REVIEW: Eve & Adam

Eve & Adam by Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate
Published: October 2nd 2012 by Feiwel & Friends

Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Romance, Dystopia

Pages: 291 pages

Format: Hardback
Rating: 2/10
Description: 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?

I have almost nothing good to say about this book. It was just so lackluster: there was zero world-building, the characters were extremely shallow, the plot/premise was unoriginal; it lacked passion! 

The Characters? They were shallow, one-dimension, and just dumb. I didn't feel or relate to these characters, instead, I felt like I was watching two pieces of rocks communicate and interact. There was too much telling instead of showing. If Eve's leg hurts, the text will say, "Ouch, I lost my leg, and it hurts." If Eve thinks a boy is attractive, the text will say, "I think this boy is attractive. He has blue eyes. He's perfect." It was so frustrating and annoyingly simple. This wouldn't even be good enough to be considered a junior fiction novel, much less a young adult novel.
The Setting? Maybe this story would be a tad more engaging if there was even a small shred of world building. However, there isn't. Again, there is so much telling, not enough showing.
The extent of the setting descriptions are, "We are in San Francisco. There's a bridge." This is set in a dystopian world. It didn't really know what world it wanted to be in. First, we think it's futuristic with fantastic new technology, but then it goes back to being present day, it was very annoying. 

The Plot? Unoriginal, lackluster. There was insta-love, a love triangle (every YA dystopian needs one!), and the writing that went with it was amateur at best. There was no depth. 
There was some slut-shaming as well. Terra constantly refers to Aislin as a "drunken slut." There is also some uncomfortable and out-of-place pedophilia as two grown scientesits talk about a 16-year-old in a sexual manner:

"You haven't tapped that little piece yet? She's no great beauty, but she's cute enough, and she's got a nice little body."
"I'd do her, " Dr. Chen says.

In conclusion, I don't recommend this book to anybody, unless one is in desperate need for a sub-par YA dystopian novel. It's a super quick read, taking me under 2 hours or so. 

When I found out it's a series, I honestly was like:


Dear publishers, please stop it with the whiny teen dystopians. Enough.