[Emily’s Review]: Escaping Eleven by Jerri Chisholm

Escaping Eleven
by Jerri Chisholm
Series: Eleven Trilogy #1
Pages: 400
Published by Entangled Teen
Release Date: December 8 2020
Genres: Dystopian, YA
Source: Publisher
Format Read: eBook
Goodreads
Buy on Amazon

In Compound Eleven, the hierarchy of the floors is everything.

My name is Eve Hamilton, and on my floor, we fight.

Which at least is better than the bottom floor, where they toil away in misery. Only the top floor has any ease in this harsh world; they rule from their gilded offices.

Because four generations ago, Earth was rendered uninhabitable—the sun too hot, the land too barren. Those who remained were forced underground. While not a perfect life down here, I’ve learned to survive as a fighter.

Except my latest match is different. Instead of someone from the circuit, my opponent is a mysterious boy from the top floor. And the look in his eyes tells me he’s different… maybe even kind.

Right before he kicks my ass.

Still, there’s something about him—something that says he could be my salvation... or my undoing. Because I’m no longer content to just survive in Eleven. Today, I'm ready to fight for more than my next meal: I'm fighting for my freedom. And this boy may just be the edge I've been waiting on.

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Eve Hamilton’s world is underground. 
Everybody’s is.
After the humans effectively murdered the earth, and it’s atmosphere. When the atmosphere could no longer protect them from the sun. They took beneath the soil.
That is where generations of humans have born and died since. It’s dark, it’s dirty and it’s unjust. The lower means (classes) living farthest below, furthest from the sunlight and with the least amount of resources.
Eve is one of the lower means and she was raised as a fighter. Her world is literally flipped upside down when she meets Wren, a preme (the highest class in this caste system) and they fall in love.
The dangers above ground are less dangerous than what lies underground and Eve is hell bent on escape.

SO LIKE…
POST APOCALYPTIC. 
BRINGING DOWN THE MAN.
DYSTOPIAN SOCIETY.
YA ROMANCE.
WITH FIGHTING?
HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOO.

I love all those things!!

This book has some MAJOR Divergent vibes. I’m going to start there. 
I was hurt, and badly at that, by the Divergent series. 
My disgust with Veronica Roth knows no bounds. 
But that is a different story for a different time. 
What I am getting at here, is that while I was reading Escaping Eleven, I was wholly convinced that it was all some sick social experiment. 
SO FAR, I am wrong. SO FAR, the reasons for living underground for years upon years is legit. SO FAR, this plot is moving in a different direction. 

However I suffered at the hands of Roth and now I trust no one.

Escaping Eleven is first person through Eve’s eyes. We are seeing and feeling the world as she sees and feels it. She is beaten down emotionally and physically, daily. Staying alive for Eve and the people around her is a struggle. They have little and are given little. There is no way to change their standing in this society. It was created to benefit only the wealthy, and it has stayed that way since it was founded.

So Compound Eleven is looking and feeling pretty rough. For everybody.

Eve would rather die than stay there. 

And that, is her mentality for the entire novel, the entire series I would reckon. So this book, while YA, is not light hearted.

Sure, there are some sweet little moments between her and Wren. Eve is adorably clueless when it comes to boys so while this book isn’t funny in the least, there are a few little “aww” moments thrown in for levity. There is also the classic jealous boyfriend and girlfriend moments for a little added “drama”.
But the majority of this book is dealing with depression, suppression, oppression and repression and by almost every character.

So, while we’re all super bummed about being in compound eleven, the upside is that Eve finds love, she is marginally happier with Wren than she is without him. She is going to escape, she has a plan, and she is going to go through with it. When she finally does make it out and up. Boy oh Boy, the relief that you as the reader will feel for her. phew!

and then it’s over.

the book ends.

on THAT cliffhanger.

WHICH IS SO SMART. AND SO FRUSTRATING.

Because for 300 pages we’ve been wanting to escape compound eleven right along with Eve, and then when we finally get above the Earth’s crust, WE HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS.

But lucky for you fine folks, I have an ARC of book two, Unraveling Eleven that is all queued up and ready to go.

I would give this book a solid 3.5 stars.
I really liked the plot, the premise, the characters and the execution. But it definitely doesn’t feel like something fresh or new, that hasn’t ever been done before.