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Only Ever Yours, by Louise O'Neill
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Where women are created for the pleasure of men, beauty is the first duty of every girl. In Louise O'Neill's world of Only Every Yours 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.
- Sales Rank: #65169 in Books
- Published on: 2016-03-08
- Released on: 2016-03-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.75" h x 1.25" w x 5.25" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 416 pages
From School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up—freida and isabel live at the School, where every element of their world is closely controlled. They have been trained in the ways of perfect femininity, spending all of their time thinking exclusively about their appearances. At 16, the girls are in their final year so they must be more perfect than ever—that's the only way they will be selected as companions. Their fates otherwise are too horrible to contemplate. But isabel, always top in the class, begins to unravel. freida must now figure out what is happening to her best friend while the biggest change, and challenge, in their lives approaches. This British debut takes dystopias to the next level of intensity and bleakness. O'Neill creates a future world where girls are only products and they aren't even worthy of having their names begin with capital letters. Sophisticated readers will be quickly drawn into the horrific landscape and, thanks to the author's deft characterization and strong world-building, will feel the same kind of claustrophobic fear freida and isabel feel. These elements make the book immediate, compelling, and appealingly different. At points, however, the narrative strives too hard to make the dystopian future world an exaggerated mirror of our own, bogging down the plot. This book is dark and unrelenting, there are no revolutions or happy endings to be had here. VERDICT Recommended as an additional purchase where older teens are looking for more depth in their dystopian fiction.—Angie Manfredi, Los Alamos County Library System, NM
Review
Winner of the 2014 Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year Award at the BGE Irish Book Awards
"A dark dream. A vivid nightmare. The world O'Neill imagines is frightening because it could come true. She writes with a scalpel."
―Jeanette Winterson
"Utterly magnificent . . . gripping, accomplished and dark."―Marian Keyes
"[A] terrifying but captivating book."―Company magazine
"Disturbing, provocative . . . I was utterly captivated from beginning to end."―Gabriel Byrne ("In Treatment," "The Usual Suspects," "Miller's Crossing)
"Dark and thought-provoking... There are some good Logan's Run shivers, and it is beautifully written."―Tara Flynn, The Irish Times
"Only Ever Yours is a chilling dystopian fantasy... It has the bleakness of Catcher in the Rye, the satire of The Stepford Wives and it made me recall how scared I felt reading Nineteen Eighty-Four... But by far the best thing about Louise O' Neill's book is that it is well written, by a fresh and original talent."―Anne Cunningham, Irish Independent
"Compelling writing and a brutal conclusion means this only-too-real dystopia grips from beginning to end."―SFX Magazine
"O'Neill has talent to burn; this dystopian YA debut is both compelling and frightening."―Irish Examiner
"If the Hunger Games series was your guilty pleasure then young Irish author Louise O' Neill's debut novel Only Ever Yours is about to become another... [It] explores the contemporary pressure on women and girls to be 'perfect' in this dark and gripping narrative."―Irish Tatler
"An ingenious exploration of gender roles, female identity, and female competition."―Buzzfeed
"Deep, dark and frighteningly believable. This story will stay with you for a long time."―Marie Claire
"A witty and unsettling story...Hopefully Only Ever Yours will be read widely."―The Telegraph
"Unbelievably believable, compelling, utterly riveting... Whilst it is dark, uncompromising and utterly daunting to read as a woman, it is and should be a classic in the making."―Liz Loves Books
"O'Neill's story reads like an heir to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and M.T. Anderson's Feed, and, like those books, it's sure to be discussed for years to come."―Publishers Weekly, starred review
"A beautifully written, remarkable debut. the near-future world, after a climate-change apocalypse, is fully imagined and vividly realized. The claustrophobic, insular lives of 16-year-old girls as they struggle against themselves and each other will ring eerily true for today's teens." - Common Sense Media
About the Author
Louise O'Neill was born in west Cork in 1985. She studied English at Trinity College Dublin and has worked for the senior Style Director of American Elle magazine. While in New York, she also worked as an assistant stylist on a number of high-profile campaigns. She is currently working as a freelance journalist for a variety of Irish national newspapers and magazines, covering feminist issues, fashion and pop culture.
Most helpful customer reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
This is what virtuosity looks like
By Bookphile
Wow. Absolutely, scorchingly phenomenal. Easily one of the best young adult books I have ever read.
"...men have the necessary experience and intelligence to choose better for you than you could choose for yourself."
And that, dear reader, will be the jumping-off point for my entire review, which will contain spoilers because there is so much about this book that begs for discussion. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a searing, brilliant depiction of what it means to grow up female, but don't read any further if you don't want the details of this brilliant book revealed to you.
If you're still with me, buckle up. This is going to be a very long, bumpy ride.
First off, I think it's important to note that I read a ton on the subject of feminism. I am a proud feminist, and I'm open about that--I don't shy away from "feminist" as a label. The reason I mention this is not so much because this is a feminist novel (which it most certainly is), it's because, given that I've read many books on feminism, coupled with endless articles on feminist issues, this book was, for me, like a distillation of everything I've read about feminism. Trying to shove this book into a genre box might result in it being called dystopian or some other variation of sci-fi, but in my opinion this book isn't that at all. It's something of a satire, holding a mirror up to society and relaying what the mirror depicts with some embellishment. Yet while this book does exaggerate things, it also doesn't. Maybe all the women in the world aren't designer babies, and maybe they aren't being raised in schools where they're explicitly taught that their only worth lies in what they can provide to a man, yet, in many ways, that is exactly what's happening in our society today.
There are so many themes that run throughout this book, but the strongest one centers on the girls' physical experience. Their school isn't a school so much as it is a factory churning out designer sex objects. The girls at this school can't read, and why should they? Their only real purpose is to be ornamental. They're weighed on a daily basis, subject themselves to painful and uncomfortable "beauty" procedures, agonize over their clothing and makeup choices, and constantly compare themselves to other women, wondering how they measure up. That doesn't sound all that far-fetched, does it? The women of the present day routinely wax themselves, use copious amounts of beauty products, get plastic surgery, and bleach unspeakable areas in order to meet an undefined standard of beauty. As the Father (who I think is basically patriarchy personified) reminds the girls in a video they are shown in class, "...you may be perfectly designed, but there is always room for Improvement."
This relentless pursuit of an unattainable ideal of perfection seeps into every facet of the girls' lives, including how they interact with one another. Every time the girls would gather to do one of their tear-down sessions, in which they insulted themselves and then waited for the others to protest, I couldn't help but think of the searingly hilarious Inside Amy Schumer skit "Compliments", in which a group of female friends literally cannot cope when one of their fellow friends accepts a compliment on her jacket with a simple, "Thank you!" That skit got so much attention because it, like this book, is tapping into something that's a regular, everyday occurrence for many women.
And yet, even though the women in this book are supposedly perfect, genetically engineered and produced to be beautiful, thin, and free of any "undesirable" traits, they are never quite good enough. Girls and women deemed defective are sent Underground, where they serve as lab rats for male scientists who are always working to continue to refine their techniques, always attempting to create better models. Again, I see so many parallels here between the book's world and our world. Cosmetic companies are multi-billion dollar industries, and if women didn't feel they had "flaws" they needed to "correct", would those industries make anywhere near as much money as they now do? At younger and younger ages, girls are being coached in "self-care" in the form of using a variety of beauty products. Fashion magazines and TV shows are awash in advice about how women can improve their looks, what exercises they can do to fix their "problem" areas, what clothing they can wear that will highlight or camouflage their thighs, hips, bust. There's nothing wrong with wanting to care for yourself, with enjoying cosmetics or other enhancements, and with dressing in a way that makes you feel attractive. What is wrong is the way the conversation is framed, the underlying messages that "there is always room for Improvement."
Is it any wonder that the girls in the book have such unhealthy attitudes about their own bodies? Eating disorders have been normalized to the extent that the girls are given medication to help them throw up if they've ingested foods from the "Fatgirl buffet". They take other drugs to help them regulate their caloric intake, and if they gain weight they are sentenced to exercise on machines that scream abuse at them to "encourage" them to work harder. Sound like any TV shows you can think of? How about "fitspo"? The message that fat is bad is relentlessly drummed into the girls, in the form of movies (The Eternal Fat girl), songs ("Big girls...don't get the guy-yi-yi"--by a group called "the slutz", no less), and social media. The girls constantly take pictures of themselves and upload them to their "MyFace" pages. In class, they step into glass boxes while the other girls examine their bodies and deliver advice and criticism, their voices scrambled to ensure anonymity. They're encouraged to use sites in which they pit themselves against one another to figure out who's hotter, who wears an outfit better. Again, sound like something you could easily find on the internet nowadays?
The book's tackling of sex is brilliant as well, because it makes so little sense. Divided into three tiers, every girl will ultimately become a companion (read: wife and mother), a concubine (essentially a sex slave), or a chastity. Girls aspiring to companion status are supposed to be beautiful and have flawless figures, but they're also supposed to be "good girls". They're never supposed to refuse the whims of the men they serve, but they aren't supposed to make themselves available to anyone but the man who chooses them, and they are certainly not supposed to express any of their own desires or wishes. Concubines are expected to fulfill the every whim of the men who hire them, but they have no agency over their own bodies or their own desires. And the chastities are just that, chaste, responsible for schooling the younger girls and taking care of other background tasks. When you think about the mixed messages we send both young girls and boys about sex, is it any wonder it's so confusing to them?
TV doesn't get a pass here either. One of the girls' favorite shows is Chilling with the Carmichaels, a show that chronicles the adventures of cassie and carrie (an aside: the lack of capitalization when it comes to female names is another brilliant device, yet another reminder of how little these individual girls matter). When Charles, carrie's Inheritant, feels she's being too chummy with a friend of his, he breaks her nose and two ribs on a live broadcast, an event about which the girls are incredibly blasé. "He's yummy. I'd let him beat me any day," one of them remarks. If that doesn't disturb you, I don't know what will. On another show, two companions rip into women who choose to bottle feed rather than breastfeed. They're quick to add that, while breastfeeding is best, women should be sure to do it in private. kate, who received a number one ranking seven years prior, is rewarded with her own show, What kate Did Next. And, of course, the girls are exposed to pornography, because they're expected to know how to please their men, after all. Everything they watch centers around women tearing one another down, or submitting to brutality at men's hands, or ostentatious displays of wealth, all the better to encourage them to work hard to become number one, so that they'll be chosen by a man with high social standing.
Lest it seem that this book is one-sided, life isn't a picnic for all of the men either. (And LGBTQ people don't exist, because they're labelled "Aberrant", and the geneticists ruthlessly work to engineer them right out of existence.) We don't see as much of what non-conforming men go through because the book takes place in a closed environment in which men are prohibited, but it is there. Darwin, the choicest Inheritant, chafes against his father's strictures, yet laps up his father's praise like a kitten would a bowl of cream. He suffers several injuries throughout the course of the book, all of which are implicitly attributed to his father, and yet Darwin would stop at nothing to please the man. Even so, he never quite measures up, even when he does exactly as his father wants him to do, destroying freida, about whom he seems to care. As he and his father leave, his father feigns fondness for his son by tousling his hair, pulling away in disgust and saying, "Hair gel? You can be such a girl at times, Darwin." Boys are constantly fed the message that to be feminine is the worst of all insults, that they should strive to attain a hyper-masculine standard. Even boys, the book shows, suffer at the hands of patriarchy.
I'm astounded by all this book manages to pack into its pages. It is not an easy or pleasant read, but it is wholly compelling, and I think it's a necessary. I read a lot of YA lit, and so much of it contains messages that I find so damaging, messages about girls rescuing "broken" boys, tacitly accepting their abuse. Messages that the sexiest men are hyper-masculine bad boys, not the soulful, thoughtful guy living next door. Books like Only Ever Yours are so necessary precisely because myths about girlhood and boyhood continue to be perpetuated, even though every day there is mounting evidence of the damage it does to boys and girls alike.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Hauntingly Good
By Stefanie
I just finished reading this book and it was one I had wanted to read after I came across it on a recommended reading list. I pre-ordered it. I have to say, it is very haunting- It includes the harsh realities of the stereotypes of females but in an 'in-your-face' type writing where the men are in control of society and women are only made (not born) for the pleasure of men. It even goes so far as that the names of the females in the book are not capitalized because they are of no importance. You are made to be a companion to bring sons into the world, because females are bad and the body naturally aborts them, a concubine to meet the physical needs or a chastity to teach the newest group of girls.
I don't think this is a book one can say they love but it was very interesting and sadly enjoyable. It is one I will be thinking about a lot but not one that I think I could read again.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
A classic in the making.
By Liz Barnsley
So I read the final page of “Only Ever Yours” and was incoherent for about half an hour. Literally. Thats how good it was. Unbelievably believable, , compelling, utterly riveting and scary as hell when you think how much of this imaginary world could so easily be our reality given a simple twist of history or fate, I was completely undone by the whole reading experience.
We follow along mostly with frieda – she’s an “Eve”, a female bred for the pleasure or service of men. She is at “school” learning to be perfect, respectful, pleasing and beautiful, and hoping to be ranked in the top ten which almost guarantee’s that she will become a companion, wife to a man with the sole purpose really of bearing him sons. Each day is filled with a number of classes and activities to ensure perfection in all things – weight, skin, hair, and attitude. When Frieda’s friend Isabel starts gaining weight disproportionately, Frieda is torn between supporting her in her time of need and maintaining a distance. But Isabel is behaving strangely and all is not as it appears.
It is really difficult to put into words the impact this book has – Ms O Neill has a unique writing style which literally pops off the page – you are drawn into this strange yet oddly familiar world – where even when there is a drug for everything, the young girls face the same issues that can be found in our world. Bulemia, anorexia, self esteem issues and peer pressure. The school environment is very similar to high school – the popular girls rule, any sign of being different is frowned upon. As the time moves ever closer for the ceremony that will see the girls move into their next life as either companion, concubine (basically prostitutes) or chastities (those who remain in school and teach the next generation) frieda’s world starts to disintigrate into madness as she struggles to maintain her worth. It is heart pounding, captivating and often hard to read.
I am deliberately being a bit obtuse about plot details – it will shock you, enthrall you and completely absorb you during the time you are in it, but if I tell you too much of the whys and wherefores the impact will lessen. And that would not do, oh no not at all.
This book is most definitely “The Handmaids Tale” for a new young generation – Whilst it is dark, uncompromising and utterly daunting to read as a woman, it is and should be a classic in the making. If you want a happy read, an uplifting and redemptive tale then look away now – this is stark, unrelenting and absolutely gut wrenching, yet completely fascinating and will make you consider a lot of things. If my daughter were still a teenager I would be throwing this book at her. I’m probably going to throw it at her anyway. This one will stay with me for a long time.
Basically, just read it now. Thats all I really NEED to say.
**review copy received via Netgalley UK***
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