And girl created boy…
In the beginning, there was an apple—
And then there was a car crash, a horrible injury, and a hospital. But before Evening Spiker’s head clears a strange boy named Solo is rushing her to her mother’s research facility. There, under the best care available, Eve is left alone to heal.
Just when Eve thinks she will die—not from her injuries, but from boredom—her mother gives her a special project: Create the perfect boy.
Using an amazingly detailed simulation, Eve starts building a boy from the ground up. Eve is creating Adam. And he will be just perfect… won’t he?
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Release Date: October 2, 2012
Page Count: 291
Source: My copy.
Rating: 3.5/5
When I decided to pick up this book, I thought, “Please, authors, don’t fuck this up.” Sometimes a premise comes along that is so unique, so fantastic, that you really want it to be as good as it is supposed to be.
Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate did not fuck this up.
Evening (I don’t know what to call her. Evening? E.V.? Eve?) is the character I’ve been waiting for since I read The Raven Boys and fell in love with Blue. She is this down to earth, righteous person who knows herself and isn’t afraid to be that person. I find this trait to be refreshing in YA. It feels like this real personality is hard to find, and, because I love YA, when I find it, I feel like I can really fall in love with a person. So is the case with Evening. What I found so strong about her was that she didn’t lose this true sense of self, even when she (removed for spoilers) Usually, when the “big reveal” comes about in a YA setting, the person being affected (usually a girl) gets all upset and emotional and has a breakdown. Eve didn’t do that. She kept her cool, and I admire her for that. She made mistakes – which bugged me at the time – but as I wrapped up the book I realized she was still admirable. She is human and learns from those mistakes, which makes me love her even more.
Solo, on the other hand, felt more like a villain to me. I thought that my opinion of him would change as the novel progressed, but it never really did. (removed for spoilers) I don’t know what Evening saw in him; I can’t see it. Even having finished the book, I’m not a fan. It could be that his character wasn’t developed enough, but I don’t think that’s a problem for these two authors, seeing as the rest of the characters in the book felt so real to me. I just don’t think I particularly liked him, and therefore didn’t really fall into the romance between him and Evening. And that’s where my rating comes from. I think this book would have been better without the love interest in Solo. They could have been friends – that would have been fine – or anything but lovers, really. I thought Evening could do so much better.
I thought the two authors did very well with the world building of this novel: I pictured everything crisply. It was paced nicely; I was never bored yet it allowed me time to get to know the characters. The premise was executed perfectly. Though the ending didn’t surprise me (and to be honest, it was a little bit rushed), I was satisfied with the novel enough to enjoy myself along the ride. I think that Eve & Adam was written very well: everything from dialogue to setting to the characters was completely believable. It wasn’t perfect, what with Solo and the rushed ending that wasn’t all that surprising, but agreeable enough for me to say I liked it.
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