Bogormen

Title: Only Ever Yours
Author: Louise O'Neill
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 1.5/5
# pages: 398
Date read: August 2015

Where women are created for the pleasure of men, beauty is the first duty of every girl. Women are no longer born naturally, girls (called "eves") are raised in Schools and trained in the arts of pleasing men until they come of age. freida and isabel are best friends. Now, aged sixteen and in their final year, they expect to be selected as companions--wives to powerful men. All they have to do is ensure they stay in the top ten beautiful girls in their year. The alternatives--life as a concubine, or a chastity (teaching endless generations of girls)--are too horrible to contemplate.

But as the intensity of final year takes hold, the pressure to be perfect mounts. isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty--her only asset--in peril. And then into this sealed female environment, 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.


It is extremely rare that I rate books I actually finish this low, but "Only Ever Yours" would have to be one of the most unpleasant books I've read in a very long time. I have no clue what point Louise O'Neill was trying to make, as there seemed to be none. The evil will succeed, the good will fail, and you should just lie down and take it?

The sad thing is, the book really had potential, and had you asked me about half-way through, I'd have estimated I'd end up giving it 3 stars... possibly even 4. But as the book went on, I got more and more disgusted by it, until I feel I'm being generous by giving it even 1.5 stars. I guess I should be impressed that Louise O'Neill's writing could cause such a visceral reaction in me, but mostly I'm just disappointed that I've wasted a full day's reading on this garbage. Absolutely horrible book.