Eve

September 19, 2011
Dubious gender politics and questionable character choices hinder this dystopian romance from Carey (the Sloane Sisters series). A generation after a plague wiped out 98% of humanity, orphaned girls like Eve are raised in secluded schools, conditioned to fear the outside, distrust men, and look forward to a comfortable life in the City of Sand. When Eve discovers what’s actually intended for her, she flees the school. Teaming up with another refugee classmate, Eve meets Caleb, a teenage boy who alternately attracts and repels her. Together and separately, the three struggle through numerous dangers in the postapocalyptic landscape, while Eve and Caleb fall for one another. First in a trilogy, the book squanders most of its potential on a premise involving repopulation through forced breeding, a “Wendy and the Lost Boys” scenario, and the protagonist’s naïveté and ill-considered actions. With rare exceptions, men are portrayed either as brutes to be feared or feral children in need of a mother figure. Similarly, women who aren’t complicit in maintaining the status quo are all but reduced to broodmares or objects of lust. Ages 12–up.