Common Sense Media Review
By Andrea Beach
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Disturbing, riveting dystopian novel skewers beauty values.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 14+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
At 16, freida (whose name is printed in lowercase) is in her last year at school. At the end of the year, her fate will be decided in a ceremony where she'll learn whether she's to be a companion (wife), a concubine, or a chastity (teacher). Always ranked in the Top 10, freida has a good chance at a coveted companion position. But her best friend isabel, who always ranked No. 1, has begun to distance herself from freida and, worse still, gains weight and loses her top spot. Without her best friend, freida throws herself into the politics of the popular clique and goes along with the power games in a desperate effort to recover her high rank. The constant pressure to be thin and beautiful becomes even harder to take when she meets Darwin, the highest-ranked boy and the one she hopes will find her worthy as a companion. But to secure her future, freida ends up betraying and being betrayed in turn. As she starts to fall from grace, her future is no longer a sure thing. Is she still a worthy choice for Darwin? Who will be ONLY EVER YOURS?
Is It Any Good?
Thought-provoking and disturbing, this riveting novel is also a beautifully written, remarkable debut. The near-future world, after a climate-change apocalypse, is fully imagined and vividly realized. The claustrophobic, insular lives of 16-year-old girls as they struggle against themselves and each other will ring eerily true for today's teens who are bombarded with beauty messages, reality-show infighting, and queen-bee power plays.
Freida's strong, believable narrative voice draws the reader into her world. Despite some of her cringeworthy mistakes and bad choices, teens will find themselves thoroughly absorbed in freida's future, hoping for the best but fearing the worst. Author Louise O'Neill doesn't wrap things neatly with a bow, either. The shocking end is every bit as dark and disturbing as everything that leads up to it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about why dystopian novels are so popular. Why are we so fascinated by them?
Do you feel pressure to be as beautiful as possible? Where does that pressure come from, do you think? How are society's expectations of beauty the same, or different, for us than for the teens in Only Ever Yours?
Do you think a society such as this one can last long? How might it ever change or come to an end?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Contemporary Fiction
- Topics : Friendship , School ( High School )
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Quercus
- Publication date : May 12, 2015
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 13 - 17
- Number of pages : 398
- Available on : Nook, Hardback, Kindle
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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