Only Ever Yours
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
'Utterly magnificent . . . gripping, accomplished and dark' Marian Keyes
WINNER: Newcomer of the Year at the IBAs
WINNER: Bookseller YA Prize
WINNER: CBI Eilis Dillon Award
Buzzfeed's Best Books Written by Women in 2014
The bestselling novel about beauty, body image and betrayal
eves are designed, not made.
The School trains them to be pretty
The School trains them to be good.
The School trains them to Always be Willing.
All their lives, the eves have been waiting. Now, they are ready for the outside world.
companion . . . concubine . . . or chastity
Only the best will be chosen.
And only the Men decide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the dystopian society of Irish author O'Neill's harrowing debut, freida is a 16-year-old "eve," manufactured by genetic engineers and raised to serve men. The eves (whose individual names are never capitalized in the book, unlike those of men) spend 16 years learning how to avoid "Unacceptable Emotions" such as anger and to scrupulously maintain their appearance, all in the hopes of catching the eye of one of 10 Inheritants, "the very men for whom were created." O'Neill's novel spans the months leading up to the ceremony when freida and her fellow eves will be divided into three groups: companions (akin to wives), concubines, and chastities. Competition, cruelty, and self-critique thrive at freida's school ("We may be perfectly designed, but really our eyes are too close together and our thighs are too big"), yet she can't quite stamp out her skepticism toward the system and her sympathy for herself, her peers, and especially her best friend, isabel. Terrifying and heartbreaking, O'Neill's story reads like an heir to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and M.T. Anderson's Feed, and, like those books, it's sure to be discussed for years to come. Ages 13 up.