A perfectly serviceable start to a YA trilogy.

A plague has killed 98% of the world’s population. Eve is preparing for her graduation ceremony from her all-girls school in the middle of nowhere, after which she’ll cross a bridge and begin learning a trade, when she discovers that her teachers haven’t been totally forthcoming with her about the world she lives in or what’s across the bridge.

Things I liked a lot about this book:

• So far there’s not too much of the Chosen One trope, which is a huge YA dystopian trilogy pet peeve of mine. I’m sure it’s coming in book two, but I already feel a lot more open-minded about it since so far no powerful leader has approached our naive teenage protagonist and informed her that only she can save the world.
• Another YA trilogy pet peeve? A loooong, drawn-out discovery of the fact that things aren’t what they seem, or a protagonist who stays in denial way too long. (minor spoilers) Eve is told that things are what they are, she does some recon to confirm (yep), and then she gets the hell out of dodge. (minor spoilers over)
• Similarly: romance subplots that spend the entire book beating around the bush. (more spoilers that are only spoilers if you are truly new to this genre) Eve meets a guy, they hit it off, and that’s pretty well that. There are no artificial obstacles invented to drag out the suspense. Of course they deal with separation and miscommunication and so forth, but the actual establishment of the relationship is pretty matter of fact. (spoilers over)
• A lot of stories in this genre start with a bunch of people already having died, and without getting to see the world before or the people in it, those losses don’t hit home. This one actually manages to  make the loss of characters we never meet feel potent and painful.
• Female friendship gets a front row seat, and women rescue each other every bit as often as men do.

A couple gripes:

• Something felt a little off about the pacing. There was a lot of action and it never dragged, but it felt like a defined climax was missing. I think the author must be intending to spread out the normal structure of a book over the course of the trilogy, which I’m willing to accept but I don’t think it’s ideal.
• I could put it down. I don’t know, I just felt like this one had the potential to be an up-all-night-reading book. It came close, but just somehow fell short. Still a really solid addition the an overcrowded genre.