Review: Eve and Adam

EVE AND ADAM
Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate
Young Adult
304 pages
Feiwel & Friends
Available October 2nd
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY (from Amazon)

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?

MY THOUGHTS
Quick and entertaining, Eve and Adam is one of those stories that doesn’t try to be deep and poignant; Mr. Grant and Ms. Applegate clearly preferring our lips to be curled in amusement rather than brows furrowed in concentration, making it extraordinarily easy to fly through Eve’s story in a single sitting. Those picking this book up hoping for an intense character study aren’t going to find it, as Eve, Solo, and finally Adam himself remain characters who don’t necessarily have us spellbound with their complexity, but though we remain in shallow waters with them, we find ourselves invested in their lives nonetheless. Despite some darker elements, Eve and Adam has a desirable lightness to it, the dialogue witty and easy-flowing as we’re carried from page to page with the assistance of smooth transitions from Eve’s point of view to Solo’s and finally Adam’s, and we reach the last page before we’re quite ready for our time with each of them to be over.

Eve has our attention from the very first line of the very first chapter, musing over her choice of less-than profound thoughts as she hurtles through the air after being hit by a car, showing us instantly that this is going to be a story that has the potential to be dark with the characters brooding and introspective, but chooses to have a little fun instead. She and Solo have enough tension and attraction sparking between them to give us the butterflies any lover of romance craves, their interactions sweet without being overly saccharine as they work their way toward coupledom without much drama or fanfare. Solo does come to the conclusion that his affection for Eve is in fact love perhaps a bit quicker than is believable, but given his relative isolation growing up in Spiker Biopharm it’s fairly easy to beat back the desire to scoff at his love-laced revelations and continue to allow ourselves to be simply entertained.

The story progresses at an even pace until the end, shocking us slightly when a few impressively unexpected things come to light for Eve and Solo only to have events wrap up a few short pages later. Despite a somewhat abrupt and underdeveloped ending, Eve and Adam is the perfect book to pick up when you want a reminder of how much fun reading can be, and when one prefers that reminder to come without a lot of emotional grittiness. I believe this book has a sequel in the works, and it’s certainly one I’m going to pick up with the hope we’ll dig a little deeper under the skin of Eve, Solo and Adam while keeping the same fluid style that made this first book so easy to get lost in.

Rating: 4/5