Only Ever Yours

Description

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.

Awards

Winner of "The Bookseller" YA Book Prize 2015.

Reviews

Deserves to be read by young and old, male and female, the world over in the same way Harry Potter and The Hunger Games were Sunday Independent Gripping ... like all the best dystopias, Only Ever Yours is about the world we live in now Irish Times The Handmaid's Tale meets Mean Girls' The Vagenda Utterly magnificent ... gripping, accomplished and dark Marian Keyes 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 Deep, dark and frighteningly believable, this book will stay with you for a long time Marie Claire Compelling writing ... this only-too-real dystopia grips from beginning to end SFX Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale with a post-millennial twist The Journal.ie The bleakness of The Catcher in the Rye, the satire of The Stepford Wives and it made me recall Nineteen Eighty-Four ... a fresh and original talent Irish Independent

Author description

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. Her website is louiseoneillauthor.com and you can find her on Twitter @oneilllo