Eve in Overdrive - Faith Gardner - ★★★.½

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AUTHOR: Faith Gardner

SERIES: The Jolvix Episodes #4
GENRE: Psychological Thriller
RATING: 3.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A good novella set in the Jolvix universe. The pace went up and down, but the start was good enough, and the ending were unexpected. (This author always surprises me with her unexpected endings.)

Story Synopsis:
Eve works for a digital magazine, writing a column that hunts online trolls and holding them publicly accountable for their toxic behaviour, but this has come at a cost: she now gets death threats and her office colleagues consider their work environment unsafe. With the huge success of her work having led to a book deal, Eve treats herself to a Sunray – a solar-powered self-driving car with all the latest features and each car being personalised to its owner. Little does Eve know that the engineer who was in charge of customising her car is not among her supporters.
The story comes to us in Eve’s first person pov.

As this book is a standalone novella set in the Jolvix universe, we once again witness the lifestyle that is so dependent on AI. The focus this time is on self-driving cars. As it is, I am not a fan of driverless cars (They freak me out!), and Eve’s experience shows how creepy things can become with an overdependence on AI and technology.

On the pro side, the story is quite quick. This novella is just about 60 pages long, so it won’t take more than an hour at the most to complete it. Most of the plot is dedicated to Eve’s experience in the car, but there are a few flashbacks to help us understand her psyche. The spotlight it puts on trolls and their behaviour is quite interesting.

Eve is not exactly a likeable character; her spunk is balanced by her high-handed attitude. But she is a good lead for this story as we feel torn about how to feel regarding her predicament. Does she deserve it? Was she right in her attitude towards trolls? Should trolls be allowed a voice? Should people stand up to such bullies? Plenty of points to ponder over within these few pages.

Where the novella fails somewhat is in its pacing. When we are in the car with Eve, we feel her panic and worry. But the flashbacks regularly take us into her past, killing the momentum and flow of her present quandary.

The ending was a somewhat unexpected one, which leads me to round up my rating.

Recommended to those who enjoy reading futuristic psych stories. This isn’t Faith Gardner’s best (of the ones I’ve read) but it is worth a read.

My thanks to author Faith Gardner for providing me with a complimentary copy of ‘Eve in Overdrive’ at my request. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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