I can see people really enjoying this book but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.
I thought the ending felt rushed and was anticlimactic, I didn’t enjoy the writing style and the plot was a bit meh
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Thank you NetGalley and Orenda Books for the opportunity to review this book.

I liked this! The story was interesting and moved at a quick pace. The world building is done really well and I really like the writing style. Special Thank You to Eve Smith and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley, Independent Publishers Group and Eve Smith for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

One was an eye-opening read that seems all too scarily possible.

The ONE government controlling the population with a one child policy. If anyone dared to ignore it, there were dire consequences for both the parents and the child. This premise isn't hard to imagine, as it's already happening in some countries now.
The story also delved into corrupt governments using the climate crisis as an excuse to get away with multiple immoral and dodgy actions. (Which also doesn't seem impossible)

Eve's writing drew me in immediately and kept me hooked all the way through.

4 stars from me. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

"It's hard for you to recognize deceit, because it's all you've ever known..."

I liked the "Seven sisters" resemblance, as both are set in a dystopian one-child policy world after climate disaster, but that's about it for me.

"Sisters are the worst enemies. Because they know where best to strike."

I found it too underwhelming, the dynamic between the sisters was very plain and uneventful. I couldn't relate to the MC or feel what she was feeling, she didn't feel deep or real, and it might be my romance-altered brain but I thought I saw some semblance of romance between Kai and one or two of the male characters around but it never started.

"I guess fear I'd a kind of faith, too."

The ending was also very anticlimactic, like the investigation lasted the entire book and then she faints and wakes up and the gouvernement is down. oh-

Overall a bit disappointing but tackles interesting points, especially regarding migration. Would have been better if it was more about the characters and less the government, although that can be just a personal preference on my part.

[review posted on goodreads]

Thank you to Netgalley and Orenda Books for this ARC of ‘One’ by Eve Smith.

This was phenomenal. It was twisty, unexpected and just an amazing read. The amount of similarities to the world in the book and to a near future world for us are scary. Certainly very thought provoking and interesting to think about. Would definitely give this a read if you like dystopian books.

Welcome to the future where instead of making women give birth we make women have abortions. Why does every dystopian novel include something about controlling women’s bodies?

Kai has very strict views about the One party and the one child policy. She works for the Ministry rooting out people who try to, or accidently find themselves about to, have a second child. Then the best possible thing happens and she finds out she has a sister. This is so forbidden that she was publicly punished as a child for playing a game pretending her best friend was her sister. How do you get to the point where you forbid children from imagining?

The world building was very well done. There are some obvious discrepancies in the way birth, population, and pollution work but the book mainly ignores them. So it must rely on characters and plot driving it.

The author sets up a world in which this One party controls several countries all over the world. Immigration is vilified. At the same time, science is finally working on cleaning up our planet. Good and bad. Working on problems but going overboard. The characters were fairly flat. Good or bad. Angry or sad or superior. Not a lot of depth. New characters and plot points were introduced as a ghost in the machine to solve a very obvious problem.

The problem with speculative fiction like this is that it isn’t necessarily speculative fiction. China has long had a one child policy. And, as a matter of fact, many countries need to increase birth rates. The simplicity of the idea being birth=earth destruction ignores that we are not able to go back and redo how we grew our populations. That wouldn’t work. And I couldn’t get my head to pretend it would.

I would like to have likes this book.

A dystopian tale, One by Eve Smith (2014) is set in a climate-ravaged Britain of the future. The Prime Minister and Party executive have mitigated flooding, extreme temperature variation and population controls to sustain the fragile ecosystem. Kai works for the Ministry of Population and Family Planning to enforce the legal one-child mandate which is strictly enforced. She is horrified to discover she has a DNA half-match and a sibling who is not supposed to exist. As Kia investigates, risking her career, imprisonment and her parents’ freedom, she discovers the Ministry’s dark past of population control. An enjoyable and credible tale of a post-climate disaster world, where family loyalty and government regulation conflict, form a four and a half stars thriller rating read. With thanks to Independent Publishers Group and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.

Certainly makes you think of what the future could be like. It was twisty, unpredictable and fast paced. The future is closer than you think. Highly recommend.

For the readers who loved The Handmaid’s Tale, it is an indispensable dystopia. One is definitely one of the best speculative fiction novels I have read in the recent time.
There are disturbing parallels between the current world we live in and a not-so-distant future. There is the world suffering with acute climate change, in author’s imagination a neighboring South Asian country has been flooded by the sea. The said government in UK has serious laws against the prevention of illegal immigration and to complete the scenario, there is a totalitarian government. Eve Smith’s world is one where wildfires, famine and floods have resulted in a cataclysmic climate emergency.
The author has taken cue from PRC, and there is a ruthless one-child policy in the UK. Compulsory abortion of ‘excess’ pregnancies and mandatory contraceptive implants are the norm. Families must adhere to strict consumption quotas as the world descends into chaos with lesser number of agricultural products available each passing day.
The protagonist Kai Houghton, is a Ministry Representative for Population and Family Planning, and it is her job to enforce the rules without any exceptions. She stumbles upon the most awful dilemma when she discovers something that is going to have a major law break in her own family.

I extremely enjoyed this speculative dystopic thriller and I remember reading it in practically one sitting.

#One #NetGalley #evesmith #netgalleyarc

This will definitely be listed as one of my top reads for 2024! Absolutely brilliantly written and fast paced and frighteningly, this could soon become reality rather than dystopian.

As the climate crisis we are currently in worsens to crisis level, Britain has imposed a one child limit on couples, to ensure there is enough food and energy to feed the population. Twenty five year old Kai’s job within the government is to ensure that this is adhered to, meaning she has to enforce abortions on second pregnancies and even women carrying twins have to have one aborted - as a mum of twins, this was a hard hitting and terrifying concept.

When Kai discovers that she herself has an illegal sibling, she is in a race against time to find her and try and cover her tracks, so save her parents from prison. But what she discovers is that the ministry she is so loyal to has been lying to everyone, putting future generations in danger.

The plot is superb, with corruption and propaganda twisting the reality and highlighting just how important it is that we take steps to slow climate change immediately, in order that this remains as fiction and not the future of our world.

Deserving of all the stars!

5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Eve Smith and Orenda Books for an ARC in return for an honest review.

This is the first book I have read by this author but it won't be the last. It was twisty and unpredictable and very thought provoking. Can I see something like this happening in the future? sadly yes and I don't think it would necessarily be too far away

I remember being bowled over by my first experience with Eve Smith's writing back in 2020, and she has been on my radar ever since. Somehow I haven't actually picked up her second book yet (something I hope to remedy soon), but I knew that I simply HAD to read her newest title One as soon as I read the blurb. I admit that speculative fiction/dystopian thrillers aren't my usual genre, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy them and in fact I have quite a few that ended up on my list of favorites. And guess what? It looks like I will be adding another title to that list, because One blew me away completely! Without a doubt one of my highlights so far this year.

One is set in a future that is scarily plausible, giving everything that happens under the command of the One Party even more impact. Eve Smith does a fantastic job introducing us to this new reality, and describing the situation in a way that makes it extremely easy to fully immerse yourself in this dystopian future. The one-child policy is nothing new and already applied in certain cultures, so it is not a big stretch at all to believe this could also happen in the UK. Add an also plausible climate emergency, and it is easy to imagine how the One Party could have come to power and introduce such drastic measures.

The fact that it is so easy to imagine this world portraying an actual possible future makes it extremely easy to become fully invested in everything that is happening. We learn more about how everything works through the eyes of our main character Kai, and Kai's journey is also part of our own as our eyes are slowly opened to everything that happens behind the scenes. One is a story of strong emotions and shocking revelations, and the plot isn't afraid to tackle multiple sensitive topics along the way. The same emotional rollercoaster ride Kai is experiencing will set the tone for your own reading journey; the injustice of it all will make you want to rage and fight along with the rest of them.

The main character Kai is without doubt a very flawed character and not always easy to like, but her power lies with her development and character growth over time. Her character helps demostrate the effects of governmental grooming and brainwashing, and just how hard it is to break free of those thoughts and determine what is the truth. Eve Smith did an absolutely fantastic job portraying this in a realistic way, and it made the story that much more powerful. The personal angle with Kai having to investigate her own family also further enriched the plot for me.

I fell in love with Eve Smith's writing in The Waiting Rooms, and this newest book has only reconfirmed this love for me. As soon as I picked up my copy of One and read the first chapter, I knew it would be VERY hard to stop reading. Between the writing and plot itself, I found myself to be completely hooked from the beginning... And I already knew One was most likely going to receive the highest rating long before the halfway mark. It's a stunning, raw and brilliantly written piece of speculative fiction set in a dystopian future that is chillingly plausible. I simply cannot recommend One enough if you enjoy the genre!

Set in Britain, One Party has created legislation making it a crime to have more than one child, all in the name of climate change and limited resources. Kai Houghton, an employee of the Ministry of Population and Family Planning works daily to crack down on population offenders until one day the impossible lands on her desk.

It was a great thriller and all too real in today's political climate. I need more from Eve Smith. Recommend!

Another excellent speculative thriller from Eve Smith, this one set in a chilling future version of the UK where a totalitarian government has aggressively attacked the climate crisis by restricting everyone to no more than one child, along with consumption quotas and other governmental controls. Kai is a loyal government employee who works for the Ministry of Population and Family Planning, where she makes sure that none of her assigned families exceeds the one-child quota. When she discovers that she has an illegal sibling, her whole world and beliefs are turned upside-down. I flew through this book in one day! Thank you to NetGalley, Independent Publishers Group, and Orenda Books for a digital review copy.

I received a copy of this book as an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Let me start off by saying that I didn't really like that the book had several pages of comments and reviews from readers before the story started. It was very distracting and some had a sneaky spoiler included.

The story was beautifully written and all of the characters were well thought out in their personalities and reason. I enjoyed the relationships between the characters, although there was one or two that I would have liked to have learned more about. For example, a character named Hellie was mentioned... I would have liked to have known what happened to her. I also felt a little chemistry between the main character Kai and someone called Spice... Did they get together?

I perceived the whole story to be similar to post-apocalyptic, but with climate change instead of nuclear warfare. It truly was a pressing story and I really enjoyed it.

So I thought I would love this book so much the plot sparked my interest. The follow through wasn't what I expected. I thought the plot was good but the story line did not match up and seems a bit like another book ive read. I dont mind that though and it was a pretty good book so I would recommend it to friends and family that havent read the other book before.

Oh this is glorious. It starts out dystopian and sad. It just jumps right in,
It feels weird to read this right in the midst of our anti choice crisis here in America but no choice can go the other way as well, I know my grandma was sterilized. Lots of women were from the 1920s to the 1970s.
The part with the twin mama was too much for my sensitive soul. I also can't imagine having no brother or sister.
I love the news updates interwoven with the story. They really set the tone and underline the propaganda.
I would welcome more books like this.

There is a lot going on here but it is so captivating! The twists and turns and build up of tension and suspense was so well done

Well well well this book has so much meat to it!!!
This one is the mother of speculative thrillers. It has it all! Population control, climate crisis, totalitarian government, citizen monitoring, rebel groups, extreme laws, experiments, conspiracy theories. You name it, this book has spun it all into a world that is actually a very plausible future.
Plot:
Kai is a government employee working for the family planning and control department. Her job is to investigate and enforce infringements to the 'one' law which restricts families to one child. The extreme measures the government take to enforce this are truly heartbreaking to read. When a new case of breach of the law is assigned to her she discovers the family in question I hers. How can this be? and what does it mean. As Kai investigates and is confronted by a truth so much darker than the propaganda fed to everyone for decades, she uncovers the true cost of the ONE law on the country.
With truly heartbreaking stories which have been inspired by the author's research into China's one child policy, this peek into a very real plausible future is scary and poignant. As the story unravels we discover some eerie similarities which recent global events in attempts to control and divert the truth from the world.
A must read for speculative near future or dystopia lovers. Thoroughly recommended.

What an interesting premise! What if you could only have one child…but you got pregnant again? What if you were pregnant with more than one child? In this future UK, you have every right to be paranoid, because they actually do know everything about you, and rest assured they will be coming to get you if you step out of line even just a little bit.

This explores themes of family, government control, climate change, abortion, surveillance, immigration and more. It’s a must-read—some of these issues sound eerily familiar…

I will definitely be checking out more of Eve Smith’s work, and you should, too. Her speculative fiction will make you think.

My thanks to NetGalley and Orenda Books for the eARC. All opinions are mine alone.