Little Eve Review

Hi everyone! Today is yet another review, this time for Little Eve by Catriona Ward! The next blog post I’ll have up will be my August Wrap Up, which is going to be another long post. Let’s just get right into the review!

Little Eve
by Catriona Ward
Series: Standalone
Release date: October 11th 2022

Genre: Adult, Gothic, Horror
Rating: ★★★★☆.5

“A great day is upon us. He is coming. The world will be washed away.”

On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth.

The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction.

A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong.

And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered.

This book was originally written in 2018, but this is the first time it will be published in the US and I’m so happy that I was provided a copy to review! Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Little Eve follows two girls Eve and Dinah, who are members of a cult living on the Isle of Altnaharra off the coast of Scotland. Eve wants desperately to be the heir to the power that her ‘uncle’ has as the Adder. Eve starts to question everything surrounding her, which leads to tragic events that not even the Adder could see coming.

This book was wild! I always find cults fascinating, mainly because I cannot fathom not only how someone gets into such a headspace that they will go along with everything their leader says, but how the leader themselves gets into such a position. You have to be truly evil to bend other people to your will, and in this case, knowingly abuse them.

That’s kind of the one thing I wish was explored a bit more – the backstory of the Adder. It’s mentioned briefly a few times, but I wanted more! I did really enjoy though how the Chief Inspector tried to put things into perspective and discussed the cult beliefs with Eve, the psychology behind how your beliefs can twist everything you witness and experience is so fascinating.

The way this ‘family’ interacts with one another and how they will willingly throw each other under the bus if it means becoming the Adder’s favored member was both interesting and frustrating to read, but in a good way. Reading about cults always frustrates me because all I want to do is take the characters by the shoulders and shake them until they snap out of it!

The setting of Scotland was perfect for this book, the dreary and stormy weather on the isle fit the mood and mysterious vibes of the cult so well!

At the beginning of the book, I struggled to tell if the characters had magic or if they were just suffering from hallucinations and delusions, and I did end up getting my answer, although I don’t really want to say here just in case you also cannot tell while reading, I think figuring it all out was part of the fun of reading this book!

You do get some chapters that are told after the events from the synopsis that make you second guess what has happened in the chapters from the past, and piecing everything together was really what kept me engaged with the story and wanting to read more! On top of all this, the writing was great, and I’m relived that I enjoyed this since I have both Sundial and The Last House on Needless Street on my TBR to read soon!