The Other Side of Eve

by Paul Ikin

This enchanting narrative shares two abstract tales as one singular journey. Entwined by action and consequence, the key protagonists are teenagers Evelin Boots and Belleny Vera. Both girls exist and are placed in time across two lands. One is reality as we know it, the other is created as a metaphysical realm where its fate is destined by the energy of the ethereal and the mental health of Evelin Boots. This is a pastiche of the lives of others.
A premonition is forewarned. Now it’s a race against time for young Evelin to find solace and peace within herself before her anxieties bring eternal darkness into her life and manifest as tyranny and terror, in the metaphysical realm of Mare-Marie.

www.theothersideofeve.com

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Contemporary

590 pages, Paperback

First published March 6, 2015

About the author

Paul Ikin is an illustrator by trade & author based in Melbourne, Australia.

Reviews

[Sebastian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really really REALLY wanted to love this book but to be honest I had quite a hard time getting myself to finish reading this book. I fell in love with the concept of this book right away and even now that the book left me rather disappointed I could still spend hours browsing the author's website looking at all these amazing illustrations and pictures of the finished copies which are simply stunning.

What I liked:
- this book might be one of the 5 prettiest books I've ever read and I love absolutely EVERYTHING about its design, starting with the gorgeous illustrations, the beautiful cover or the design of the spine and I'm still tempted to pay 30€ for a hardcover just to own a physical copy of this beauty
- the story is told on two levels, one in the real world of a young girl, one in a fantasy world that stars a young princess
- the story deals with anxiety and tries to encourage especially young readers who have to deal with it
- both settings (especially the fantastic one) are very imaginative and it's apparent that the author put a lot of effort into creating these worlds
- the story features a lot of odd and quirky characters and creatures

What I didn't like:
- I felt like NOTHING happened in the first half of the book (and we're talking about a 600+ pages book)
- Belleny as one of the two main characters never really grew on me
- I enjoyed Evelin's "real life" story more but unfortunately for me the focus soon shifted to Belleny's storyline
- there were just too many characters in this book so that none of them could get enough time to develop a personality and I had a hard time telling most of the creatures apart
- even though the authors seems to have a personal history of anxiety I found this aspect of the book a bit too superficial; I know it's rather a middle grade book but I had still hoped for a bit more depth into this topic
- the plot is too simple for such a lengthy book and I'm still not sure if the "real world" storyline actually had one at all because it often seemed like a random series of events to me
- I kept reading because I was hoping for a satisfying explanation for how the two storylines were connected but despite seeing some apparent parallels I just didn't get the meaning of it and found the ending rather disappointing
– they were SO many typos (I'm not exaggerating when I say that this book had HUNDREDS of comma faults and it was obvious that the author simply didn't know the comma rules – which is not a shame but usually there's an editor to fix them)

So overall I have a lot of respect for Paul Ikin for realizing the whole project on his own and as an independent author and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the design but the story just didn't work for me.

[Maraia]

I wanted to love this book because of the gorgeous illustrations, but it's a disaster. It's clear that writing doesn't come naturally to the author, nor does he understand proper comma usage. I tried to look past the hundreds of missing commas, but I can't force myself to suffer for a single page longer. Poor grammar aside, the writing doesn't flow properly, often sounding stilted or awkward. As an artist, Paul Ikin excels, but that's the only positive thing I can say about his book. I hope that he will employ an editor if he wishes to continue writing.

DNF @ 38%

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am beyond in love with this book. Excellent,extraordinary and very creative story. Once I started it was difficult to put down.
First of all I must say I love the cover. It is simply gorgeous.
Paul Ikin writes beautifully and his characters are so real you can almost touch them. Eve was enjoyable character to read about. And her dialogues with Weatherman were amazing!
The only problem was lack of a map,but I found it here - http://theothersideofeve.com
I would recommend this book for anyone who is a fan of other worlds,magic,adventure,danger or just if you want to read a good story to escape life for a while.

[Josh Guilar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sort of Lewis Carroll meets Narnia; I enjoyed the quest narrative thread & the two stories are woven together marvelously.

If you enjoy fantasy novels I recommend this.

[Annina | Blattzirkus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot
The Other Side of Eve is a book about Eveline Boots, a thirteen year old Teenager who struggles with anxiety. She copes with it by creating another world within her mind, the world of Princess Belleny Vera. Belleny has to struggle on her own to defeat the evil witch and to safe the kingdom of Mare-Marie by going on the biggest adventure of her life. With her friends, creatures called the Orphans and her new arrived friend, the two-tailed Bateau, she manages it to first free herself from her own created prison and then to overcome her fear of the outside of her home, the castle. But what will she find on the other side of her kingdom, far far away from home? Will she be able to defeat the evil witch and safe Mare-Marie? Will Eve be able to fight and win against her struggling self?

Characters
Before I go on about the plot itself, I need to mention the glorious characters that have found their way into the book. Eve, Milton, Robin, Mr.Brackenback, Cory, Esta from the one world of Eveline and Belleny, Bateau, King Vera, Danté, the Orphans, Gonzo, Kale, Garon and so many more from Mare-Marie itself. There are for sure more characters than I possibly be able to recall now (it’s like with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as much as I love these books, I’m not really good with names). You can’t dislike them and each of them teach so many good lessons, it was just so refreshing to read.

Opinion
Finally a story which seems so original im comparison to everything that’s out there (I am talking about YA novels, it seems like there is a problem with these books lately). The world, both Evelines and Bellenys, seems so unique and special, you don’t really get bored about it. Facts, earlier events and mysteries get revealed from time to time and make it fun to read. There won’t be information overload and you are able to discover both worlds. That’s the reason why it got 5 Goodreads stars out of 5. The world building was magical (yet to be able to be built out) and the characters were so nice to get to know and created. You liked every one of them (except for the evil ones, but since they were great too, you hated them in a good way). Plus the way the storylines completed each other in the end was like yeah finally, there’s the big picture! Because from time to time, while reading, I was thinking about how the storylines by Eve and Belleny fitted together. Similarities got revealed from time to time about these two, and that was cool. There was a time I thought that the girls were the same person but Belleny was just a fracture of Evelines personality, but no (You will see if you read the book). Personally I would have liked to see more Eve storyline, but at the same time I understand why there was more of Belleny.

Last but not least, let’s talk about the awesome illustrations and how they completed the book. Not to forget the black and white colors, because they fitted perfectly with Mare-Marie. They also got to help me picturing the creatures a little bit better and eased the text flow (I wanted exactly that style in my bachelor project, but that’s another story to be told).


Me ranting about typos
I put it into an own category, so if you care to read about my rant, go on. If not, leave it.
My only main problem with the book were the typos. Since I’m schooled to be a typography nerd, I see some mistakes probably more easily than others. There were times were the font was slightly bigger (I saw it like three times for speeches and couldn’t really see the point of it so I guess it was a mistake). Then the letters were small when it wasn’t supposed to be so and the main thing that annoyed me at some point were the missing or misplaced quotation marks. I think these things need to be pointed out and corrected if possible. (Also it’s a slight warning for the readers, so yeah). And last but not least the gaps within the words. I know that a perfect justification wants to be achieved BUT the main goal always will be to make the words be able to read as smooth as possible. Sometimes the gaps were to small or too big to read it really nicely. Just saying.

I feel really bad about the rant since the book is really good but it had to be said, sorry

[GC MacQuarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I venture through a bookshop, I never know what I'm looking for. I don't have a preferred genre or a list of authors I exclusively read. Mostly, I wait for a book to jump out at me. Within the world of on line book stores and social media, it becomes completely visual. For the other side of Eve, it was a simple Twitter post.

Paul Ikin's illustrations are expertly bold and eye catching, so much so it made it impossible for me to scroll through my endless Twitter feed without stopping to find out more about this book. Within a few seconds, I decided I had to read this book.

The story centres around Evelin Boots, AKA Eve. Struggling to overcome anxiety, Eve creates the fantasy world of Princess Belleny: Mare-Marie, transporting the reader to a world of fantastical beasts and enchanting scenery.

Read my full review here: http://gcmacquarie.weebly.com/reviews...

[Stef · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like it. I was so hyped, I love the illustrations and the creative character designs. Basically what I didn't like was that it suffered from a dire need of an editing job. I didn't want that to affect my feelings, towards the overall story - even the biggest grammar snob has to look over a few formatting errors for the greater good, right? - but it did. If you're one of those people, good for you, you'd probably like this book. It is wildly imaginative and I definitely felt for the characters, even the ones I didn't initially like.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Other Side of Eve by Paul Ikin is not just a story, it’s two distinctly different journeys of discovery, following both the fantastical quest of princess Belleny Vera from the land of Mare-Marie, and the mental journey of thirteen year old Evelin Boots from Yellow Tree, as she struggles to battle the wars within her head and accept her place in the world. How their worlds connect is partially up to the reader to decide through the use of metaphors and similarities in both girl’s worlds and life experiences, something I found really enjoyable as it really allowed me to engage and involve myself with the stories and find my own connections.

While there were a lot of characters in the story, I’m not sure all of them were quite necessary in moving the plot along or adding to the world building. It was a bit confusing keeping up with secondary characters in Belleny’s chapters because there were so many, even though all of them were given sufficient back story. Some characters I felt needed less attention as they weren’t as relevant to the story, while other characters I felt needed more development as they were vital to the story’s plot and then were suddenly jumped back to when convenient. I enjoyed the creation of these characters nonetheless, even if their back stories weren’t always sustained or adding to the plot. Some of my favourite characters in The Other Side of Eve, apart from the two protagonists, Belleny and Evelin, were:

Belleny’s sometimes talking cat Bateau, a circus runaway sent to the castle Belleny confines herself in, where he meets the other five ‘Orphans,’ an odd assortment of creatures from the same circus, only under a curse. On their quest, he is a loyal and sometimes humourous companion to Belleny with just the right balance of vulnerability and heroism. His interaction with the other characters is quite funny and his sassy retorts are brilliant!

Evelin’s friend/boss, Astina Francis, the fabulously wealthy owner of a penthouse apartment complete with personal butler and swimming pool, along with several badly behaved dogs which
Evelin gets roped in off the street to look after. Astina’s confidence, dramatic lavishing in her wealth, independence and laid back mannerisms contrast with Evelin’s, yet also draw the pair closer. It becomes apparent that Astina is a mother figure to motherless Evelin and helps to cut through the haze of fantasy around Evelin’s mind with her blatant questions straightforward no-nonsense advice. She is a very strong character, slightly quirky and feisty in nature, but ultimately, she’s part of the wakeup that Evelin needs to help her through her mental illness... even if she herself is a little strange!

The Weatherman, who I am pretty sure was a figment of Evelin’s imagination, asks nonsensical question which border on being deep, and deep and meaningful questions which border on being nonsensical. Although he didn’t make a lot of sense, his world in the clouds provides a safe mind space for Evelin, and he is at times like her crazy conscience, leaving even her confused. There was a lot of charm in his whimsical nonsense and his questions, which flipped every phrase backwards, forwards, up and down to make sure he was asking the right thing, were poetic and poignant...even if he was quite crazy!

The dedication to these two worlds, especially in their very unique style of fantasy and magic realism (two genres for two stories!) was incredible and I loved the fearlessness of imagination and creativity that Ikin went to in creating these worlds. The quest through the land of Mare-Marie had characters passing through moving trees, sands that burn in the moonlight, garden hedges that fight back and many more surreal fantastical elements and settings. Again, I was really impressed by the commitment to be unique in the creation of this fantasy world and the commitment to sustaining it and not fall into the ‘typical’ epic fantasy elements.

This was paired with not only Ikin’s own cover design, but amazing surrealist and fantasy illustrations of characters and settings. I found having illustrations done by the author really enhanced the sense and understanding of the worlds and characters, and brought a personal charm to the pages.

However, while the plot and settings were excellent, I found the pacing to be a bit difficult, especially at the beginning. Divided into four parts, I found the first part of the novel to be quite slow and lack drive. A few less chapters in the first part with maybe a few more answers instead of so many questions would have moved the opening pacing on a bit. The latter parts were much better, especially the action scenes. This was also paired with grammar, spelling and punctuation errors throughout the book which, while didn’t stop me from enjoying the amazing stories, did hinder my enjoyment of reading. I think it’s a sign of the allure of the worlds and stories, and all the different characters, that I was able to read The Other Side of Eve and look past the spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Congratulations on a fantastical debut Paul Ikin. 4 out of 5 stars for a fearless and unique set of stories where fantasy and magic realism collide!

[kashbot · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Other Side of Eve is a beautifully illustrated book inside and out, but most importantly a beautiful read.

The Other Side of Eve traverses two contrasting worlds: the familiar modern-day world occupied by Eve Boots, and the fantasy kingdom of Princess Belleny. When Eve's own thoughts (and anxieties) begin to affect Princess Belleny's world, this interwoven story takes off in surprising and exciting ways. The novel is full of adventure, humour and tenderness and also gently addresses issues of mental health. I caught myself laughing out loud regularly and the characters, and creatures, are all richly drawn with distinct voices. It's a really enjoyable and heart-warming read, and is a very worthwhile addition to a middle-school reader's library (I'm about to pass this on to my 10 and 12 year old stepsons so will edit with an update on which found it more engaging).

You also really can't talk about this book without mentioning the beautiful black and white chapter illustrations. They hark back to the way books for young adults used to look and give the print edition a very collectible feel.

A delightful debut and a beautiful addition to any bookshelf. I highly recommend it. Couldn't put it down.

[Sarah Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, this would be a 4 star book were it not for the fact that the Kindle edition is full of typos. Clean it up guys.

This is a hugely ambitious book - Evelin Boots is coping, or rather not coping with her anxiety. In therapy & on medication, she tries to make sense of her world.

In another world Princess Bellany lives only in her rooms, not venturing outside, until the day everything changes and she sets out on an impossible task.

The author does some interesting stuff with both worlds, Evelin's life is full of little strangenesses and eccentric characters, while Bellany's is fantastical & pays homage to many stories.

Challenging and enthralling, this straddles MG & YA. Ikin has said there will be further books & I'm looking forwards to him building this world further.

[Orroal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am blown away by how great this is. This world-building totally gread.

[Dana · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at page 110. The illustrations are wonderful and I wanted to love this book, I just couldn't read anymore.

[Hannah J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book w stunning pictures!

[Alana (semi ia) · Rating 3 out of 5]

GREAT idea. GREAT story. Yet it needs some editing...and I hate to say that. Pains me when an otherwise good book is riddled with comma errors, etc.

[Patrick Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calling The Other Side of Eve anything but a modern fairy tale would do it an injustice. I wouldn't call it a young adult book, though I'm sure it fits into that category. The book switches between two protagonists(Eve in the contemporary world & Belleny of a more fantastical one), and a journey that fits the rolls of two young girls in both worlds. The opening of the book states that the two won't interact, and they really don't, though it's left to interpretation I think how the two worlds really, not interact, but reflect the other.

An interesting read that makes you grow to like initially dislikable characters and a mundane world that grows with excitement as we get to know the characters who are just as interesting as those in the fantastical.

TL:DR Edition: The novelization of the best 80's film never made.

[BookzBookzBookz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every person needs a form of escape from life. For Eveline Boots, she actually creates a life1 Full of magic, adventure and the craziest of situations, The Other Side of Eve, by Paul Ikin, is a book of stories of two different people- but the same person, finding self and a cure for what bothers one the most.

I found the novel while causing Youtube. The book's trailer was so amazing, I reached out to Ikin, via Goodreads.com. He sent me to book and I began a journey, akin to Alice in Wonderland, but so much more in originality.
This story was a simple, yet complicated read for obvious reasons. You don't understand that Eveline is both herself and Princess Belleny until you're into the story a bit, but you find the worlds bleed into one another. You're dealing with depression and anxiety, and knowing without knowing, but when you see the fragments come together, it's fantastic! There's literally two genres going on in this tale and they work in a sort of synchronicity, allowing each to flow separately, then mesh with control of the reader's mind- into a superb ending.

Eveline suffers anxiety and Princess Belleny Vera has a version of agoraphobia. Both have to go on their own journey's, finding a way to come out of their shells. Eveline, in the real world, finds herself through a friend/boss, who's a curious character, while the Princess has an evil witch to conquer and a quest that has her traveling with a variety of friend-like things. In the end, they find out who they are- who Eveline is and how the world can be taken on, without losing yourself.

*for the full review: http://www.areneehunt.com
The Other Side of Eve
Paul Skin
Independent Publisher
March 2015

[katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actual 4.5
So, this book, in my opinion is Miss Peregrines Home For Peculiar Children meets the whimsical qualities of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland. The concept for this book is quite unique and was very entertaining to read. And Paul Ikin's writing displayed this concept in a very eclectic and beautiful way.

The character building in this book was REALLY amazing! Ikin did not sugarcoat any of the character's personality's, such as the princess with her twisted side of herself. But, it's not only that but how the character's dynamic changes as well. Also, the characters story on both sides of the fold (in real life and in Evelin's world) really coincide with each other nicely to fabricate a world of tyranny and eternal darkness.

Overall, this is a beautiful and dark story of equally beautiful writing, a fantastic journey that does not hide any darkness in the light. The only reason this got 4.5 and not 5 is because of probably my own personal preference of books to read, but, I would honestly recommend this book to anyone who even has the slightest interest in reading the book. Please give it a chance!

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's so much that could be said about this book but i think it's best to read it and experience story with the characters. All i will say is that I fell in love with the characters in this book. It's an adventure fantasy with fantastic characters. Looking forward to reading more from this author.

[Gianina · Rating 4 out of 5]

it took me awhile, but it was a good book

[D.L. Perching · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent fantasy story with unique characters. Reminds me of The Never Ending Story. Love MC and how author uses story to portray her anxiety issues.

[Dawn]

This book needs a good edit.

[Alicia]

want to read

[Wendy Seungwan]

Very Good.