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A review by hollowspine
Dark Eden by Patrick Carman
3.0
Dark Eden, the name implies a paradise, but a shadowed one. I was drawn to the concept of children being sent off to the mysterious Fort Eden, deep in the forest, where, as they say, no one can hear you scream. I will try not to reveal any of the books secrets, though in part they are what most baffles me about this story.
The book was not lacking in atmospheric detail, it had almost an edge of your seat level of suspense at some points. The descriptions of Fort Eden, the rooms and the equipment were well done. I enjoyed the way Carman separated our narrator from the group as the outsider, a voyeur like the reader themselves. I had a hard time accepting the twist on the story however. I felt disappointed in the set up, not to say that I didn't see it coming. Because I did. I kept hoping that the story would not take that pathway, so well used and dull.
However, the mystery once solved was not what I was expecting at all. So although some of the twists were a bit foreseeable, the ending was for me at least, unexpected. The final twist so bizarre that I would never have thought of it.
The book was not lacking in atmospheric detail, it had almost an edge of your seat level of suspense at some points. The descriptions of Fort Eden, the rooms and the equipment were well done. I enjoyed the way Carman separated our narrator from the group as the outsider, a voyeur like the reader themselves. I had a hard time accepting the twist on the story however. I felt disappointed in the set up, not to say that I didn't see it coming. Because I did. I kept hoping that the story would not take that pathway, so well used and dull.
However, the mystery once solved was not what I was expecting at all. So although some of the twists were a bit foreseeable, the ending was for me at least, unexpected. The final twist so bizarre that I would never have thought of it.