Thank you to Netgalley, Entangled Teen and the author, Jerri Chisholm, for providing a copy of Escaping Eleven (Eleven Trilogy book 1). I have reviewed honestly. Escaping Eleven features, but is not limited to, the following themes: ○ Dystopian ○ Young Adult ○ Light romance ○ Enemies to lovers ○ Underground community ○ Kickass FMC My overall rating for Escaping Eleven is… 5 Stars! Astonishing. Escaping Eleven was an exhilarating adventure of friendships, love and survival in a dogmatic dystopian world. The world building was incredible, I loved every aspect of this futuristic tale. Theres something incredibly exciting about an underground community hiding from the unforgiving heat of the sun. Eve is the perfect, daring, dystopian hero; Katniss and Tris, it's time to step aside. I love her personality and her unique views on certain compound traditions and traits that the others follow blindly. I also loved her dedication in making her beliefs and dreams come true. I loved learning about the politics and hierarchies. The friendships were beautifully formed and the love interest was book-boyfriend candy. I can honestly not fault this book and I'm so excited to continue Eves story in "Unravelling Eleven."

Thank you NetGalley for sending this arc for an honest review!

This book was quite incredible. I haven’t read a dystopian like this in a long time and to say the least this story definitely exceeded my expectations. Even the romance captivated me because it was amazing to watch the challenge between the two main charcaters. Honestly this book was a masterpiece!

Is the idea completely original? No. It feels a bit Veronica Roth, a bit Suzanne Collins, and for some reason gives me a bit of some Doctor Who episodes. What’s different is the execution. It’s not as revolutionary as Suzanne Collins, who might have Eve and Wren (our protagonists) thinking they can fight the system and win; and it’s not as combative as Veronica Roth, who might have Wren and Eve trying to attempt a coup from within Compound Eleven, the underground “city” compound where this book is set and where it takes its name from. Instead, Jerri Chisolm takes into account the feeling we all have today about systemic oppression: you can’t fight the system when you’re caught up in it. If the system is holding you down, you are stuck. It’s systemic for a reason, and it imprints itself on your DNA and lingers for generations. The only way to fight the system is to escape it. But no one escapes a system that’s been in place for as long as Compound Eleven has been without coming out unscathed.

I loved the tension that ran tight, like a wire, throughout this whole book. As always, I love a good book that has as little filler as possible and is neatly edited. This is one of those books.

4.7 stars

It’s been a very long time since I’ve read such a great YA dystopian. An interesting premise and decent plot.

It took me back to the days where I found my love for reading and reviewing again. Similar concept to the dystopian reads of early 20’s. The rich control the poor - with hunger games and divergent vibes. However, there was something refreshing about this story. It was a fun, interesting and easy read with some brilliant characters and thrilling moments. I’m definitely invested in the story as whole and in Eve & Wren’s relationship.
The world building was on point and kept me engaged.

Highly recommend if you’re a fan of dystopian fantasy.

Eve is a fighter looking forward to when she can reach the upper level and Earth to see if her younger brother Jack somehow survived being banished nine years ago for being the unlawful second child of the family. He was sent out to the unprotected air and land on his own. Eve meets Wren in a scheduled fight that entertains the crowds. They despise each other at first but soon become allies. While Eve’s friends continue to participate in job tours to help decide their future, she hunts for a way to escape Compound Eleven. Wren is from the upper level so he has access to more and also has a better lifestyle than Eve and her friends in the lower level. He teaches her to shoot a gun and she introduces her to the lowest level of the compound where she helps ration food to the people. They both grow and learn about what they truly want in their futures. Eve is stubborn but loyal and Wren is smart, brave and has integrity. Interesting world building and strong characters add life to this dystopian story, 4 stars!

Actual rating: 3.75

Thanks so much to the author, Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC.

I initially requested this title because I miss reading dystopian books. I thought that this one was a throwback to the days of The Hunger Games and Divergent. It certainly felt that way. I did enjoy the story flow and the world building, and I think the sequel managed to sustain the momentum (which I'll be reviewing next because I binged them). It's definitely action packed and the ending left me reeling. Can't wait to tell you all about the next book!

This book was absolutely amazing! It was so different from other dystopian ya books I’ve read. I loved getting to know this underground world and their ways compared to how it was. Wren and Eve are enemies to friends that made me laugh a bit of how their friendship formed. Especially Eve’s part. I very highly recommend this book. I loved it and can’t wait to read book two. Very highly recommend!

This book transported me back to my dystopian phase in the early 2010s. The concept reminded me a lot about the 100, except instead of people escaping the world in space, they go underground.

Eve is a sixteen-year-old who dreams of escaping Compound Eleven. There is a hierarchy of floors, and she is a Lower Mean. Everyone is subject to a one-child policy, but Eve’s mother had a second child, Jack, who was discovered when he was three years old and left above ground to die. Eve wants nothing more to go above ground and she hopes to find him. She plans to leave before she has to choose her future job. Eve is a very physically strong character, she is an occasional fighter who wins pretty much every match. Until, Wren. Eve fights Wren, a preme from the top floor, and he kicks her ass. From that moment, Wren and Eve are drawn to each other.

‘Even with blood coating his face, he is handsome.’

Eve is a complicated character, I think the author portrays her very well, as the readers can understand her conflicting about leaving Compound Eleven because of her friends and Wren. Eve has complicated relationships with both her parents and lives alone. She begins keeping secrets from her friends as she plans to leave the Compound. There is a clear difference between Eve’s life and Wren’s, and the author explores this through job prospects, amenities and just general lifestyle. Eve and her friends are all very supportive of one another, and the author partially explores domestic abuse through a specific relationship in the book.

‘Perhaps that’s all life is. A series of deaths and rebirths, over and over until we can be born again no more.’

Wren remains a very mysterious character but I can’t wait to find out more about him. He was my favourite character in this book, but I would like to know a lot more. I enjoyed the development of their relationship as he helped Eve open up and see things from different perspectives. I think they work well together and I hope to see more of them in the future instalments!

I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read the sequel. I’m very intrigued as to where the story will go next. If you love The 100, The Hunger Games, Divergent, and other similar dystopian novels, then give this one a go!

Okayyy! This book is intense, thoughtful and shows how hierarchy impacts people. How the lower means have to struggle and are looked down upon. This has so much of violence, reading it makes me shudder and sometimes to hurt the abusive characters myself. So much of killing, it made me pause. I can't get the brutal image out of my mind.

I enjoyed every single moment from Eve and Wren on their astonishment and wonder at looking things above ground as they live under ground. Why they live there? It is because they have been told that sun can kill instantaneously which is why compunds are formed by higher societies coming together and made in hierarchy, everyone knows why? To get people work for them. Looking at raindrops, trees, birds from Eve's eyes, it shows how sometimes we aren't appreciative of our surroundings. Oh and ofcourse, forbidden romance, high society and lower mean, I loved Wren and Eve. Their relationship and what they go through pains me but also those good moments are worth the wait.

The story is slow but worth it. The journey of Escaping Eleven is filled with loss, heartbreak, pain. It is brilliantly written with descriptions that will paint the pictures in front of your eyes. It was a great read and I totally recommend this YA dystopian book.

The sun rendered Earth uninhabitable, so compounds were formed underground. Eve lives near the bottom of Compound Eleven, where the closer you are to the top, the more power you have. As a trained fighter, she gets in the ring with someone from the very top, who might just wind up helping her break out of the compound.

Escaping Eleven tells of the dangers of an underground society. It dwells on major concerns we have in real life about the state of the planet and amplifies them. It was very believable to me that a hierarchical society would form after so long in such an enclosed place, and Eve being extremely low on the totem pole made you see the corruption. I loved how she was able to open Wren's eyes to what actually happens on the lower floors, which spurs him into wanting changes. Although it's a trope we've seen before with opposites, Eve is not the typical shy, lovely girl. She's not afraid to throw herself into a tussle and in a twist, she's the one with anger issues. I did wish the book had ended a bit different since it seemed as though nothing really changed. I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here. For me, this was a 4/5.

If you like apocalyptic societies, lovers that literally start off in an all-out fighting ring, or want to feel relieved that you breath fresh air, this is the one for you.

I received a digital copy of this book free from Entangled Publishing and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

✨Escaping Eleven by Jerri Chisholm✨

Genre: YA Science Fiction
Trope: Dystopian
Star Rating: ☆☆☆
📚: 400 Pages

Eve Hamilton resides in an underground compound as the suns rays make living above the surface uninhabitable. The compound runs rampant with corruption, caste systems, violence and persecution.

I have not read a dystopian read in years, I’m talking nothing since Allegiant came out and this was pretty good! Eve is powerful fighter who meets an attractive guy from one of the upper floors (can you same forbidden love??). Eve is overcome with curiosity as to what lies above and her relationship with Wren makes you want more!

Book Two releases on November 16th, 2021!

👏Thank you NetGalley/Entangled Teen for providing me an ARC in exchange for my honest review

#EscapingEleven #JerriChisholm #ElevenTrilogy #EveHamilton #NEtGalley #ARC #AdvancedReaderCopy #SCIFIReads #Dystopian #EntangledTeen

POST APOCALYPTIC.
BRINGING DOWN THE MAN.
DYSTOPIAN SOCIETY.
YA ROMANCE.
WITH FIGHTING?
HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I love all those things!!

🌎 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.

🎭 It’s important to note: the majority of this book is dealing with depression, suppression, oppression and repression and by almost every character. 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”. So it’s not super dark, but not exactly a light and airy read either.

💙 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. 😅
💔 For sooo many pages the reader is waiting for her to make it. And then she does- and then…

🏔 the book just… ends.
Ohhhhh what a cliffhanger!

I haven’t read a young adult dystopian novel in so long because I find that they can get redundant. This was most emphatically different from all the rest and I loved every single minute of reading it.

First off, I loved Eve and all of her strengths and her flaws. Born into this lower middle class of an underground world after the Earth’s surface became uninhabitable, she spends most of her time hand to hand combat fighting in The Bowl. Unlike most books in this genre where the main character is this friendless outcast, Eve has a solid group of real, true friends around her. I thought they all leant something important to understanding who Eve was.

After a brutal fight, where Eve must fight a boy from the fifth (and topmost) floor, a Preeminate, she comes to in the hospital wing, nursing not only a mending body, but a mending pride as well. She is shocked to find the boy she fought sitting at her bedside…

Through the pages of this incredible novel, we get to see the vast differences between the casts of people living in Compound Eleven. Preeminates, Premes for short, are the cream of the crop, living on the upper floor and making up a royalty of sorts. Then there are the different levels of Means, Upper and Lower - Lower being the likes of Eve and her friends, and the Denominators making up the very bottom of the food chain, living in terrible conditions…

All Eve wants is to escape the confines of the world she is living in… She is jaded by poor treatment and overall crappy living conditions. She hates the Premes as she has been programmed to because that is the way it is. The different levels don’t mix. But when Preme Wren keeps popping up in her life, she is unable to ignore the handsome face and devil may care attitude he exudes.

This book was AMAZING! I loved Eve and her longing for more. She is desperate to escape the burden of the world she has been born into, even if that means finding a way up to the surface, where she will surely die immediately due to the unlivable conditions and the foretold extreme heat of the sun. That is after all where a very special person in her life was exiled to years ago at the behest of the Preme and their rule.

I read this in anticipation for the second book in the series, Unraveling Eleven, which I am so thankful I have available to me considering I JUST finished this book and already desperately need more!

If you like The Hunger Games and The 100, you'll definitely love this book. It combined the coolest parts of both of those stories through a beautifully fitting, unique, blunt writing style, with a very intriguing utilitarian quality perfectly matched to the tone of this novel.

It was very character driven, and I really enjoyed both of the main characters even though they weren't likable 100% of the time. Eve was extremely prickly. Very prejudiced and untrusting. Full of both justified and unjustified resentment for the ruling class (AKA the Premes). But also full of fire, passion and an insatiable child-like wonder for everything related to the outside world. Indomitably reckless and a rule breaker. The epitome of "it's better to ask for forgiveness than for permission".

Meanwhile, Wren was just top quality book boyfriend material. He was so sweet. Patient in the face of Eve's obliviousness, disdain and scorn. So nice, noble and selfless. But with his own inner demons and personal issues. He very much had a dark streak to him that I'll be curious to explore further.

Because the story mainly revolved around the characters, the plot did fall by the wayside at times. Eve's inner monologues and plans to find a way to escape Compound Eleven got a bit repetitive and boring. They slow the story down which is what ultimately brought my rating down from 4 to 3.5 stars.

However, I very much look forward to reading books 2 and 3 of this trilogy. I'm rooting for these characters and can't wait to see what new trials and tribulations they'll have to face.

**I received a digital copy of this book from Entangled Teen through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

I haven't read a dystopian book in a very long time, but Escaping Eleven was right up my alley. Please be aware that this won't be for everyone as it is very violent and tackles a lot of serious issues.

Eve wants freedom, she wants out of Compound Eleven. And though, there is a lot of violence and sadness, there is also hope in this book. I will definitely read the next one.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the free ebook copy in exchange of an honest review.

This is one of the best Dystopian YA novel I have ever read. The characters are well-developed and lovable, the plot is intriguing and the story is well-paced. There is enough drama, violence, sadness, and romance to keep the readers at the edge of their seats. You won't want to put it down once you started this page-turner. I absolutely loved it and would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good Dystopian story. It's not a standalone and ends with a cliffhanger. Now, I can't wait to read the next book.

Eve lives in an underground compound. Her life is a mess and she hates the entire class-based system where some people are treated like royalty while others like animals. She wants to get as far away from this place as possible. Unfortunately, there is no escape. Yet, she is determined to find a way out even if it killed her.

Wren is a Preme (an upper-class citizen of the compound). By all accounts he should be happy with his privileged life, but nothing could be further from the truth. When he meets Eve, things change. She is like no other girl he has ever known before. He doesn't care that she from the lower floor or that she is prone to violence. Her life has just been different from his.

Will the two ever find a way to live in harmony when their reality is one of hatred, division, and violence? I thoroughly enjoyed this first book in a trilogy and will be looking forward to the next books. I remember when the Dystopian books were all the rage, but I never read any. Just didn't feel like my kind of thing. Still, I am glad I read this book. It was worth it.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Escaping Eleven is an immersive, action-packed story about one girl’s fight for freedom. In this dystopian world, the earth was too hot to survive, and people were forced to live in underground compounds. Eve, a sixteen-year-old fighter on the cusp of choosing her career, is stifled by the hierarchal rules and restrictions. Eve desires freedom above all else. Haunted by the loss of her younger brother and the unfair and extreme rules of the compound which forced his banishment, Eve is determined to escape Compound Eleven. However, can Eve leave her family, friends, a new relationship with a boy named Wren, and all she’s ever known behind? I enjoyed this engrossing YA dystopia

To say I flew through this book would be an understatement! I was instantly hooked from the beginning! Action-packed, intense and unforgettable moments.

A huge thank you to Entangled Publishing for a free copy to read and review!

Areas of this book definitely had me comparing it to early 2000 YA Dystopian but also a completely new story! I was thoroughly engrossed with the characters and storyline. The world building was wonderful, and I was immediately attached to the main character.

If you loved Divergent, Hunger Games, Uglies… then you definitely need to pick up this book.

A great book! A start of a great series!! I love the characters and the plot!!! It’s like Divergent!!! A must read!! I hope they make a movie!

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I read this an could not put it down. I was hoping for something new and I was not disappointed. Eve is so strong and goal driven. The way the world is designed was amazing. I could easily visualize the descriptions. It made the reading experience enjoyable. It opened my eyes to wanting to read more by this author.