Only Ever Yours

read this a long long time ago but it still lives in my head rent-free. as many have noted this is slightly mediocre taken as a straight dystopia (as basically all YA dystopias bar THG are) — and yet this is one of the only "YA dystopias" i've read that actually does feel real. i'm not sure if i'd call it an allegory or a metaphor or whatever, but once the reader discards the superfluous somewhat hokey ~dystopian things~ (e.g. weird capitalization stuff, vague climate change and genetics handwaving) there is a true core of meaning here. there's lots of texture in this book, from freida's obsessive cataloguing of fashion details to the constant mean-girls politics at play, and this is such a good writing choice imo because it forces you into the mind of a person who feels like they truly grew up in the world depicted (and it's all the more horrifying because she's just a darker and more exaggerated version of your worst thoughts and impulses). freida most certainly breaks the dystopian-YA-girl mold; anything else would feel completely disingenuous. in conclusion: this book is basically 1984 for teen girls and once u realize that freida is winston it all makes sense!

** spoiler alert ** I have no idea how to talk about this book! It is unlike anything I have ever read before and I'm finding it really difficult to organise my thoughts about it. From the blurb, I got the idea that these girls Frieda and Isabel were going to be two girls who go against the societal constructs and are in love.. I thought it was going to be that kind of dystopian about romance and overcoming something. I was so wrong. The book is set far into the future where girls are unable to be conceived naturally because of so many unwanted baby girls being born or aborted. The men dominate society, all led by an ominous figure named only 'The Father'. Women are created artificially in laboratories and developed in plastic wombs before being groomed from birth to learn how to fulfil the men's needs (birthing boys and having sex). These girls are then sorted into one of 3 groups when they are 16; The Companions: only 10 are chosen from each year group and they are basically the wives and baby breeders for the men until the date they are told to die comes around before they get old and they're thrown on the pyre. The Concubines: basically sex slaves. The Chastities: the women who were unwanted by the men and have to groom the children to become worthy of male attention. If I were in this book I would've definitely rather been a chastity. One thing that struck me from the start with this book is that none of the girls' names are capitalised at all. Only the men have capitalised names and even their pronouns are capitalised. This is of course an authorial device used by Louise O'Neill to show just how objectified the women are in this dystopian world where women are defined by their beauty and nothing else. In this world, intelligence in women is frowned upon and any intellectual activities are chastised. I went into this book thinking there would be LGBT aspects and I was right, there were, but not in the way I was expecting. In this society gay people are known as aberrants (abnormal) and it is understood that the "gene" that causes female aberrants AKA lesbians has been destroyed. When the protagonist, frieda, learns from her 'Inheritant' boyfriend that there can be female aberrants she starts to analyse her feelings for her (ex)best friend isabel and kind of comes to the conclusion that she is or was in love with isabel. I found it very sad that frieda had to keep this part of her hidden for the fear of being murdered as the other 'female aberrants' had been in the past. I so badly wanted her to just find some way for her and isabel to escape and live together in a nice little cottage somewhere. But of course what happened had to happen to make the book what it is. Isabel was by far my favourite character in the book. She was ranked the highest of the year group for most of their lives and yet she never let it go to her head. She seemed to be the only one who didn't feel the need to judge the other girls for their appearances. The whole thing about her being weeded out by 'The Father' was so sad. To think an old man had been having a child groomed to become his 'companion' is disgusting and yet it happens in our own world. My least favourite characters are megan and Darwin. Megan was just irritating but it was hard to blame her because she ultimately is a victim of the society but Darwin was just infuriating. All of the men in this book were the same. I think that was the point. Overall, this is not a happy story at all. The ending is very sad and there really aren't any comic relief points. But it was a very eye-opening read and I loved it. I could not put the book down and I've been talking to people non-stop about it since the first few pages. It is definitely a book that sticks with you and makes you want to discuss and get everyone's opinions on it. I would recommend this to everyone!

Handsmaid's Tale meets Never Let Me Go meets The Bachelor meets Mean Girls...

I might also add, a modern The Handmaids Tale, there is a place in this world for both of these novels and a different reader might prefer one or the other, or you know, might even enjoy both. O'Neill focuses in on things that Atwood doesn't and vice versa. Both are necessary and both are gripping.

Handmaid's Tale meets Mean girls. The writing style made the book a quick and easy read, and the fact that it dives right into the plot only helped -- except there could have been so much more plot to explore. The ending was extremely anti-climatic, and the spats between the girls got boring quite quickly. (view spoiler)[There was so much more that could have done with the 'female aberrant' plotline. Were isabel and frieda really in love? We have no idea. Had this 'rainbow gene' truly ever been deleted by the eves' genetic pool? We don't know. How did the creation really happen? We don't know either. isabel's storyline was hyped for the whole book, but her special treatment only turned out to be because she had been chosen by some important creepy old man as his next spouse. frieda was branded as 'defective' even though she didn't display a behavior that was all that different from that of the other girls. There's no revolution set in place, just a couple of girls whose futures didn't turn out to be what they had wanted. (hide spoiler)] In general, I was very excited for this book, but it was a bit of a let down.

This was an interesting book. I kind of hated the premise, that women are created just for men, and in the school they only learn how to please men, either with their beauty or their ovaries (making boy babies). Still I liked the characters, and it was actually a good read. My thoughts are a bit mixed, but everyone should read it :)

This isn't a book with a happy ending. This isn't a book that will make you cry either. The amazing thing with this book is that it's set in a dystopian world and it is still able to be more real and to hit more close to home than a lot of other books. This is not a book about love, nor about friendship. However, it still manages to talk about those topics. This is a book about trying to be perfect and to please everybody. This is a book every girl and every boy should read. Because this is a book that makes us feel disgusted about thinking of a society like that and without even noticing it shows us that we are, in some ways, that society.

3.5 stars

What just happened?! This book has wrecked me. This story was dark, twisted and completely enthralling. Only Ever Yours is set in a future world where girls are no longer born naturally, therefore girls know as ‘eves’ are manufactured. Eves are meant to be the perfect girl. The Eves are raised in a school like environment where girls are ranked by their looks… Think high school on steroids where the outside world judges your rank by weekly photos. The popularity of the Eves is judged by their rank, this all leads to the girls being selected for 1 of 3 options, they may become a companion to a wealthy male, suffer the terrible fate of becoming a concubine or stay on at the school as a chastity(pretty much a teacher). Even though this book is set in a futuristic world it showcases the real issues girls face in regards to their looks and how they are to act. Issues such as bulimia and anorexia are looked on favourably by the girls attempting to reach the optimal weight that men find attractive. Obesity is also dealt with, any girl who gains weight is bullied and ridiculed not only by her fellow Eves but also by the chastities. The book follows freida who, whilst striving for perfection, takes a few unexpected turns and falls off the rails. The ending of this book killed me. If you are not a fan of unhappy ending I suggest you do not read this book. However it is an amazing, well written book that I would recommend to all.

So fucked up. So depressing. So engrossing.

I finished this book yesterday, and all I have to say is that I've been thinking about it all day. I literally can't get it out of my mind. Unfortunately, I checked this book out from the library and had to turn it back in today, so I couldn't immediately re-read it. Definitely going on the (very) short list of books I want to buy.

The novel depicts a world in which women are bred in schools, training from birth how to please men and once they are old enough their fate in dependant on how well they have done this. When they graduate, the most eligible girls become “companions” to men and live with them, breeding sons until their purpose is fulfilled. If a girl fails to graduate and is not eligible to be chose as a “companion” she is destined to live a destitute and lonely life. Freida and Isabel are two of the most highly rated girls in school, obvious choices for companions, but as they ender their final year, Isabel begins to put on weight, a huge mistake in this restricted world. Freida must try to save them both from ending up as concubines, but in doing so, she begins to uncover the horrific truths of the world they live in. Firstly, O’Neill took on a lot when writing this. It raises questions about topical issues such as female beauty standards, and in general, the effect of patriarchy on the lives of women. The problem is, she just doesn’t do it justice... read the full review here: https://www.amybucklesbookshelf.co.uk...