Only Ever Yours - A Review
To all who are reading this,
Today, I introduce you to the debut novel from Irish author, Louise O'Neill, entitled Only Ever Yours. A standalone novel, critics have compared this book to The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, and the popular film, Mean Girls (2004). And I can definitely see where these guys are coming from, but I'd add The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin (1972) too. Published in 2014 from Quercus, it's a dystopian, almost science-fiction novel, aimed at the young adult market.
There may be spoilers.
Blurb
freida and isabel have been best friends their whole lives.
Now, aged sixteen and in their final year at the School, they expect to be selected as companions - wives to wealthy and powerful men. The alternative -life as a concubine - is too horrible to contemplate.
But as the intensity of the final year takes hold, the pressure to remain perfect becomes almost unbearable. isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty - her only asset - in peril.
And then, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride.
freida must fight for her future - even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known...
I had first seen this book in my local Waterstones, and the moment I saw the cover, I was reaching for the paperback display copy. There's a tagline on the front of the book: Choose a girl... To own forever. It's a clear turquoise, standing out against the stark black background, and the simple white lettering of the title. What made me reach all the more for it though, is the half side of a Barbie doll's face.
The blonde hair is pulled back and styled, falling into waves around her face and neck. The eyebrows are shaped, and the make-up is perfectly applied, yet it is the piercing, hollow blue eyes that stare up at the reader. The doll is almost begging us to read her story.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to get the paperback at the time, even though the Waterstones chalkboard proclaimed it a top YA read, making me want it all the more. Eventually, I bought it on Kindle and devoured it.
The novel follows sixteen year old freida, a genetically engineered woman, designed to be the perfect wife, the perfect woman, and to uphold the ideals that the others have set before them. freida is one amongst thirty girls known as 'eves', including her best friend, isabel. From an early age, these eves are taught to dress appropriately, take pride in their appearance, be an ideal weight, be dutiful and always available. At the start of the final year, freida begins to notice a pattern in her sleep disruption, at the same time that isabel confides in her that she is getting fat. These points really kick start the novel, and freida finds herself trying to overcome these obstacles in order to be a top ten rated girl - a girl eligible enough to score herself a husband, and become a chosen companion. If she fails, life as a pleasure serving concubine awaits her. And no one, apart from shy and retiring agyness would want to be a chastity - nun-like women who operate the School and keep the girls in line.
And so begins freida's struggles...
freida, along with the others girls featured in the novel, have been designed to look and act a certain way. As the chastities messages say, "fat girls should be made obsolete", and so for the majority of the novel, the girls we see around freida, are thin and petite, who can walk in the highest of heels. freida is a girl that longs to eat at from the Fatgirl buffet at meal times, but only achieves this when she has been put on a weight restoration programme.
Yet as much as I wanted to, there was something about freida that I just didn't like. We are told from the get-go that she is beautiful, but this isn't natural. This was been the work of science, and cosmetics. It was interesting that she was an eve of colour, but it doesn't hold much to her personality. She can be vapid, and seeks the acceptance and security that only the higher ranked girls like isabel and megan offer her.
The other girls themselves are - well, there's no other way to say it - bitches. To catcall, mock, and belittle is like a sport, and they would think nothing of putting a humiliating picture on the newer social networking sites. These girls are dependent on social networking and the world of celebrity. When their technologies are confiscated, they latch themselves onto girls they don't like or wouldn't ordinarily speak to, in order to find out what has happened on the hit celebrity shows.
Then again, we must remember that these girls always have and always will be in competition with each other. Their spiky, attitude laced personalities and "be perfect" way of thinking has been seared into their brains since birth.
There is a romantic sub-plot, but even this has it's problems. When frieda catches the eye of the number one ranked male Inheritant, Darwin, she becomes besotted, like a young girl with her first boyfriend. If he buys her gifts, she wears them with pride. He doesn't like people who take drugs and so she weans herself from the SleepSound pills that she has become addicted to taking, in order to help her drift of into dreamland. She finds herself falling in love with him, and when they spend long periods of time together, it's made up of conversations and lust filled kisses. Something that doesn't wholly sit right - is it love or is it lust? I'm apt to say lust, even if Darwin does show a certain loyalty towards her.
The problem with this romance comes with something that Darwin says. Something that prays on poor freida's mind. And that is a female Aberrant - which is a woman who is in love with another woman. Don't get me wrong, I applaud the use of LGBT issues in a YA book (something we need more of), but I wanted it to be a little more concrete. Is it something that frieda only thinks that she is because it has been mentioned? Does she truly care about isabel to love her like she loves Darwin? I think, deep down, she does love her, and that's what makes her friendship with isabel so lifelike. Even after everything they go through, she still sees her as a friend, a companion - hers.
We know little about the dystopian world that frieda inhabits.
We know that women are viewed as little more than a pet, which is why all female names including the chastities, are in lower case. Men and high ranking officials are given capitalised names.
The world's are made up of Zone's, since society as we know it is almost destroyed and changes were made to the way that things are done. The eves know little of this world - they live and breathe everything about the Zones in social media. They have not been outside of the School - and they teach that if you no longer fulfil your duties you could be sent to the pyre or Underground. And no eve wants that.
O'Neill uses clever section breaks in the form of transcripts from the Audio Guide to the Rules for Proper female Behaviour, written by the Original Father. These section headers give the reader fair warning as to what the next section may entail.
I suppose the biggest issue I have with the novel is the perception of body image. I'm a big girl myself, and have struggled with my weight since I hit secondary school. I felt like that book could further undermine my own self-worth and confidence, and if any other girl with these issues came across this, they may see anorexia and bulimia, fat-shaming and thin-shaming in a potentially harmful light.
Needles to say though, the book is an enjoyable read and is a fresh voice in the YA genre. It's dark and harrowing, with LGBT, mature content, mental health issues and addiction tropes. It also shows a certain truth to the behaviour and mindset of teenage girls, and the lengths people will go to so that they can achieve perfection.
I will definitely be checking out more of this author!
You can find Louise O' Neill on the Internet in the following places:
Facebook
Twitter
Amazon
Website
Blog
Instagram
Yours, with eternal, ink,
Zoe
Currently reading: The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
Today, I introduce you to the debut novel from Irish author, Louise O'Neill, entitled Only Ever Yours. A standalone novel, critics have compared this book to The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, and the popular film, Mean Girls (2004). And I can definitely see where these guys are coming from, but I'd add The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin (1972) too. Published in 2014 from Quercus, it's a dystopian, almost science-fiction novel, aimed at the young adult market.
There may be spoilers.
Blurb freida and isabel have been best friends their whole lives.
Now, aged sixteen and in their final year at the School, they expect to be selected as companions - wives to wealthy and powerful men. The alternative -life as a concubine - is too horrible to contemplate.
But as the intensity of the final year takes hold, the pressure to remain perfect becomes almost unbearable. isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty - her only asset - in peril.
And then, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride.
freida must fight for her future - even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known...
I had first seen this book in my local Waterstones, and the moment I saw the cover, I was reaching for the paperback display copy. There's a tagline on the front of the book: Choose a girl... To own forever. It's a clear turquoise, standing out against the stark black background, and the simple white lettering of the title. What made me reach all the more for it though, is the half side of a Barbie doll's face.
The blonde hair is pulled back and styled, falling into waves around her face and neck. The eyebrows are shaped, and the make-up is perfectly applied, yet it is the piercing, hollow blue eyes that stare up at the reader. The doll is almost begging us to read her story.
Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to get the paperback at the time, even though the Waterstones chalkboard proclaimed it a top YA read, making me want it all the more. Eventually, I bought it on Kindle and devoured it.
The novel follows sixteen year old freida, a genetically engineered woman, designed to be the perfect wife, the perfect woman, and to uphold the ideals that the others have set before them. freida is one amongst thirty girls known as 'eves', including her best friend, isabel. From an early age, these eves are taught to dress appropriately, take pride in their appearance, be an ideal weight, be dutiful and always available. At the start of the final year, freida begins to notice a pattern in her sleep disruption, at the same time that isabel confides in her that she is getting fat. These points really kick start the novel, and freida finds herself trying to overcome these obstacles in order to be a top ten rated girl - a girl eligible enough to score herself a husband, and become a chosen companion. If she fails, life as a pleasure serving concubine awaits her. And no one, apart from shy and retiring agyness would want to be a chastity - nun-like women who operate the School and keep the girls in line.
And so begins freida's struggles...
freida, along with the others girls featured in the novel, have been designed to look and act a certain way. As the chastities messages say, "fat girls should be made obsolete", and so for the majority of the novel, the girls we see around freida, are thin and petite, who can walk in the highest of heels. freida is a girl that longs to eat at from the Fatgirl buffet at meal times, but only achieves this when she has been put on a weight restoration programme.
Yet as much as I wanted to, there was something about freida that I just didn't like. We are told from the get-go that she is beautiful, but this isn't natural. This was been the work of science, and cosmetics. It was interesting that she was an eve of colour, but it doesn't hold much to her personality. She can be vapid, and seeks the acceptance and security that only the higher ranked girls like isabel and megan offer her.
The other girls themselves are - well, there's no other way to say it - bitches. To catcall, mock, and belittle is like a sport, and they would think nothing of putting a humiliating picture on the newer social networking sites. These girls are dependent on social networking and the world of celebrity. When their technologies are confiscated, they latch themselves onto girls they don't like or wouldn't ordinarily speak to, in order to find out what has happened on the hit celebrity shows.
Then again, we must remember that these girls always have and always will be in competition with each other. Their spiky, attitude laced personalities and "be perfect" way of thinking has been seared into their brains since birth.
There is a romantic sub-plot, but even this has it's problems. When frieda catches the eye of the number one ranked male Inheritant, Darwin, she becomes besotted, like a young girl with her first boyfriend. If he buys her gifts, she wears them with pride. He doesn't like people who take drugs and so she weans herself from the SleepSound pills that she has become addicted to taking, in order to help her drift of into dreamland. She finds herself falling in love with him, and when they spend long periods of time together, it's made up of conversations and lust filled kisses. Something that doesn't wholly sit right - is it love or is it lust? I'm apt to say lust, even if Darwin does show a certain loyalty towards her.
The problem with this romance comes with something that Darwin says. Something that prays on poor freida's mind. And that is a female Aberrant - which is a woman who is in love with another woman. Don't get me wrong, I applaud the use of LGBT issues in a YA book (something we need more of), but I wanted it to be a little more concrete. Is it something that frieda only thinks that she is because it has been mentioned? Does she truly care about isabel to love her like she loves Darwin? I think, deep down, she does love her, and that's what makes her friendship with isabel so lifelike. Even after everything they go through, she still sees her as a friend, a companion - hers.
We know little about the dystopian world that frieda inhabits.
We know that women are viewed as little more than a pet, which is why all female names including the chastities, are in lower case. Men and high ranking officials are given capitalised names.
The world's are made up of Zone's, since society as we know it is almost destroyed and changes were made to the way that things are done. The eves know little of this world - they live and breathe everything about the Zones in social media. They have not been outside of the School - and they teach that if you no longer fulfil your duties you could be sent to the pyre or Underground. And no eve wants that.
O'Neill uses clever section breaks in the form of transcripts from the Audio Guide to the Rules for Proper female Behaviour, written by the Original Father. These section headers give the reader fair warning as to what the next section may entail.
I suppose the biggest issue I have with the novel is the perception of body image. I'm a big girl myself, and have struggled with my weight since I hit secondary school. I felt like that book could further undermine my own self-worth and confidence, and if any other girl with these issues came across this, they may see anorexia and bulimia, fat-shaming and thin-shaming in a potentially harmful light.
Needles to say though, the book is an enjoyable read and is a fresh voice in the YA genre. It's dark and harrowing, with LGBT, mature content, mental health issues and addiction tropes. It also shows a certain truth to the behaviour and mindset of teenage girls, and the lengths people will go to so that they can achieve perfection.
I will definitely be checking out more of this author!
You can find Louise O' Neill on the Internet in the following places:
Amazon
Website
Blog
Yours, with eternal, ink,
Zoe
Currently reading: The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
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