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Only Ever Yours
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
47 posts | 79 read | 96 to read
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.
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review
KimberlyJuracich
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
Pickpick

This is a book I believe everyone should give a chance. Girls are raised to be companion or concubine. Food isn‘t naturally grown. The world is completely different. It was one book that has stuck out to me long after I read it.

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Ruthiella
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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#tropesinaugust
#unusualschools

I didn‘t want to use a book that featured a school for magic since these are fairly ubiquitous (Harry Potter, The Magicians, A Wizard if Earthsea, etc). In Only Ever Yours, females are cloned and then brought up in cloistered, all girl schools where they learn solely how to please men...the goal is to become a companion over a concubine- though both are terminated at 40, when they‘ve outlived their usefulness...😱

Klou My goodness, this sounds... I don't know but wow! Great choice! 4y
31 likes1 comment
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Kalalalatja
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

Imagine if The Handmaid‘s Tale and Mean Girls had a book baby - this would be it! In a dystopian version of our world where women aren‘t valued as highly as men (surprise surprise), girls are designed and raised to be perfect, seen-not-heard, and obedient. The girls are constantly judged and valued based on their looks, weight and outfits, and things get NASTY!

#BookSpinBingo

MicheleinPhilly May I have some of your små godis, please? 4y
TheAromaofBooks Great progress!!! 4y
Hooked_on_books That sadly doesn‘t sound very dystopian. 😕 4y
Kalalalatja @Hooked_on_books you are way too right ☹️ the book is putting things on edge, but it isn‘t too far from reality 4y
Kalalalatja @MicheleinPhilly I almost inhaled it all once I got it home. 😋 My normal store, where I buy it, has only just now made it available again, after it was removed due to corona, so I have missed it! 4y
59 likes1 stack add5 comments
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Kalalalatja
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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My get-your-groove-back-stack 📚 my mind wanders a lot these days, so I‘m hoping reading books translated to Danish will make it a bit easier for me to focus.

#Libraryhaul

TrishB A great selection 👍🏻 4y
BarbaraBB I hope there is some great read for you among them! 4y
63 likes2 comments
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Books4Ever
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

Wow, this book isn‘t an easy read but it is impossible to put down. Everything I ever felt growing up, every horrible thought I had bout myself or heard mean girls at school say about me, all portrayed expertly. This is a terrible warning of a future that we definitely need to guard ourselves against. You really feel for these girls and everything they‘re brainwashed to believe. Read it, you won‘t regret it 🙂 and Gus is so cute so...🐶

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Books4Ever
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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“All eves are created to be perfect but, overtime they seem to develop flaws. Comparing yourself to your sisters is a useful way of identifying these flaws, but you must then take the necessary steps to improve yourself. There is always room for improvement. “
This book is so eerie but I can‘t put it down 😬

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Books4Ever
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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This lovely book comes to me recommended by my younger sister 🙂 I‘m excited to dig in 😚

10 likes1 stack add
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lost.in.a.book
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Mehso-so

I didn't hate this book but I didn't love it either. I am on the fence... it's a tough read. I am going to have to sit with my feelings about this book for a while, but for now I am giving it ⭐⭐⭐
#DystopianFiction

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r0sepetals
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This book has shaken me to my CORE. It was so bizarre, super uncomfortable to read and a total jab at the society we live in today. I flew through all 400 pages in two days and that ending... 🤬

As a CW this book spends a good deal of time talking about eating disorders/body dysmorphia and suicide. I would not recommend this book to people who are easily triggered by these topics because it is a very dark and heavy element of the book.

27 likes5 stack adds
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Bertha_Mason
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
Mehso-so

I'm very not okay after reading this. Scarringly sad and scary, and extremely triggering if you've experienced (non-exhaustive list) emotional abuse, medical abuse, rape, an eating disorder, and/or child sexual abuse (especially incest). The "so-so" is only because it's very white and cis. But at least it wasn't TERFy.

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Bertha_Mason
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill

"She is shining with indifference. I want her drugs the same way I used to want her beauty."
Mood.

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Bertha_Mason
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill

"I sit on my hands and watch myself in the mirrored walls, at this face that is so familiar yet which never feels as if it belongs to me. It is the property of the School, of the Zone, of my future Husband. This face is my worth, my value. This face is all that I have to offer and it isn‘t even mine."

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Bertha_Mason
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill

"Blackness swarms and I see nothing as the floor rises to meet me, to be my dancing partner."

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Bertha_Mason
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill

"My bones jostle underneath my skin, fighting to be the first one to pierce my flesh."

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Bertha_Mason
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill

I pray to the nameless shapeshifting genderqueer gawd/dyss of cluster B, trans freaks like me (praise be to rr holy identity disturbances) that this book doesn't turn out to be TERFy.

ShyBookOwl This book sounds terrifying and I need to read it! 5y
Bertha_Mason @ShyBookOwl I hope you enjoy! :) 5y
3 likes2 comments
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erzascarletbookgasm
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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This book is set in a future in which girls are raised in schools to be attractive and compliant, and are prepared to be selected to become companions or concubines. A terrifying dystopia read.
#anglophileapril #fixyou

Cinfhen Sounds horrifying!!! 6y
Kalalalatja I so want to read this! 6y
Mdargusch Sounds like they are grooming Stepford Wives! 6y
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sarahbarnes Terrifying idea!!😱😖 6y
Reviewsbylola Something about that cover is super appealing! 6y
emilyhaldi I thought the same thing!! @Mdargusch 6y
Izai.Amorim Sounds like the last 2000 years to me... 6y
64 likes3 stack adds7 comments
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nicpears
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

I really enjoyed this book even though it was heartbreaking. I recognized many of the feelings portrayed by the girls l, albeit less intensely, in myself and friends.

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Michellesibs
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

Welcome to The School, where girls are designed and for the first sixteen years of their lives they are taught to calorie control, to look pretty at all time, to be controlled. They work out on running machines that tell them they are fat. They compete against their sisters to be the most beautiful girl in their school year. Every day of their lives is in preparation for the big day where the men chose their companion to birth their sons.

12 likes3 stack adds
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erzascarletbookgasm
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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I have not read this, it‘s dubbed as The Handmaid‘s Tale meet Mean Girls. ‘Where women are created for the pleasure of men, beauty is the first duty of every girl..‘
In a sinister school, girls spend their classes obsessively controlling their appearance and comparing themselves with their classmates. Girls are designed and trained in the art of pleasing men!

#septemberdanes #barbiegirl

Kalalalatja I‘m going with another of this author‘s book 😉 6y
Cinfhen Did u read this one @Kalalalatja it sounds good!!! 6y
Kalalalatja @Cinfhen not yet, but I really want to! It sounds like a book for me 👌 6y
78 likes6 stack adds3 comments
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Jessmac102
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Do you ever find yourself furiously reading a Kindle book with NO IDEA how close you are to the end and then you turn the page and.....
....
You‘re on the “acknowledgements” page?

I am done with this book and I can‘t believe it‘s over and I wasn‘t ready for it to be over, I‘M SO UNSATISFIED.

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JanJan
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Anyone read this?

Reviewsbylola I have not but it sounds very interesting!! 7y
BookwormM I have it on my TBR 7y
youneverarrived It‘s really good! 7y
Itchyfeetreader Yes I would recommend so long as you don‘t go in imaging It to be a YA Handmaids Tale. 7y
58 likes3 stack adds4 comments
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Brie
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

I got a strong Mean Girls/Handmaid‘s Tale vibe while reading this dark dystopian. frieda and isabel are best friends and “eves”, perfectly designed women sentenced to one of three paths: companion, concubine, or chastity. But isabel starts to self destruct their final year before they are chosen, and frieda pulls away too. A scathing look at female beauty, identity, and power or lack thereof.

8leagueboot Oh, this sounds right in my wheelhouse... 7y
73 likes8 stack adds1 comment
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gpearce
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill

Struggling with all the girl hating but will keep pushing through.

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Beachesnbooks
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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My TBR stack for the #readathon tomorrow! I absolutely love participating in Dewey's and I think I have some great picks 📚 #30daysofreadathon @DeweysReadathon

JamieArc I read Slade House during last year's fall readathon and remember thinking it was a perfect pick. 7y
Beachesnbooks @JamieArc Oh great I'm so glad to hear that! 7y
melrailey Good luck! 7y
33 likes1 stack add3 comments
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youneverarrived
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

freida and isabel were best friends but in their final year of 'school' isabel starts to distance herself from freida.

This is a bit like The Handmaid's Tale for young adults. 💯% recommend it! #girlfriends #anditsaugust

35 likes1 stack add
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reema
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
Pickpick

Half Stepford Wives and half The Handmaid's Tale with a dash of Mean Girls thrown in. I quickly got sucked into this book and had a very hard time putting it down.

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Oryx
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Louise O'Neill is a fantastic #irishauthor This book, and also "Asking for it", I loved. In this one, she looks at beauty culture and women's perceived value in a dystopian society. #marchintoreading @RealLifeReading

30 likes5 stack adds
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mrsbatman85
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

I'd say it's definitely worth a read!

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Itchyfeetreader
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
Pickpick

A v dark YA novel. This had lots of interesting and important things to say about the nature of female friendship, misogyny and perspectives of beauty but was let down by a lack of world building. Glad I read but not a re-read.

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Itchyfeetreader
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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This is a seriously dark young adult novel

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Quercus_USA
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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ONLY EVER YOURS named to Book Riot's 100 Must Read YA Books for Feminists and Feminists in Training!

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cemeterygirls
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
Pickpick

wow

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EnidBiteEm
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

Gah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YA or no, I think I was EVEN MORE horrified after reading this than The Handmaid's Tale. If 'The Bachelor'was a life-long contest, school might be a little like this. I inhaled it. 😱😱😱 #booktober #bookssetinschools #YAlit

36 likes7 stack adds
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Storm27
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
Pickpick

I couldn't put it down so I read it in one day. Such an interesting idea and a great illustration on what part social media plays in our lives now.

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Eroviana
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

There are no adequate words to explain what this book made me feel. A disturbing dystopia that touched on every level!

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Chessa
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

Well, that was horrifying.

ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled Wow. In a good way? 8y
Chessa @ErickaS_Flyleafunfurled.com It is kind of like a YA Handsmaid's Tale. It was REALLY hard to read so much self-hatred narrated by the MC. It kind of feels like the dystopia that could happen if Trump were in charge and then the apocalypse hit and he got to redesign society. Horrifyingly awful for women. The backstabbing and social maneuvering between the girls in the book was so reminiscent of 5th and 6th grade that I almost couldn't finish. 8y
Chessa So it wasn't a fun read, but I couldn't put it down if that makes sense? Total train wreck of a society. 8y
See All 6 Comments
Bette I don't know if I want to read it now, to see what you're talking about, or run! 😂😂 good review 8y
Chessa @Bette Yeah, I totally get that! It's hard to explain - it's not hard to read, like language-wise. It's not experimental or anything. You're pretty plainly situated in a story the whole time, so in that way it's an "easy" read. But the subject matter is a totally different story. Whew. Drinking the beer I've been needing since 9 a.m. when I finished it. ?? 8y
Bette Sounds good. Cheers! 🍺😋 8y
38 likes3 stack adds6 comments
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Chessa
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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A moment of reading in between homeschooling and volunteer duties with my home brewed pour-over coffee in a mug made for errands. 👍☕️📚 #somethingforsept #bookandbeverage #bookanddrink

RealLifeReading Oh wow you homeschool? That's fantastic (also something I could never do) 8y
Chessa @RealLifeReading It's actually realllly fun! I love having schedule freedom. We get to go to everything when it's empty and take vacations whenever we want - an introvert's dream! 😂 We do a light year round schedule with big chunks off. 8y
57 likes2 comments
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readingonarainyday
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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My pick for #underhypedbooks is ONLY EVER YOURS. It needs more attention and more reviews. I loved it so much that I wanted to read it again. It is The Handmaid's Tale meets Hunger Games. It imagines a world where women have no rights and exist simply to please the men. It's terrifying. #augustphotochallenge

WordWaller It sounds like it'd get me REALLY fired up 8y
29 likes5 stack adds1 comment
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readingonarainyday
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Buzzfeed has this great list of YA books every feminist has to read and it features two of my favorite books ever - ONLY EVER YOURS and HUNGER GAMES. What do you think of this list? Any that you recommend? Link: https://www.buzzfeed.com/amphtml/chelseypippin/this-is-what-a-feminist-books-lik...

[DELETED] 2232195534 Homecoming is wonderful and the Louise Rennison books are really funny. 8y
Eastbriar That's a great list! Found tons to add to TBR. Thanks for sharing 😊 8y
19 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
ralexist
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
Mehso-so

Beauty is all. A stark dystopia in which women exist only for whatever men want of them. I think I would rate it higher if the entire mindset of the characters wasn't so disturbing. Got me to read out of my comfort zone but everything about this makes me want to be sure that this isn't our future.

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Crash
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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I'm halfway through and not sure what to think about it. In some ways it's disturbing but in other ways it's boring as there isn't much happening.

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Tammi
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Pickpick

It's hard to give a book like this a rating - I can't honestly say that I 'liked' it when it made me feel so disturbed and uncomfortable. It was frankly worrying how many of Freida's thoughts are thoughts I've had about myself. This is a book that will stay with me.

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CharmaineLim
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Panpan

Unfortunately, I fell so far from the spectrum of people who liked this. I ended up giving it a 0.5 star rating because I despised the execution so much. The world building was lacking and there were too many characters, all of whom eventually blended into one

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UnderTheRadarBooks
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
Mehso-so

I have very conflicting feelings about this book. On one hand it is controversial and thought-provoking and on the other it is disjointed and frustrating. I do think it is worth the read for the all the feminism but it wasn't as good as I was hoping.

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UnderTheRadarBooks
Only Ever Yours | Louise O'Neill
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Matilda Fantastic book that to me was a horror! 9y
9 likes7 stack adds1 comment