Review: Eve and Adam

Title: Eve & Adam
Authors: Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate
Rating: 4/5
Blurb:
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?

Review:

I expected to enjoy this book when I picked it up; it had been on my to-read list the second I heard of it a few months ago. So when I picked it up in early October, I added it to my 'immediately to-read' pile. And if you haven't guessed from my rating, I was not disappointed.

Eve & Adam was everything I expected it to be. The story was intriguing, unique, had great characters I could not help but love, and kept me interested until the last page. I think the only reason I did not give this book a full 5/5 rating is because I was left confused and slightly disappointed on a few things. I will get to those in a minute, but first I want to talk about what drew me in to this book and what kept me there.

I've been  looking to get more and more into sci-fi, so this book was a great help. It included the right amount of sci-fi for a non-sci-fi reader to enjoy without being overwhelming, but I feel it would be still interesting enough for a heavy-sci-fi reader to also enjoy.

The whole concept of this book was interesting. I don't want to give too much away, but basically Eve is given a project by her mother in which she is told to create a simulation person. Eve chooses to create her perfect male, whom she names Adam as a play on the whole 'Eve and Adam' thing. And as you learn later in the book, things happen and the technology is taken to a whole new level. It's a pretty amazing concept, to be able to create another human, but as Eve learns, it's not always the most ideal thing.

The bits of mystery added in (who really is the 'bad guy' here?) was fun. It had me constantly second-guessing myself. Was it person one? Then we find out a bit more about other people and was it person two? Or was it one? Is this idea just here to throw me off the trail of person one? I really enjoyed that.

I felt like this book could have been longer or had a sequel. Everything was solved so quickly, which was great, and maybe it's just me because I'm a huge lover of series, but the fact that everything was solved so quickly also made me feel like there was something missing. Everything felt so neatly tied up, but at the same time, it didn't. I'm not sure how to explain that any better. After you've read it, discuss with me in the comments. I'd like to see your take on it.

It never once mentioned what year this book takes place, does it? It's obvious from the world the authors drew up that it was not written to be taking place in 2012, nor even a few years from now. But it definitely doesn't sound like it takes place over one hundred years -- or even fifty -- from now. There was still talk about iPods, although there were hints in the text that that sort of technology was considered 'old'. How old, though, I am not sure. Old as in how walkmans to us now in 2012 are old? Or old as in the first generation of iPods are old to us now? This never felt clear to me, and unless I really missed it, I would have liked a year mentioned somewhere in the book. This did not take away from the story, but looking back it's something I think would have helped people like me who wondered.


I think that's all I have to say on this one. Definitely something I'd recommend, especially to a non- sci-fi reader looking to get into sci-fi (or not). It was a really interesting novel, even though I do with the concept was taken further. But who knows? I feel like there is room for a sequel, but we'll see.

Let me know what you guys think of this one in the comments after you've read it -- whether or not you agree with me.