Reviewer: Sandy
“She’s wearing pink lace underwear, small lumps of flesh spilling over her knickers, the inner edges of her thighs close to touching. #727 has been lazy. She has been lazy and she has been greedy. She deserves to be punished. Don’t you agree?”
As the classroom slowly builds up in intensity waiting for the punishment of their fellow student, I blink my eyes in awe for the drama that just played out in their classroom, really?! It’s mindboggling yet I am fixated in how quickly they formed a consensus and start to chant, all together now. In Only Ever Yours, females are created with the intention of improving and creating the new woman. Schools were built to house these eves, and each week these eves are ranked based on how valuable they are, and the competition is fierce. There’s cliques, there’s backstabbing and there is lots of heresy. There is always room for improvement, this catchphrase echoes through the girl’s heads as they push themselves to be one of the top ten in the week’s rankings. It’s really sad how the girls push and belittle each other based on their outer beauty. In their Comparison Studies Class, two of the girls images are projected as their peers pass judgment on them. As they speak their mind about what they see on the screen, it’s gloves-off as these girls totally open up and say what they are thinking. Their voices are altered as their comments vibrate off the walls but some of their comments hurt nonetheless. Imagine walking out of this classroom, being on both sides of this event, you know how your peers feel but you have to keep you chin up as your appearance matters and you want to make the top ten this week. Bearing your honest opinion, you have to be honest but you have to live with yourself. You’re trapped. A night of Playing Your Face or Mine at midnight with your friends, it’s not a fun game of Truth or Dare, the crudeness and harshness just never seems to let go in this school as you make your way to the top. I just wonder how I could live with myself every day and how evil I would feel each night as I try to go to sleep. It really made me stop and think about our society today and how kids are fixated on name brands, their appearances and their sense of belonging. Louise O’Neill’s dystopian society is not far from reality. The bright spots at the school are the friends that the girls have made throughout their time living at the school, those connections. Sixteen years, living with the same girls you would hope that you would have some deep bonds that go further than just your looks. Freida thought she had that with Isabel but there are changes going on with Isabel that are sending off alarms to Freida and the other girls. Her sudden weight gain, her attitude and now she’s pushing Freida away. What’s going on? Freida and Isabel had planned their lives together and now it’s their final year and its all or nothing. They both were popular, top ten girls and now that Isabel is changing, what’s Freida going to do. This is the big year, their future is on the line and Freida can’t mess this up. The Inheritants are coming and they will choose their mates and only a few girls will be chosen. I thought the competition among the females was tough, but when the Inheritants start their visits, the drama gets intense. These males when they enter the picture, they stretch everyone to their limits.
I had mixed feeling about this book for I loved it for the complexity of the characters and the lessons that it shared, I hated it for valuing only one side of a person and I enjoyed the sci-fi aspects of the story. I wanted to scream at the pettiness of the characters behavior and there was so much drama. These feelings and many more made this a great book for me. Oh, if I could grab the Personal Stylist Program out of this book, it just might make my life easier. Picking out my own haircolor, makeup, clothes each day and helping me apply it in just a matter of minutes. This of course, comes with some negatives aspects as it is looking for the perfect me and I don’t think I would like all what the PSP has to tell me.
