Daughters of Eve
by Lois Duncan

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Book Reviews of Daughters of Eve

Book Review: Cult mentality
Summary: 3 Stars

The problem? Well, this brainwashing cult stuff might work if there are no other outside forces influencing the girls, and if the girls are susceptible to the idea that there are no POSITIVE examples of males in the world. In this case, it's a big stretch to assume a group of bright, "cream-of-the-crop" girls wouldn't see Irene for the loon she is. Nevertheless, this book is written as if the general population of the small town of Modesta, Michigan, never got out of the 1950's. The only one who senses Irene's insanity is "psychic" Tammy, and she doesn't use plain old logic to notice this; she has visions of BLEEDING CANDLES, for God's sake. It takes her far longer than it should to realize her teacher has a screw loose, even with ESP. She can predict who her best friend will marry, but doesn't notice a raving lunatic in front of her. Some psychic.

However, that still makes Tammy one up on the rest of them. Fran, the "brain" of the group, doesn't even catch on to Irene's lack of mental stability until the group decides to take up organized violence as a hobby. Some honor student, huh? Ann, the "artist", is given a dilemna that's insulting simply because the advice Crazy Irene gives her is presented as the "feminist" viewpoint. Hopefully, most readers will realize that feminism has nothing to do with the "rights" that Irene advocates, but Duncan is unfortunately very hazy with the correct viewpoint that women want equal rights but are NOT man-haters. (Only one character, Fran, is representative of this idea.)

Meanwhile, there are too many unnecessary characters, in my view. Most likely, Duncan tried to populate the club with every possible stereotype: brain, beauty, artist, Miss Sensitive Psychic, athlete, musician, fat (of course) lonely outcast, lone girl in a family full of MCP's, daughter of domestic abuse victim, and bitter, disillusioned daughter of recently divorced parents. Ten major characters! Geez, couldn't Duncan have combined a few of these, such as give the MCP family girl musical ability, make the recently divorced parents' daughter the beauty of the group, domestic abuse daughter becomes the athlete, etc. It's not as if the characterization goes any further than that anyway. And some of these names have got to go, like "Ruth" (archaic), "Jane" (generic), and worst of all, "Bambi"! Who, other than a porno star, has a name like that? Just let her be 'Kelly', let the MCP girl be 'Holly', 'Paula' can be the athletic/domestic abuse daughter, and 'Holly's' boyfriend in the book can be Tammy's brother. What difference does it make? Too late now, but Lois, you could have saved yourself the time and space it took to create 3 extra cardboard characters and gave more dimension to the other 7, which is still a few too many MAIN CHARACTERS in my book. Better luck next time. And P.S. next time make sure your characters' names don't all SOUND alike. I mean, Holly, Kelly, Paula, Laura, too many L's. Not to mention RHYMING names like Ann & Fran. Geez, no wonder readers here are mixing them up. Try names like Karen, Sandy, Heather, Diana, & Amy--names that are DISTINCT from each other. Just a suggestion.

As for the rest of the book, the male chauvinist pigs, particularly the Grange family and Jane Rheardon's father, are one-dimensional and downright hateful. Unfortunately, that makes it difficult for the reader to see how irrational Irene and her group is, because the MCP characters don't generate any sympathy whatsoever. The few male characters who ARE positive are not featured prominently enough, so they get little sympathy as well. Overall, the plot showed promise, but the execution...well, was literally an execution.

The annoying aspects of this story notwithstanding, it's still worth checking out of the library. If nothing else, Duncan's ending proves she has a wicked sense of irony. Consider the object mentioned in the last paragraph and the usual "domestic" image that one conjures from it. That image will be forever altered in the reader's mind.

Summary of Daughters of Eve

Horror Books

• Subjects > Teens > Horror