Bookseller YA book prize goes to feminist dystopia

"Newsflash! Louise O’Neill’s debut book Only Ever Yours wins first Bookseller YA book prize"

In a world in which baby girls are no longer born naturally, women are bred in schools, trained in the arts of pleasing men until they are ready for the outside world. At graduation, the most highly rated girls become “companions”, permitted to live with their husbands and breed sons until they are no longer useful.

For the girls left behind, the future – as a concubine or a teacher – is grim. Best friends Freida and Isabel are sure they’ll be chosen as companions – they are among the most highly rated girls in their year.

But as the intensity of final year takes hold, Isabel does the unthinkable and starts to put on weight. ..
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. . ..

Read the first chapter of Only Ever Yours

About this author

Louise O' Neill is from Clonakilty, in west Cork. After graduating with a BA in English Studies at Trinity College Dublin, she went on to complete a post-grad in Fashion Buying at DIT. Having spent a year in New York working for Kate Lanphear, the senior Style Director of ELLE magazine, she returned home to Ireland to write her first novel.

She went from hanging out on set with A-list celebrities to spending most of her days in pyjamas while she writes, and has never been happier.

The Guardian

Written by: Michelle Pauli
Thursday 19 March 2015 19.21 GMT

"A debut novel that satirises the way young women are scrutinised for their looks has won a new young adult (YA) book prize set up by book trade magazine the Bookseller.....

" "In an interview Louise gave to the Guardian children’s books site about feminism and Only Ever Yours, she said: “I wrote it because I felt tired. I wrote it because I felt intrinsically ashamed of the parts of myself that made me female. I wrote it because I felt a bit broken. I wrote it because I wanted to start a conversation about how we see and treat women.”".......

"Erin Minogue, the teen judge on the panel said: “Only Ever Yours is not only a fast-paced and terrifying story but also a beautifully written and important book that everyone needs to read, regardless of age or gender.”"

For Full Artical Click Here

Get Your COPY TODAY

|Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Chapters.Indigo | Google Play | iTunes/iBooks|