My Name Was Eden by Eleanor Barker-White

3.09 AVERAGE

anabak's review

2.75
dark emotional fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
Kind of confusing but not a badly written. Psychological 

ndelaurence's review

3.25
dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jeannine6's review against another edition

2.5
dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
shae_bentley's profile picture

shae_bentley's review against another edition

4.0
dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
bookishsamsch's profile picture

bookishsamsch's review against another edition

3.5
dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

booked_with_julia's review

3.0
dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
Psychological Thriller
Vanishing Twin Syndrome 
Domestic Suspense 
Multiple POVs
Short Chapters

I was so intrigued with the premise of this story. As soon as I saw Vanishing Twin Syndrome, I had to read! 
After Lucy and James teenage daughter had a drowning accident, she is different. She is wanting to be called Eli who was her twin that vanished in the womb and was never born. The family starts to crumble and their marriage is falling apart. The chapters alternate between Lucy and Charlie who is Eden’s best friend. 
There is just a lot of holes in the plot. A lot of unanswered questions of what happened. 
My Name was Eden is still a great debut and I can’t wait to see what the author comes up with next. 

readsfromrebecca's review against another edition

3.0
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
frogqueen's profile picture

frogqueen's review

2.0
dark mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
  • after surviving a near-drowning accident, eden begins insisting that she is actually eli, the twin she absorbed in the womb. then the bodies start hitting the floor.
  • something about this just did not work for me- it felt like it could have used more editing, more focus
  • the story is told in three perspectives- lucy (eden/eli's mother) in the present day, lucy as a child, and charlie (eden's best friend). i don't think this needed to be a multi-pov novel and don't really understand why the author made this choice. sure, there were one or two important things that eden/eli told charlie and not lucy, but surely there could be another way to work those in without including charlie's pov? 
  • additionally, lucy-as-a-child's pov really only serves to offer an explanation as to why lucy is willing to believe that eden really is eli. still, it is only one piece of evidence towards that explanation, and ultimately i didn't find it a compelling one
  • (generally not a fan of "woman is crazy/hysterical/delusional" as a plot element even if it's only that other characters think she is)
  • the epilogue really put me off. totally changed what the book was about and my perception of the events of the plot in the final three pages. moreover, the author had spent the whole book putting in effort to lead the reader away from its conclusion. also made me totally rethink my perception of the prologue in a way that i didn't like 
  • there is some ambiguity within the plot and questions that never get answered:
    why was eden by the lake in the first place? did eli "take over" and drown her so he could emerge? why is the family "cursed" to never have boys?
    but i didn't think this was a huge issue. there's enough there for the reader to come to their own conclusions about the characters' states of mind and motivations. just a bit annoying to have these interesting threads dropped. like, i thought we were going to come back to these things and we just didn't

**review of an arc i received via goodreads giveaways**
cmyrup's profile picture

cmyrup's review against another edition

3.0
challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
This was a very unique psychological thriller. The plot was intriguing and started out strong. I had never heard of vanishing twins so the idea that one of the main characters who was involved in a near drowning and woke up telling everyone they were now the vanished twin was interesting. 

The family dynamics were confusing but the more I read the layers peeled back and revealed what I needed to understand for the most part. I still think there are holes that weren’t answered but that could be intentional. 

I did not find the characters very likable but I don’t think they were meant to be likable. 

The ending was phenomenal. 

Overall a good read. Solid 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read the ARC.
cj_mo_2222's profile picture

cj_mo_2222's review against another edition

4.0
challenging mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
This debut psychological thriller starts with such a unique premise. Eden Hamilton is fourteen years old when she has a mysterious accident at a lake near her home. She almost dies, but when she awakens in the hospital, she insists that her name is Eli. Her mother, Lucy, is shocked because Eli is the name of Eden's twin brother who didn't survive in the womb and his death was labeled "Vanishing Twin Syndrome". (This is a real thing - I looked online to get a little more information about it.) While Eden was always close to her father, while Lucy and Eden didn't always get along, Eli is loving and supportive of her mom and acts differently in other ways, too. 

The story is told from Lucy's point-of-view in the present and a few chapters from when she was a child. There are also some chapters from Charlie, Eden's friend since childhood. Getting someone else's point-of-view on some of the events helped me understand the story better, especially since some strange things occur. The book is engaging, tense, and sometimes creepy. For the most part, it was fast-paced but there were times when I was so confused, I would have to go back and reread a couple of paragraphs, so that slowed the pace of the book for me. 

I was engrossed in the story throughout the book, and by the time it ends, some things have been cleared up, while others remain ambiguous or unanswered. The chilling epilogue confirmed that I was correct in my opinion about one of the main characters. If you are a thriller fan looking for something different and don't mind a story without clear-cut explanations, then this could be the book for you.

I received an advance copy of this ebook from NetGalley, William Morrow Books, and Scene of the Crime. My review is voluntary and unbiased.