Today I’m joining the blog tour for One. My review is written with thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me on the tour and to Orenda Books for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

One law. One child. Seven million crimes…

A cataclysmic climate emergency has spawned a one-child policy in the UK, ruthlessly enforced by a totalitarian regime. Compulsory abortion of ‘excess’ pregnancies and mandatory contraceptive implants are now the norm, and families must adhere to strict consumption quotas as the world descends into chaos.

Kai is a 25-year-old `baby reaper´, working for the Ministry of Population and Family Planning. If any of her assigned families attempt to exceed their child quota, she ensures they pay the price.

Until, one morning, she discovers that an illegal sibling on her Ministry hit-list is hers. And to protect her parents from severe penalties, she must secretly investigate before anyone else finds out.

Kai’s hunt for her forbidden sister unearths much more than a dark family secret. As she stumbles across a series of heinous crimes perpetrated by the people she trusted most, she makes a catastrophic discovery that could bring down the government … and tear her family apart.

Review:

One is Eve Smith’s third novel and despite not being a science fiction devotee, I absolutely love her work. One is no different. It’s set in the future, far enough away to be recognisably in the future, but close enough for readers to be able to imagine the time that the author is describing to us. It’s actually horrifying that legislation like that which the women in One must follow and the measures in place to ensure that they do may actually exist in the not too distant future in order to control reproduction and human consumption, and this is what makes it so compelling. I really wanted to know how the story would unfold and it was really hard to stop reading! 

Eve Smith is a wonderful writer and I loved the way she describes the different locations in One. The locations are not places with which I am familar, but the writing took me there and I was able to picture everything really clearly. 

The protagonist of One is Kai and I warmed to her character really quickly. At the beginning of the novel, she is placed in an impossible position and I really wanted to know how she would handle it. I loved reading as she grew in confidence and determination and I was rooting for her the whole way through. The other characters who enter Kai’s life through the story are less easy to trust and the author very cleverly sows the seed of doubt in the author’s mind so that we are often asking questions, which kept me gripped until the very end! 

Of course, the plot runs much deeper than the story on the surface and One has allowed Eve Smith to explore more universal themes as well as scientific ones. I appreciated the way she approaches the subjects of family, grief, women’s rights and power (both politically and in more general terms) in a way that is accessible to all readers. 

I can’t wait to see what topics Eve Smith tackles next!

One is available from Amazon.

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