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A review by christajls
Dark Eden by Patrick Carman
3.0
This review originally posted at < a href="http://christashookedonbooks.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-dark-eden.html">Christa's Hooked on Books
Dark Eden reads like your average suspense film. Six kids head off to a mysterious location each with their own specific phobias. All of them are deemed “incurable” and this radical new treatment is their last shot. One boy, Will, senses that something is a bit off about the whole situation and slips away from the group. From a seemingly safe distance, the reader watches along with Will as each phobia is identified and treated. Kid by kid these treatments take place in increasingly gruesome and somewhat disturbing ways.
I really like the way this book is laid out. I like that it presents each fear one at a time, instead of throwing all the information at you at once. It gives you time to fully take in and process the situation of each child and it also allows the mystery of Fort Eden to build slowly throughout the novel. There is constantly a feeling a mounting suspicion and dread. You just know something horrible is going to happen to all these kids, but you have no idea what and no idea what can be done to stop it.
Closer to the ending, however, the suspensful tone and subtle clues come to an end as you race towards the conclusion and the explanation of what exactly is going on. The explanation is bizarre and it completely took me by surprise. It was an interesting and creative twist. However, it seemed to be explained very quickly and before you knew it everything was wrapped up. I felt like a little more explanation could have been given and more time could have been spent on the big revelation itself. For a book that wowed me with it's slow and suspensful pacing, a rushed and thrown together ending was a little disappointing.
This is a great book for young male readers. It's a creative and spooky with some really great twists. There are some weird pacing issues, which can be distracting, but don't really take away from the overall enjoyment of the novel.
Dark Eden reads like your average suspense film. Six kids head off to a mysterious location each with their own specific phobias. All of them are deemed “incurable” and this radical new treatment is their last shot. One boy, Will, senses that something is a bit off about the whole situation and slips away from the group. From a seemingly safe distance, the reader watches along with Will as each phobia is identified and treated. Kid by kid these treatments take place in increasingly gruesome and somewhat disturbing ways.
I really like the way this book is laid out. I like that it presents each fear one at a time, instead of throwing all the information at you at once. It gives you time to fully take in and process the situation of each child and it also allows the mystery of Fort Eden to build slowly throughout the novel. There is constantly a feeling a mounting suspicion and dread. You just know something horrible is going to happen to all these kids, but you have no idea what and no idea what can be done to stop it.
Closer to the ending, however, the suspensful tone and subtle clues come to an end as you race towards the conclusion and the explanation of what exactly is going on. The explanation is bizarre and it completely took me by surprise. It was an interesting and creative twist. However, it seemed to be explained very quickly and before you knew it everything was wrapped up. I felt like a little more explanation could have been given and more time could have been spent on the big revelation itself. For a book that wowed me with it's slow and suspensful pacing, a rushed and thrown together ending was a little disappointing.
This is a great book for young male readers. It's a creative and spooky with some really great twists. There are some weird pacing issues, which can be distracting, but don't really take away from the overall enjoyment of the novel.