Little Eve

Not a fan of POV shifting from chapter to chapter, especially with the added confusion of a timeline that bounces all over the place. None of the characters were likable, nor was there any real satisfactory conclusion at the end. Child neglect/abuse and questionable incestuous relationships were deeply disturbing themes that a great many readers, including myself, will find extremely disturbing. Upon completing the book I felt compelled to immediately start from the beginning again in an effort to find some semblance of understanding. I decided it was pointless. The sickening mistreatment of the children, deviance of its subject matter and over complicated POV and timeline shifts was not something I wanted to revisit. If my own inadequacies in comprehension led me to somehow overlook some redeeming quality somewhere along the way, I’m prepared to accept that. This is NOT the reading experience I want in my head.

I usually always see the twist and turns before it happens, but this book was so well written that I would never have guessed all of these twists. I did read this in one day, but it was worth staying up all night!

Honestly, I really didn’t like this book. It had the same excellent writing and dark atmosphere of Ward’s other novels but was lacking in every other element for me. The characters were all unlikeable and prevented me from connecting with any of them. The story is told from two timelines, one in the past before the massacre on the island, and the other after from the perspective of the sole survivor. It’s written in first person for both perspectives but this did not help connect with the character, it just made things more tedious in my opinion. Along with unlikeable characters the pacing was far too slow and this book was a total slog to get through. I had to force myself to read this because most of the time nothing was happening but more abusive cult bullshit with no real purpose. Trigger warnings for rape, drugs, torture, starvation, child abuse, sexual assault, pedophilia, and violence by the way because no trigger warnings are given and this whole book is focused on this mini cult where all these abuses occur. It was so tedious to pick this up and have another chapter about abuse but it’s ok because it’s for Adder, like I GET IT, they’re in a cult on this island for some reason. I know there’s a plot in this book I just honestly can’t find it. The twist was also just confusing, there were so many questions, all of them left unanswered. The narrator is a huge part of the twist and it lies in her changing her mindset and leaving the brainwashing but it was unbelievable how it happened. She just woke up on day and decided to not believe in it anymore, after being raised and manipulated and abused her entire childhood she just one day stands up and says “nah”. Overall, I would skip this earlier novel by Ward which was recently re-released on the states and read her newer works instead that have engaging characters, better pacing, and a clear plot line that doesn’t get muddled up in abuse and cult nonsense.