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A Reader of Fictions: I Can Make You a Man - Rocky Horror Picture Show

A Reader of Fictions

Book Reviews for Just About Every Kind of Book

Saturday, August 4, 2012

I Can Make You a Man - Rocky Horror Picture Show

Eve & Adam
Eve & Adam, Book 1

Author: Michael Grant & Katherine Applegate
Pages: 291
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Publication Date: October 2, 2012
Source: Macmillan at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
Sixteen-year-old Evening Spiker lives an affluent life in San Francisco with her mother, Terra, a successful geneticist and owner of Spiker Biotech. Sure, Evening misses her father who died mysteriously, but she’s never really questioned it. Much like how she’s never stopped to think how off it is that she’s never been sick. That is, until she’s struck by a car and is exposed to extensive injuries. Injuries that seem to be healing faster than physically possible.

While recuperating in Spiker Biotech’s lush facilities, she meets Solo Plissken, a very attractive, if off-putting boy her age who spent his life at Spiker Biotech. Like Evening, he’s never questioned anything... until now. Solo drops hints to Evening that something isn’t right, and Emma-Rose may be behind it. Evening puts this out of her mind and begins her summer internship project: To simulate the creation of the perfect boy. With the help of Solo, Evening uncovers secrets so big they could change the world completely.


First Sentence: "I am thinking of an apple when the streetcar hits and my leg severs and my ribs crumble and my arm is no longer an arm but something unrecognizable, wet and red."

Review:
Initially, I really wasn't all that interested in this book. I sort of thought it was middle grade or children's from the cover, and, despite my childhood obsession with The Animorphs, the authors weren't big draws. I picked it up at BEA, because when I got my ticket for Crewel they gave me one for this as well and I thought why not. I'm glad I did pick it up, because I was definitely pleasantly surprised by this one.

First off, I have to say that this really isn't a dystopia. I mean, I guess you could call it a dystopia in microcosm sort of, since Evening does learn that her world is not what she thought it was, and that new knowledge is mostly negative. Still, society is no more dystopian than our current society so far as I can tell. I could remove this review from Dystopian August, but I prefer to read it and tell you that those souls on Goodreads that marked it thus were misguided.

Please do not judge this book from the description up there. It makes Evening (aka E.V. or Eve) sound like such an airhead. She's really not at all. In fact, she's a big part of why I thought this book was so much fun. Though I didn't bond with her character immediately (probably due to the fact that she was on heavy painkillers and not herself for the first several chapters), I soon found her to have a personality much like my own, so basically she's the best.

At the beginning of the book, she's in a crazy accident (see first sentence), then hijacked by her billionaire mother to be taken for private care at Striker (the family company). Solo works for her mom and, as the only person her age, becomes a sort of not-unwilling companion. Terra assigns her daughter a project to give Eve something to do, since she was going completely stir crazy: use new software to design the perfect man (in the virtual world of course), much like Dr. Frankenfurter did.

As you can no doubt guess from that, the plot really doesn't go anywhere particularly unique. I knew what the main plot arc was going to do as soon as I knew what the book was about. However, the story doesn't suffer too much from that. Grant and Applegate's writing primarily amused me (although some of the joke's did seem to try a bit too hard). I also liked that this most certainly didn't feel middle grade, what with all the sex jokes.

Eve & Adam is told from three perspectives: Eve's, Solo's and Adam's. Grant and Applegate, husband and wife team, pulled off multiple POV admirably. Each character felt clearly unique; I had no issues telling whose chapter I was in. Though Eve's sections were my favorites, I didn't mind the chapters told by the boys.

What made this book stand out more than the average book were the relationships between the characters. Obviously, I loved Eve, as already detailed, but I also really liked her relationship with her best friend Aislin. So many YA best friends are awful or boring. Aislin is seriously flawed, but she obviously has Eve's best interests at heart and vice versa. Their friendship really rang true, especially since it kind of reminded me of me and one of my friends, though she doesn't have a drug-running boyfriend, thank goodness. The romance in this was great, too. A lot of times, romance constitutes a weak point, but I thought it was very hilarious and well done here. The ending scene definitely made me clap in approval. Just saying.

If you're looking for a fun science fiction read with action and snark, Eve & Adam will do you right, and will not overwhelm you with Biblical references. Now I only wish I had time to break out my old Animorphs books...


Favorite Quote:
"It's not that I think I'm some kind of prize.
   No, wait, that's not true. I do think I'm some kind of prize. I'm smart and occasionally funny and I'm pretty. I don't see why I should have to spend long dates with some guy who expresses himself in single syllables and wants to go to slasher movies.
   Which does not answer my question: male or female?  
   I also don't understand why I should let some guy fondle me when I know the relationship has no future. I don't need to be groped that badly.
   So I've been on exactly three dates. The first when I was fourteen. The most recent two years ago.
   A guy tried to kiss me once. I didn't let him.
   I lived that part of my life vicariously through Aislin.
   I hear her stories. And I admit I'm fascinated most of the time. Sometimes kind of appalled. And then fascinated again.
   Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be her. To be that . . . experimental. To be that 'what the hell?'. To actually have detailed, well-informed opinions on questions having to do with kissing. Or whatever."
"In just seven days, I can make you a man"

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25 Comments:

Blogger Bekka said...

This is on my read-a-thon pile. I'm so happy you liked it! I was sorting through books to read, and I read this first sentence of this and it blew me away. That's one hell of a beginning.

August 4, 2012 at 12:42 PM  
Blogger Christy Maurer said...

I love Michael Grant! I'm glad you did a review of this one. I've been wondering about it. It sounds great! Adding it to my list!

August 4, 2012 at 1:01 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

Right? That first sentence was definitely an attention grabber. The book took fifty-ish pages to really grab me, but after that I was super into it. Really quick read too, like a couple hours.

August 4, 2012 at 1:40 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

I haven't read any of Grant's solo stuff. Will have to do that!

August 4, 2012 at 1:40 PM  
Blogger Kayla Beck said...

I'm supposed to be getting an ARC of this in the mail, and I'm going stir-crazy waiting on it! (Okay, I'm starting to lose hope because it's been a LONG time.) Anywho, I was drawn to the premise, but I'm way more interested since you say it has snark.

Also, I love the quote. :-D

August 4, 2012 at 5:54 PM  
Blogger aLilLacey said...

Yeah the beginning sentence is definitely an eye catcher so I'm glad you included it with your review, otherwise i probably would have looked past the review assuming it was going to be a complete gushy story and not something with an interesting background to it.

August 4, 2012 at 8:25 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

You could maybe send an email to the sender being like....?????

Me too! This quote reminds me so much of the relationship I have with one of my friends. Oh, authenticity!

August 4, 2012 at 11:23 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

Woo! That's why include first sentences. Sometimes they are quite lame, but sometimes they do that. Whether you like it or not, you will be curious. Haha.

August 4, 2012 at 11:23 PM  
Blogger Lilian said...

Another one-the-fence book for me. And I just realized it's another book whose author's name I didn't bother to read. It's been a looonnng while since I've read Animorphs, and I've never picked up one of Grant's books although I have my eyes set on BZRK (because it isn't as heavy as the GONE series)
And I didn't even know they were a couple.

The sex jokes make a bit scared.

I think it's the red title that makes me not like the cover. IT'S LIKE WHAT THEY DID TO RUIN COLONIZATION.

Lilian @ A Novel Toybox

August 5, 2012 at 1:07 AM  
Blogger Christina said...

They're married. I didn't know that either. I learned it in line at BEA. I was like chicka-what? I'm pretty sure the Gone books aren't actually that long. I think they have big font and margins like Divergent.

Why? Sex jokes are awesome. They weren't like all the time.

Whoa. Wrath. I feel it.

August 5, 2012 at 10:42 AM  
Blogger Lilian said...

Every book I think is long and you're like "Pshh, this is nothing!"
Some people don't have your super speed reading skills you know. Or you know, you could humor me and make me feel better about reading slow! *sigh*

I don't know! Sex jokes are like desperate, corny attempts at being funny! Though I do like a few "That's what she said" jokes.
And the fact that they are husband and wife makes me think the sex jokes had an ulterior motive, if you know what I mean.

August 5, 2012 at 1:55 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

I haven't read that one, so maybe it is long, but I don't expect it is. I'm just saying if it was printed like other books, it might just be 300 pages.

Bahaha. Look who's making a sex joke now. If you don't like their humor, this one won't work for you, for sure.

August 5, 2012 at 2:15 PM  
Blogger Lilian said...

Ok, fine. I will be open-minded!
Are the sex jokes funny at least? or just bad taste?

August 5, 2012 at 11:06 PM  
Blogger Adriana @ BooksOnHerMind said...

There names remind me of the Hunger Games only because they are so different. And Adam and Eve? Really? Not saying that it's bad or anything.

Sorry but I don't get what you're saying about it not being dystopian. You sound like my brother in that I don't understand what he's saying to me half the time when you are explaining it. What do you consider dystopian then. Anything?

Never heard of this book either. I'm rather enjoying this blog especially since everything's brand new to me. Another to go on my TBR. Thanks for the review :D

August 5, 2012 at 11:38 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

I'd say the jokes go both ways. Some of them did make me snort. I did like that they didn't shy away from them, because some of them would have been just ignored in another YA book. KIDS DON'T THINK ABOUT SEX. AHHHHH! Umm, yeah they do, people who spaz about the precious snowflakes.

August 6, 2012 at 8:44 AM  
Blogger Christina said...

Yeah, the Adam and Eve thing is intentionally. The heroine, Evening, actually hates being called Eve because of the inevitable Biblical references. Her creation is named Adam by someone else, and she goes along with it, I guess because she didn't have another name in mind. The names are intended.

Well, dystopian would be more finding out that the government is controlling everyone in terrible ways. Some examples: 1984, Little Brother, Article 5, The Handmaid's Tale, Brave New World. There are a lot of things I consider dystopian. However, this one was on a small scale, since it was really only within this corporation, and, even then, I'm not convinced how dystopian it is. Arguably, what happens to Eve isn't really bad for her. I think some things get marked dystopias for the shift in viewpoint the MC goes through, defining a dystopia as 'someone discovering their world is not what they thought it was,' but that's a bit too vague.

Anyway, I really enjoyed reading this. I hope you do too!

August 6, 2012 at 8:48 AM  
Blogger Lilian said...

Haha, I know for sure kids totally think of sex.
I remember standing in the lunch line in 7th grade and these boys were bragging how much porn they watch.
There's no way to retain innocence after being exposed to the Internet.

August 6, 2012 at 9:49 AM  
Blogger Christina said...

Ewwww. There goes your hunger for lunch.

August 6, 2012 at 10:56 AM  
Blogger Adriana @ BooksOnHerMind said...

Only within the corporation you say? Then I understand why you don't consider it dystopian and that is pretty vague. Thanks for explaining.

Thanks, I hope I do too (:

August 6, 2012 at 12:13 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

Well, so far at least. There's going to be another book, so it could be that we'll learn the corporation has it's fingers in other things. Who knows!

August 6, 2012 at 1:42 PM  
Blogger Kayla Beck said...

Haha, I have the exact relationship with one of my friends, except that she would be Eve. :-P

August 7, 2012 at 3:43 PM  
Blogger Christina said...

Bahahaha, I'm the Eve.

August 7, 2012 at 4:22 PM  
Blogger Kayla Beck said...

Before I had Bug, I used to take great pleasure in shocking my friend. Ahh, to be young again...

August 7, 2012 at 4:46 PM  
Blogger M.A.D. said...

*Wow*! That first sentence is a real grabber!! O>O
I don't remember having previously heard about this book, so thanks for bringing it to my attention. And I definitely won't judge it by the rather grim opening sentence lol!

Mary DeBorde M.A.D.

August 29, 2012 at 1:46 AM  
Blogger Christina said...

No kidding! Hope you enjoy!

August 29, 2012 at 9:26 AM  

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