered events only from Eve’s perspective, and she is stuck in the palace or within the city while under soldier supervision.

            Where the book shines is what Eve does for the rebellion. In Once, Eve was forced to leave Arden, Pip, Ruby, and all the other girls at the schools. Readers have criticized her for not doing anything for them (though when exactly and how was she supposed to manage that?). In this book, she takes action to save as many girls as she can. Her actions are realistic – at that point, she couldn’t take down the government all by herself. She helped as many girls as she could muster in a short amount of time. Girls were left behind, so it feels like Schindler’s List – she wished she could have done more, but she moved forward with those she did save.    

The Very End

Spoilers ahead

This is my very favourite part of the book, and after a brief search on the internet, a lot of people hated it. And yes, you can write whole feminist essays in favour for, or against, the ending. Personally, I was so happy that Rise ended the way that it did. Since this is a quick review, I will only go through my reasons briefly.

So, Caleb isn’t dead. Yes, this resurrection is a bit…exasperating. Granted, I didn’t see it coming, and it could happen. Eve’s father is a duplicitous and calculating man. If he needed some leverage against her, he would still have Caleb’s life to manipulate her.

Caleb starts the revolution, as far as Eve is concerned. She helped the rebellion by stealing maps in Once, so she was willing to help where she could. Once Caleb is dead, she helps more, in more drastic ways. You could say that it took the death of “her” man to move her to pivotal action/revenge. Thinking that he was dead gave her the edge to risk everything. She killed her father, the King of The New America, because she was angry and wanted change and revenge. To her, it was his revolution, and she wanted it to happen because she loved him and she saw the terrible conditions. She was able to do it, but she didn’t do it for him, for him to love her, or so they could live freely together. He was already dead. She did it because it would bring the change they wanted. She got him back after she achieved her goal, and she wasn’t expecting it. He wasn’t her goal. He was an unexpected revelation. It can be said that the author gave her a happy ending that she wasn’t expecting, but she deserved it. I do wonder though, how different the book would be if Caleb was never “dead”. Would she have had the courage to kill her father if Caleb were still alive? Would the task be purposed to her? What else would she have done, if anything at all?

The only thing I find strange is that she calls herself his wife. Well, that’s nice, though technically they aren’t married. But what do you call yourself? Declaring that she’s his girlfriend doesn’t do much for last words of a novel. Maybe the hospital won’t let her see him if they aren’t related. It’s just that they aren’t so it was weird to hear it. I’m sure they do get married and live happily ever after the book (and apparently, the author has written an epilogue, though I don’t think it’s needed).

   

Final Verdict

            If the first two books of the Eve trilogy excited you, the third is an excellent conclusion. It’s a realistic rebellion story – Eve is a single cog that has an important role in one event, but she doesn’t win the war all by herself, and she doesn’t even fight. Eve does her best to act appropriately when, in previous books, she failed. The series is great material for that teen who has read all the popular dystopian novels already.

Once by Anna Carey

The Eve Series
Eve, Once, Rise 

Published: July 3rd 2012

Publisher: Harper Audio
Website: Author’s Website
Series: Eve
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged 
Narration by: Tavia Gilbert

Quick Review 

Introduction

            Eve and Caleb made it to Califia, but only Eve was permitted inside to safety. Even though Caleb was wounded, he was turned away, and Eve is haunted during her time in Califia.

One day she hears a rumour that a boy fitting Caleb’s description is holed up outside of Califia, and Eve seizes the chance to save him. Instead of living happily ever after with Caleb, she ends up in the City of Sand. From here, the unexpected revelation of why the King wants Eve is revealed.

With everything changing for Eve in the City of Sand, she sees someone who couldn’t possibly be in the city’s streets – it’s Caleb, and the rebellion against the King is underway.

Eve

            For the people who couldn’t stand Eve in the first installment, she gets better in Once. She’s still not a “take-charge” girl yet, but she is on her way. She takes risks, though she is largely following orders. Still, considering her position, that takes bravery. Does she still make mistakes? Yes, and again, her mistakes lead to people dying. This mistake, to me, doesn’t seem likely to occur considering how much Caleb and the rebels are aware of how not to get caught. But it does, and I can’t change it, but I can’t agree that it would happen in reality.

Arden

            Oh, Arden, why weren’t you in this book more? She’s still an independent survivor and for that, she is still my favourite character. What happens in Once with her is heart wrenching, but you know that though something bad has happened, Arden will know how to pull herself out of danger. You just have to wait for Rise to find out what happens.

Rebellion

            The best part of this book is that the rebellion is rising from within the City of Sand. If you are the kind of person who gets goose bumps from rebellion stories (like me), I recommend Once, though the rebellion is just getting started. Throughout Once you can feel the rebellion gathering steam and momentum, and you can feel that it is about to burst into action soon. Eve is there, helping where she can. For the most part, though, she is in love with Caleb, and that drives most of the story.

Travel/Setting

            Where this book differs from Eve is where Eve and company travel and stay. In Eve, she and Arden had the agency to go where they pleased, and basically, they stayed where they pleased. In Once, it is not the case. Eve is in Califia, then captured in the City of Sand. Once she is in the City of Sand, her agency is greatly reduced, and she can only travel (almost) freely within the palace, and she can sneak around the city. Although I usually like to see more travelling characters exploring and moving in worlds, the City of Sand was much better than listening about the dug-out in Eve.

Final Verdict

The book series is rising above the first installment. In the beginning, Eve wasn’t the most independent or strong character, and she didn’t even have a character arch in Eve. In Once and Rise, Eve begins to evolve and change the world arwiound her. This series only gets better, so I highly recommend reading Once and Rise even if you thought Eve was just ok. This book lacks some of the greater themes that the first book has. Yes, the women’s rights issue is still present, but it isn’t treated the same way as in Eve. Arranged marriages are an issue in Once, but not on as a grand scale. The theme of government rebellions can be discussed using this book, but Rise would be a better candidate (though there are better books for that, such as The Unwind Dystology by Neal Shusterman).

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters

Published: June 10 2014
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Website: Author’s Website
Format: Audiobook, Unabridged 
Narration by: Christine Lakin

Quick Review

Introduction

During a run, Swanee dies from an unexpected cardiac arrest, leaving the people around her reeling. One of the people left behind is her girlfriend, Alix. Swanee also left her troubled sister, Joss, behind.

The death of Swanee unravels the lives of everyone around her. With her death, Swanee’s lies also unravel, and it is apparent to Alix that her girlfriend was living a double-life. A mysterious caller continues to text Swanee’s cell, not knowing that she died.

Alix has burning questions, and for some reason, Joss isn’t helping Alix understand what Swanee did.

As Alix struggles to fathom Swanee’s lies and if she ever loved Alix, she becomes close to someone through her own lies. Alix has left her own trail of deceit and destruction in her quest to figure out Swanee, and she’ll have to answer to someone she met because of Swanee’s death. 

Narrator

            This was narrated by Christine Lakin, and I have no complaints. The narrator has a grasp of the subtleties of the emotions that she is delivering, but she is very natural sounding too. No matter what character she was reading, she sounded like someone I could meet in real life. This naturalness is something that Tavia Gilbert (narrator of Eve) doesn’t have. Such an effortless voice grounds this story in reality.

LGBT Lit

            Obviously, this story is about two girls in a romantic relationship, planning on spending their lives together. What I really enjoyed was that the book wasn’t all about “OMG I’M INTO GIRLS AND NO ONE ACCEPTS IT!” Alix and Swanee are already lesbians without doubts (so it seems), though they are “out” to various degrees. I appreciated that this book was a tragic love story gone wrong, and the characters involved happen to be young women. I think some of the elements were thrown in there because the author felt like she had to (it gets a bit preachy). The lesbian characters treat intimacy the same as heterosexual book couples. The media tends to glorify and sexualize lesbians, and it’s nice to see that this doesn’t happen in this book (not too much, anyway - what’s there is more of a funny way to hang out that is awkwardly sexual).  

Plot

            The very beginning was boring to me. As in, I was walking down the street in the cold pre-sun darkness and I was considering taking off my mitts to listen to a different audio book. Alix’s parents drugged her after Swanee died. Yes, it strikes Alix deeply, and for a stretch of time she can’t accept that Swanee is dead. But how do I let go of the fact that her parents drugged her? I can’t. Not only is it deplorable, it’s unrealistic. Mix the drugging with Alix’s inability to accept Swanee’s death, and that was a painful beginning.  

            Personally, I didn’t find this to be too angsty. Can we ever know how we will react if a loved one dies unexpectedly?

Protagonist

Alix has a fantastic character arch as she realizes her late girlfriend wasn’t that great of a person, even though Alix loved her. On the other hand, Alix isn’t the greatest person, girlfriend, friend, daughter, or sister in the world. While this bothers a lot of people, I enjoy imperfect protagonists. No one is perfect, and I do have to say that her parents don’t allow her too much grieving time (seriously, her girlfriend just died, how reliable of a babysitter do you think she’ll be?), so her behaviour is probably at its worst.

Final Verdict

            Alix discovers other people’s secrets that fundamentally changes how she sees them. This happens in reality as we grow older, our delusions are stripped away, and there are plenty of moments in like this in the book. This is a beautiful romance and tragedy novel that happens to have two girls instead of a girl and a boy. I highly recommend LIES to teens and those who enjoy teen lit and who are open to the concept of two people loving each other regardless of gender. I would make sure that it is an appropriate book club read before putting it on the list, though, as not everyone has the same views nor the respect for diversity.