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A review by beeboisourgod
Dark Eden by Patrick Carman
3.0
I was skeptical about this book, it’s been on my shelf for a while, another Value Village find, of which most I’ve grown wary of now after a lot of bad apples, but it was actually a quick, pleasant read. Though that might’ve been helped by the fact that the power went out at my house and I had nothing else to do.
Either way, it may not be the greatest thing I’ve ever read, but it was interesting enough to hold my attention and finish in one sitting. The story was fast paced and definitely had a few surprising turns and details which I didn’t expect, and then some I did expect. Though the lack of character depth meant some of those twists and details didn’t really make me feel the way they probably should have. Like you could have replaced the whole cast and I wouldn’t have noticed because there was barely any development of any of them. But that seems to be a problem with most YA books I’ve read recently: The characters merely being cardboard cutouts of basic tropes or stereotypes just there to move the plot along. In fact, you could probably swap the cast of the last YA book I read with this one and there would be literally no difference. The loner, the smart kid, the popular girl, the jock, etc.
So overall: it was a decent concept, it moved along well enough, and was a little predictable, but not overly so, I don’t know how I actually feel about the twists because I didn’t really feel anything, but the characters definitely needed more fleshing out. Also, there was a bout of insta-love, which usually warrants an instant sound of disgust from me, but in this case it was only a small annoyance like a buzzing fly, so it didn’t require my anger so much as simply my suspension of disbelief.
Anyway, this is one of those books that probably won’t stick with me too long, but I don’t regret reading it and though I wouldn’t actively go out searching for the sequel, if I saw it at a thrift store or a yard sale, I would probably pick it up to see how the story continues. Solid 3 star rating.
But I was trying so hard to not picture the main character as the guy on the cover because he looks like not one but several annoying kids I used to know.
Either way, it may not be the greatest thing I’ve ever read, but it was interesting enough to hold my attention and finish in one sitting. The story was fast paced and definitely had a few surprising turns and details which I didn’t expect, and then some I did expect. Though the lack of character depth meant some of those twists and details didn’t really make me feel the way they probably should have. Like you could have replaced the whole cast and I wouldn’t have noticed because there was barely any development of any of them. But that seems to be a problem with most YA books I’ve read recently: The characters merely being cardboard cutouts of basic tropes or stereotypes just there to move the plot along. In fact, you could probably swap the cast of the last YA book I read with this one and there would be literally no difference. The loner, the smart kid, the popular girl, the jock, etc.
So overall: it was a decent concept, it moved along well enough, and was a little predictable, but not overly so, I don’t know how I actually feel about the twists because I didn’t really feel anything, but the characters definitely needed more fleshing out. Also, there was a bout of insta-love, which usually warrants an instant sound of disgust from me, but in this case it was only a small annoyance like a buzzing fly, so it didn’t require my anger so much as simply my suspension of disbelief.
Anyway, this is one of those books that probably won’t stick with me too long, but I don’t regret reading it and though I wouldn’t actively go out searching for the sequel, if I saw it at a thrift store or a yard sale, I would probably pick it up to see how the story continues. Solid 3 star rating.
But I was trying so hard to not picture the main character as the guy on the cover because he looks like not one but several annoying kids I used to know.