Only Ever Yours

by Louise O'Neill

'Utterly magnificent . . . gripping, accomplished and dark' Marian Keyes

WINNER: Newcomer of the Year at the IBAs
WINNER: Bookseller YA Prize
WINNER: CBI Eilis Dillon Award
Buzzfeed's Best Books Written by Women in 2014

The bestselling novel about beauty, body image and betrayal

eves are designed, not made.
The School trains them to be pretty
The School trains them to be good.
The School trains them to Always be Willing.


All their lives, the eves have been waiting. Now, they are ready for the outside world.
companion . . . concubine . . . or chastity
Only the best will be chosen.
And only the Men decide.

• ISBN10: 1784294004
• ISBN13: 9781784294007
• Publish Date: 2 July 2015 (first published 3 July 2014)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 22 March 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Imprint: riverrun
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[sarahjay]

This book is messed up. This book is disturbing as hell. This book will get inside your brain and eat its way out the front of your skull. This book will destroy you. This book is horrifying and will make you angry and that is why you should read it.

[wyvernfriend]

oh man, so much feels

[shannonmiz]

I have a lot of feelings about this book. Just so many. Here's the general theme of them though: Read. This. Book. Seriously, I am not saying that because it was fun and enjoyable, because it simply is not. It is hell on paper. Exquisitely written, horrifyingly realistic hell on paper. Basically, I am just going to list why I absolutely implore you to read this book, okay? Great.

• This book is way, way too close to how our society actually thinks/feels. frieda is terrified of gaining an ounce. She is terrified of her hair being out of place. Her whole life literally revolves around pleasing other people and appearing perfect. There were too many moments while reading this book that I had to put it down because I was shaking, eyes brimming with tears, realizing that I have absolutely, 100% said some of the exact same things frieda said to herself to myself.



• If you are female, you need to read this book. Now, I know there is many a confident woman out there, and if you are among them, I both applaud and admire you. But far too many of us critique and criticize ourselves, each other, or both. Too many of us worry about how we appear to others, both physically and emotionally. Without a doubt, this book will make you take a good, hard look at how you treat yourself and others, even if it is not consciously.



• If you are not a female, you need to read this book. Of course not all women think like frieda. Nor do all men want a stereotypically "perfect" woman. Here's the thing: society still treats women differently than men, and I don't think anyone would argue that. Women have made amazing strides, but there is so, so much more improvement needed. Whether you have female friends, a significant other who is female, a mother, a sister, a grandmother, this is a gritty look into the biases women face on the regular.



• The writing is breathtaking. Take everything else out of the equation. The writing in itself is phenomenal. Each sentence has meaning, each word both poignant and necessary. Louise O'Neill is just so completely masterful at getting her point across in the most beautiful of ways, I would and will read any book she writes. (And there are no typos, the names are like that for a reason, one you'll likely understand.)



• The plot is amazing. Yes, after all the other stuff that makes this a fantastic book, the plot just went ahead and was just as great. I stayed up until 5:30am to finish this book because I positively needed to know what happened. Then sat around for another 45 minutes in shock and awe and tears.



• The characters will make you feel.... things. Vague, no? Well, different characters, different things at different times. Oh, still vague? Yes, yes. But they are so, so multi-dimensional. They have flaws, my goodness they have flaws. And isabel is such a huge mystery, both for frieda and the reader. megan will make you want to throw your book many times, but then... so will everyone else, just not all the time. There is a touch of romance too, but that comes into play a bit later.

Intrigued? You should be. This is probably the most gripping, gut wrenching book I have ever read. I didn't like this book, I don't know that it is possible to like this book. But I was captivated by it.  It is honest and brutal and so damn necessary.
This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight

[Leah]

When I was offered the opportunity to read and review Only Ever Yours, I thought it sounded like such a fascinating novel. I don't read many Dystopian novels - though I'm not sure if that's the correct genre to put this novel in. But, it's definitely not set in the "now", that much is for sure because if what goes on in the book happened today, there'd be repercussions (and it makes me kinda sad that in this world, that is the norm because it's AWFUL). I was interested to see how the novel progressed, and very much intrigued by all the positive comments I've seen about the novel. And it is a VERY interesting read.

Probably one of the only complaints I have about Only Ever Yours, is how the girls are treated. They're like meat at a market. And it pained me that the men clearly ruled the roost. That the whole purpose of these girls, who are manfactured (NOT BORN - MADE!!!!!! DESIGNED!!!!!) are for the purposes of becoming a "companion" to 10 eligible (or not) bachelors. It was ICKY. That was a major issue for me, and I took offense because I'm a girl and because the rules and regulations are just so awful. A mandatory weight for the girs to maintain or be ridiculed and called fat, calorie blockers, all sorts of awful nonsense that just made me want to close my eyes and scream, "NO, NO, NO!". I couldn't imagine being in Freida's shoes, competing with all the other girls to be picked as a companion, because that's the most desirable option of the three where the other two options are to become a concubine (basically a doll, to be treated poorly by the men) or a chastitie which nobody wants to be.

But, I can't deny that the bizarre ways, and treatments and stories are fascinating. Freida's - and all the girl's - lives are awful, but it's immensely readable because you can barely believe your eyes! It's just so bizarre. It took a while to get used to the girls' names being uncapitalized (so bizarre, and I have capitalized all the names in my review, which may be wrong of me but oh well) and words being spelt different (ice kream, chocco, myface) but it really helped to get into the world of the girl's. This bizarre-o world they live in, where being fat is a curse, and being picked as a companion is a blessing, and poor Freida just doesn't know what to do with herself. Her best friend, Isabel, has left her in the lurch, and she can barely function - she can't sleep, even with the help of SleepSound, and she's slowly disengaging from everything. What I would have liked to see was more of Isabel and Freida's friendship. We only get very brief glimpses, and I still don't really understand why Isabel pulled back. I do not agree with Freida's assessment at the end, as to why. I think there was more there, and having Isabel as another narrator would have helped massively.

Only Ever Yours is one of the most fascinating, disturbing books I'll probably ever read. I'm dying to know where Louise O'Neill came up with the idea because it's just so clever, and creepy all at the same time. Despite all my bad feelings about the fact it was the girls being groomed for the boys, and not the other way around, I was still flipping the pages as quickly as I could, desperate to know what would happen. I probably would have preffered a different ending - considering everything we go through, I felt a little teensy bit cheated. I expect something more, I suppose, but nevertheless it's a solid, solid read. I can't wait to see what Louise O'Neill writes next, she's clearly got a very imaginative imagination and she's written a corker of a debut novel, I'll be thinking about Only Ever Yours for a very, very long time. (And I'm still not sure if that's a good thing!!!!)

This review was originally posted on Girls Love To Read

[Jo]

Read my review on the YA edition.