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A review by endlessreader
Dark Eden by Patrick Arrasmith, Patrick Carman
5.0
Like the title of this review says, I LOVED Dark Eden! But I sort of knew I was going to the moment I read the premise for it. I'm someone who has always been interested in the different phobias that exist and how some of the more ridiculous ones (that tended to show up on the Maury show...a show I've NEVER watched...not at all) tended to make people freak the hell out. Basically, I'm interested in the psychology of it all. And since this book was a psychological thriller, it had the potential to be full of win for me. Which it was. Yay!
What I loved most about Dark Eden (besides the insight into phobias, I mean) were the characters. This is one of those books where you have 7 teens vastly different from one another, yet they're relateable in that you immediately think that you know someone like them. It's very easy to fall into the trap of having them come out cartoonish or stereotypical. Luckily for everyone involved, these characters fell far from stereotypic. Another good thing is that I could see where every single character's fear was coming from. It seemed like it was something so tied to their personality that I didn't think the writer just pulled a particular fear out of thin air and just pressed it upon whatever character tickled his fancy. Each one of the fears made sense. And it was sort of fun for me to try to figure out which character would have which phobia. Sometimes you can tell immediately (like with Will), othertimes it took a while for me to figure out, yet when it cropped up, I thought "Of course!"
However, the most awesome thing about Dark Eden were the elaborate twists and turns that even I couldn't figure out ahead of time (and I almost ALWAYS figure it out ahead of time). Seriously, some of the twists and turns just came out of left field, but still somehow made absolute sense. And were sort of creepy, to boot. I'm awed at how the author's mind works when you take in how it started, with the phobias, and how it ended, with something I'm not going to give away. Mind-blowing! So, mind-blowing that I'm going to admit that my ego's a little bit bruised that I couldn't see it coming.
So, I loved Dark Eden. It was a semi-creepy, psychological thriller that I really want a second installment of (even if it really wouldn't make much sense). It was fantastically written, immensely interesting, and overall full of awesome. However, as I read this as an ARC, I didn't get the app that's supposed to be included in it. In fact, I find that whole aspect of it to be a bit gimmicky, so just know that if you decide to forego that particular item, as I did, you won't be missing much as the story clearly doesn't need it.
What I loved most about Dark Eden (besides the insight into phobias, I mean) were the characters. This is one of those books where you have 7 teens vastly different from one another, yet they're relateable in that you immediately think that you know someone like them. It's very easy to fall into the trap of having them come out cartoonish or stereotypical. Luckily for everyone involved, these characters fell far from stereotypic. Another good thing is that I could see where every single character's fear was coming from. It seemed like it was something so tied to their personality that I didn't think the writer just pulled a particular fear out of thin air and just pressed it upon whatever character tickled his fancy. Each one of the fears made sense. And it was sort of fun for me to try to figure out which character would have which phobia. Sometimes you can tell immediately (like with Will), othertimes it took a while for me to figure out, yet when it cropped up, I thought "Of course!"
However, the most awesome thing about Dark Eden were the elaborate twists and turns that even I couldn't figure out ahead of time (and I almost ALWAYS figure it out ahead of time). Seriously, some of the twists and turns just came out of left field, but still somehow made absolute sense. And were sort of creepy, to boot. I'm awed at how the author's mind works when you take in how it started, with the phobias, and how it ended, with something I'm not going to give away. Mind-blowing! So, mind-blowing that I'm going to admit that my ego's a little bit bruised that I couldn't see it coming.
So, I loved Dark Eden. It was a semi-creepy, psychological thriller that I really want a second installment of (even if it really wouldn't make much sense). It was fantastically written, immensely interesting, and overall full of awesome. However, as I read this as an ARC, I didn't get the app that's supposed to be included in it. In fact, I find that whole aspect of it to be a bit gimmicky, so just know that if you decide to forego that particular item, as I did, you won't be missing much as the story clearly doesn't need it.