Book Review: Eve and Adam

Title: Eve and Adam
Author: Michael Grant and Katherine Applegate
Pub Date: September 10th, 2013
Publisher: SquareFish
Page Count: 304

And girl created boy...

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?

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It isn't that this book angered me. It's that this book did the complete opposite. By the time I realized that I didn't care for the story, it was time to DNF. - Nova @ Out of Time

Confession, dear readers: I picked this book because of the cover. I mean, I read the back and it seemed interesting but what got me was the cover. You can't see it in the image above, but the cover is shiny and I am a crow. Shiny things are good. Nova likes shiny.

Unfortunately, the writing was not shiny. It sucked. It felt so... weird. I can't even think of a good way of describing it. In some instances, it would be like a diary or a monologue. These times would usually feature innuendos and jokes that were more of a mood-killer than a person telling me they hate Ed Sheeran. Like, please, stop. There's nothing I hate more than terrible humor. And why? The plot doesn't even open a good passage for humor. It felt so out of place. Needless to say, I detested how try-hard this book was from the start.

The characters, oh God. I was done with them before they even spoke for a full chapter. The main character was so not human-like, none of them really were. She didn't sound like a person at all. First, when she was in an accident [and no, it wasn't like a papercut], she didn't really give a crap. "Oh, my leg might be gone and my fingers are crushed? Ugh, I can't go to school now!"
Not to mention that her mom is a slut-shamer, her best friend is a crazy "party girl" type and Solo is just plain creepy. When you see a girl fresh out of an accident, I'm sure your initial thoughts are: damn, she's hot.

But like what I said in the quote: this book didn't really anger me. Obviously, as I type, I'm getting a little annoyed but that wasn't why I DNF-ed. I DNF-ed because I realized that this book didn't have my attention. It had a weak foundation and badly written... everything. Plus, I was about a third in and there was no solid plot. I read the end and rolled my eyes at how predictable the plot mainly was.
Huge disappointment for this one. But hey, it's my fault for doing the whole "judge a book by its cover thing."

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Who is Michael Grant? He's this old dude. Bald. Out of shape. Kind of cranky.
If you met Michael Grant on the street you'd probably think, "Man, that old dude has got himself one giant bald head." Then you'd probably think, "Seriously, old man: stop wearing jeans and sneakers and a black t-shirt. I mean, please, you're embarrassing yourself."
And if you happened to see him while he was with his family you might think, "Are those two kids his grand-kids or what? The boy looks 13, the girl maybe 10. I'll bet instead of playing catch in the back yard he probably plays 'find my teeth' or something. And when you have to study the Civil War, hey, he was probably there and can remember it."
Of course while you're thinking all of this, Michael Grant would be thinking, "Why is that kid staring at me? It's kind of creeping me out."
Michael Grant was born in California. From there he's lived pretty much everywhere in the US, plus three years in France and most of a year in Italy and the Azores. He spent most of his life being a lazy screw-up before finally deciding to be a writer. Because his wife, (K.A. Applegate) told him he had to grow up and get a career.
Since then, Michael and his wife have written roughly 150 books. No, that's not a typo. 150. He started late, but then he worked extra hard to catch up. What can we say? He's kind of a slow starter. Maybe he's just not very bright, you know?
Anyway, eventually he started writing and then he and his wife had a big hit series with ANIMORPHS and then he took some time off, and then he got back to writing and wrote the GONE series. And THE MAGNIFICENT 12 series.
He says he wrote GONE to creep you out. And THE MAGNIFICENT 12 to make you laugh. Some screaming and some laughing. He wants kids laughing and screaming. He's probably kind of messed up, when you think about it.

You can write Michael if you wish. But he's busy and gets a lot of letters, so although he will definitely read your letter, he may not answer it. If that's okay with you, then feel free.

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Applegate was born in Michigan in 1956. Since then she has lived in Texas, Florida, California, Minnesota, Illinois, North Carolina, and after living in Pelago, Italy for a year, she has moved back to Southern California. She has an eleven year old son named Jake Mates, although she says the Animorph leader is not named after him. In 2003 she and her husband, Michael Grant, her co-author on many projects including Animorphs, adopted their daughter, Julia, in China.[citation needed] Following the end of Animorphs, Applegate took three years off. She is back at work and has written a picture book called "The Buffalo Storm," a middle reader novel called "Home of the Brave," and an early chapters series "Roscoe Riley Rules" with Harper Collins. Her book "Home of the Brave" has won the SCBWI Golden Kite Award, the Bank Street 2008 Josette Frank Award, and is a Judy Lopez Memorial Award honor book.