Dark Eden by Patrick Carmen (book 1 of Dark Eden Series)
Posted: 28 Jul 2017, 18:41
What is it you fear most?
Are you afraid of heights? Drowning? Being alone? Or is it something else? Something bigger? Death?
Whatever your fear, you'll be glad to know that there is a cure. Though, you may not like it.
Truth is, most of us are afraid of at least one thing. Sadly, for Will, his fear has kept him from the world around him. His fear is so deep and so hard that he can't deal with life the way everyone else does. Being a teenager is hard enough, right? So, when his therapist, whom doesn't actually want to cure him or even really try, so it seems, suggests to him a real cure, Will is skeptical. For months now, every time she goes out of the room, which is often, he has been sneaking onto her computer and downloading files. Only his own, until she suggests the idea of the Cure. Six others, she had told him, would be going with him. Which made it easy enough to know which file to steal from her computer and copy onto his USB drive.
Listening to the other six, hearing their recorded voices and stories, made him feel like he knew them. He wants to know who it is that his parents will be forcing him to meet and to spend time with at the retreat. Other kids, like him, with fears so big that their parents, too, are willing to send them off to some strange place with people he has never met. His kid brother, Keith, let him know there was little chance of him getting out of it. As far as little brothers go, Keith was great. Sure, he'd be in Will's room while he was gone, breaking all the top scores on his games, but that was just normal.
Normal was not a word to describe where they were headed. A bunker, old and secluded, with secret areas and a bomb shelter. There was no camp like situation to play out, the way his parents tried to sell him on it. It was just the middle of the woods, no escape, no avoiding the Cure. Or is there? Will devises a plan to do just that. To disappear just as soon as they arrive. If not for how cold it is, he would have just stayed outdoors. Good thing he finds a hiding place. A place that allows him to observe everyone, to be there without actually being there. Just the same way as he could get to know each of the other kids, having listened to their tapes and their fears. Marlene, the girl who he quickly trusts, is his only friend.
Will tries to stay hidden, and does a great job of it. But can that last? Can he just stand by, WATCHING, LISTENING, as each one goes through the Cure? Will he actually be able to escape it? If so, how? If not, will he remember? Nothing is as it seems, and someone, one of the females, is not trustworthy. But who? Surely, not Marlene, right?
If you are looking for the mysterious, the strange, and the funny, Patrick Carmen delivers as he tells the story of seven fifteen year olds who struggle with fear. All told through the eyes of Will, a young man who is so crippled by his fear that his family sees this as his only hope.
I gave this book 3 of 4 stars. It has all the elements of a good story.
Mindy W.
Are you afraid of heights? Drowning? Being alone? Or is it something else? Something bigger? Death?
Whatever your fear, you'll be glad to know that there is a cure. Though, you may not like it.
Truth is, most of us are afraid of at least one thing. Sadly, for Will, his fear has kept him from the world around him. His fear is so deep and so hard that he can't deal with life the way everyone else does. Being a teenager is hard enough, right? So, when his therapist, whom doesn't actually want to cure him or even really try, so it seems, suggests to him a real cure, Will is skeptical. For months now, every time she goes out of the room, which is often, he has been sneaking onto her computer and downloading files. Only his own, until she suggests the idea of the Cure. Six others, she had told him, would be going with him. Which made it easy enough to know which file to steal from her computer and copy onto his USB drive.
Listening to the other six, hearing their recorded voices and stories, made him feel like he knew them. He wants to know who it is that his parents will be forcing him to meet and to spend time with at the retreat. Other kids, like him, with fears so big that their parents, too, are willing to send them off to some strange place with people he has never met. His kid brother, Keith, let him know there was little chance of him getting out of it. As far as little brothers go, Keith was great. Sure, he'd be in Will's room while he was gone, breaking all the top scores on his games, but that was just normal.
Normal was not a word to describe where they were headed. A bunker, old and secluded, with secret areas and a bomb shelter. There was no camp like situation to play out, the way his parents tried to sell him on it. It was just the middle of the woods, no escape, no avoiding the Cure. Or is there? Will devises a plan to do just that. To disappear just as soon as they arrive. If not for how cold it is, he would have just stayed outdoors. Good thing he finds a hiding place. A place that allows him to observe everyone, to be there without actually being there. Just the same way as he could get to know each of the other kids, having listened to their tapes and their fears. Marlene, the girl who he quickly trusts, is his only friend.
Will tries to stay hidden, and does a great job of it. But can that last? Can he just stand by, WATCHING, LISTENING, as each one goes through the Cure? Will he actually be able to escape it? If so, how? If not, will he remember? Nothing is as it seems, and someone, one of the females, is not trustworthy. But who? Surely, not Marlene, right?
If you are looking for the mysterious, the strange, and the funny, Patrick Carmen delivers as he tells the story of seven fifteen year olds who struggle with fear. All told through the eyes of Will, a young man who is so crippled by his fear that his family sees this as his only hope.
I gave this book 3 of 4 stars. It has all the elements of a good story.
Mindy W.