Eden by Keary Taylor

Hi guys, it's taken me awhile to get around to writing this review (I'm sorry! Life's far busier than is fair sometimes), but now that I've started, I'm really excited to get to finally talk about this novel. The novel I'm talking about is Eden by Keary Taylor. It's one of the millions of young adult dystopian novels that seem to be swarming the shelves lately, but what caught my eye was the cover - and that is ironic given that it was the Kindle version which I guiltily purchased and read on my i-phone. I feel like I'm betraying my printed companions that have guided me through the ups and downs of Sookie Stackhouse's twisted world, introduced me to the Shifter's series, and left me with an obsessive compulsion to read anything written by Sherrilyn Kenyon. But it was just so damn awesome to have a 400+ page book in my Iphone and not taking up precious space in my already overcrowded handbag. So Eden was ahead of the game five seconds after I purchased it.

And when I started reading it, it got even further. The novel is set in a dystopian future where humanity has become the hunted. Technological advancements that once saved lives have become a virus that literally consumes humans, turning them into cybernetic soldiers that have only one purpose - to spread the infection until there are no humans left to assimilate. Eve is a surivor in this devastated world, her memory of the world before the virus nothing but fractured images without sense. Nowhere is truly safe anymore, but hope is pervasive and the establishment of Eden, a nomadic self-sufficient village is the place that Eve and the other survivors call home. West, a secretive new recruit to Eden, and Avian, the man who's been by her side longer than she remembers, cause Eve to question everything about herself and her forgotten origins. In a world where staying alive is a minute-by-minute battle, Eve struggles to understand the place of love within it and the very definition of what it is to be human. And in the end, its her humanity that will keep Eden a reality and reveal the answer her confused heart is looking for.

Now, I really enjoyed this book - it's concept is something that I can see being scarily possible in our time - or maybe our kids' times, but still. It reminds me of a movie I saw called Repo-Men where Jude Law (looking reasonably cute) is a man employed to repossess manufactured organs when their owner can no longer afford the payments on them (actually, I think I might have to watch it again - Blockbuster time). Anyway, back on track, its a freakily possible concept that still makes me look at my i-phone a little suspiciously sometimes.

The internal monologue of Eve and the interactions between the characters improves on the concept even more so. Eve is a fantastic character and identifying with her is easily done, and when Avian and West form a neat little love triangle, its hard not to be a little jealous of the girl. The differences between Avian and West's characters was really dramatic to me, and something I thought the author demonstrated really well was the way love could be unpredictable and you could love different things about different people.

While I love the tug-of-war that goes on in this love triangle, I find some of the reasoning for Eve's anti-Avian logic a bit dated. Mainly the age-gap concept, I mean, in an essentially post-apocalyptic world, does the age difference between an 18 year old and a 25 year old really such a big deal? But then maybe its a personal preference thing, I don't know. It still bugs me though.

The same as the scarily soap-operatic scare of one of them potentially being a relative - I won't tell who - but it just seemed like an unneccessary complication of an already interesting storyline. And honestly, after all the effort that the author went to in building up the sexual tension and conflict between Eve, Avian and West, it felt like a waste of energy in relating to the characters only to pose the possibility of familial relations and the far-too-easy dissolution of one of the key players in the triangle. I mean, it would be like Bella Swan finding out that Jacob wasn't an option because her mother Renee decided to give someone in the wolf-pack half-a-chance - it'd just ruin the whole thing!

Fortunately the author doesn't destroy the fascinating love triangle through something so shoddy, and instead she brings Eve to a place where what she wants and what she needs are so blatantly obvious to her (and no one else) - until, with an earth-shattering kiss, we, the audience, get the answer we didn't know we wanted. And better yet, the author doesn't close the book on a death or a happily-ever-after, instead she leaves us with a satisfying ending that provides a wealth of opportunities (also known as 'potential for sequels') while also making Eden a pretty darn good stand-alone read.

All in all, I loved Eden. It took a complicated dystopian world and turned it into a simple examination of what it is to be human and why it matters so much. It is well-worth the reading, providing hours of escapism into a world defined by humanity and its determination to survive without compromise; and perhaps more importantly, into a young woman's discovery of love and life and the confusion that unavoidably comes with it.

Definitely worth the click the next time you're browsing the "shelves" of eBooks if you ask me. Next up for me, Branded by none other than ... Keary Taylor - it's a look at the angels and demons dynamic that has me far too eager to fall into its pages. Until next time ...