Eden by Keary Taylor

Posted by Megsly in Book Bitch, Book Reviews, Dystopian | 1 comment

Eden
by Keary Taylor
reviewed by Megsly

Eve knew the stories of the Fall, of a time before she wandered into the colony of Eden, unable to recall anything but her name. She’s seen the aftermath of the technology that infused human DNA with cybernetic matter, able to grow new organs and limbs, how it evolved out of control. The machine took over and the soul vanished. A world quickly losing its humanity isn’t just a story to her though. At eighteen, this world is Eve’s reality.

In their Fallen world, love feels like a selfish luxury, but not understanding what it is makes it difficult to choose between West, who makes her feel alive but keeps too many secrets, and Avian, who has always been there for her, but is seven years her senior. The technology wants to spread and it won’t stop until there is no new flesh to assimilate. With only two percent of the human population left, mankind is on the brink of extinction. While fighting to keep Eden alive, Eve will discover that being human is about what you will do for those you love, not what your insides may be made of. And even if it gets you killed, love is always what separates them from the Fallen.

It seems like Amazon has caught on to my love of new dystopian thrillers. My “Amazon Recommends” tab is slammed full of juicy new dramas to devour and oh my gosh it is soooo hard to pick which one I want to read next! I choose Eden by Keary Taylor as my next little dystopian adventure because I had read Branded, book one in her Fall of Angels series and for the most part, enjoyed it. I figured, what the heck, let’s go with someone I’m familiar with and then branch out to all these new authors from there.

I will put it out there, I was not anticipating Eden to be what it was. Honestly. I enjoyed Taylor’s other book, but it wasn’t one that really stuck with me. It wasn’t one that pushed me to read the sequels. So I went into this thinking that Eden would be enjoyable but not something that would compare to other similar books on the market now (i.e. Hunger Games, Divergent, Ashes). I also thought that though the plot line seemed to be less focused on saving the world and more on love, so it wouldn’t be as dark and heavy as some dystopians I’ve read recently. I also went into this thinking that though the plot line seemed really unique for a YA dystopian drama, it seemed a bit Terminator-ish. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

I should learn to stop making assumptions. I really should. I’m always wrong.

Eden is the story of Eve, an 18 year old girl who lives in a world where society no longer exists. Only a few years before, in the time before The Fallen, human scientist had began merging human DNA with technology in order to regrow organs and limbs and to save lives. What they didn’t stop to think of was that by creating a type of technology that was capable of growing and developing on its own, and fusing it with human DNA before implanting it into people, was that it would continue to grow. Within a matter of months, that same technology that had saved hundreds of lives and had seemed to be a promise of good health for the world, had taken over the same humans it was meant to save and killed off all but 2% of the human population. Eve has no recollection of this time. She simply remembers arriving in the small survivors camp of Eden and making her home there with the handful of humans who were trying to survive in the wilderness.

The Fallen, which are the cyborg like remnant of humanity, completely controlled by the technology meant to save them, are still on the look out for human hosts to take over. It is their only purpose it seems, and therefore Eden must constantly be on the move to hide. There is something strangely different about Eve, though. She has a hard time relating to her companions, and understanding their motivations for certain things and as a result, lives most of life alone, hunting and providing and protecting Eden. When three new people stumble upon the camp, her life is ultimately thrown into complete disarray. We’re introduced to West, a man who seems to be strangely familiar with Eve and seems to know a bit about her past. When she’s with him, even though he constantly makes her wary and angry, and she has difficulty trusting him, she can’t seem to stay away. He creates a depth of emotion within her that makes her feel more alive than she’s ever felt. At the same time, her growing affections for him cause trouble between her and her one true friend, Avian. The question is, where will her affections fall as time passes and Eden is forced to move from the comfort of their home and cross a desert in a wild escape to LA. As Eve learns more and more about her place in the world, her history, and her two male companions, the true story of Eden is revealed.

The plot in Eden is centered around a complicated love triangle. West, the man Even can’t seem to trust but can’t stay away from, seems like the perfect candidate for her affections. And yet, so does Avian (even though he’s 7 years her senior, which in regular society is a big no-no…but hey, if society isn’t left and you love whom you love, age is what? Just a number) who is the only person in Eden with medical experience.

But regardless of the love triangle, the arc in the plot is so much higher than simple love, which is what the summary on Keary’s website makes it seem like. The story hits on so many key points that I think young adults are questioning in their lives. Eve, though confident in her abilities, faces a constant issue with her own self image. Who is she? Where is she from? And how does she know if the choices she’s making are the rights ones? Are they the right choices to benefit the small group of survivors known as Eden?

Another point I’d like to make is what is the best way to address the basic aspects of human nature? Throw a group of people together in a life or death situation and see what happens; aka Eden. Also, with the unvealing of the purpose of the Fallen, and what they wish to accomplish, as well as learning about Eve’s own history (which, I’ll give Keary some major points. She revealed Eve’s history just a little bit at a time, which allowed Eve to react exactly as any scared girl would. It took time and patience for her to learn her history, accept her history, and move on from her past. A very realistic portrayal of human nature, in my opinion) really created so many different, intertwining story arcs that the turn of each page was impossible to resist.

Just a side note, put all the love mumbo jumbo aside and just focus on the Fallen. I think that what Taylor did with the plot line centering around technology and it’s domination of human life was brilliant. I really do. Freaking. Brilliant. So kudos to her!

The characters themselves are quite fun. Eve was really hard for me to relate to at first, but then her life gets complicated and her past gets revealed and I was like, “Oooh, so that’s why she was all frigid and unsociable…makes sense now.” Other than how hard it was to relate to her in the beginning, I still liked her. You can see the inner turmoil she endures, even in the beginning. You can tell there’s just something about Eve that doesn’t click, she just isn’t the same. You can tell that whatever happened prior to the Fall really just messed her up and as a reader, I did feel sad for her. Her story unfolded in such a way that I wanted her to succeed, even before I knew the truth of her life, I wanted her to find happiness and evolve into someone relatable and lovable. And she did, and it was a fascinating exploration of human nature to watch her develop.

And as far as Avian went, I really liked him. He came across as this really decent human being. He cared for people, like genuinely cared and wanted to put them first in his world. He wanted to make sure everyone was fed and clothed and as healthy as can be. And I think Taylor did a great job of portraying that in him, all the way from his dialogue to his actions. I totally want an Avian in my entourage if anything apocalyptic happens in my life time.

Now, for the character West, I’m still on the fence for him. It seems to me, that by the ending of Eden, Taylor may be contemplating a sequel. Though it had a good, clean ending, there were just enough questions left unanswered to trigger a potential sequel and many of those questions, for me at least, centered around West. He was really hard for me to relate to, I didn’t like that he kept secrets and that he always seemed to have his own motives for everything he did. And I certainly didn’t like the way his character developed over the book. I was in no way rooting for West in the love triangle scheme of things, I was hoping he’d fail miserably and go disappear back into the woods he came from. He had his good points, but for me they weren’t good enough to over ride my doubts about him, and the answers to the questions I had weren’t good enough. So yeah, I’m team Avian all the way. Just so you know.

I think Eden is one of the better YA Dystopians I’ve read recently, and it’s one I feel completely comfortable recommending to any young reader. It’s written really well, the grammar and punctuation is great. There are a few errors here and there, as you can expect with most self published novels, but you can tell Taylor fulfilled her author duties of editing and cleaning up her work. It’s also written in such a way that I think readers of any age can follow the story. It doesn’t touch on mature issues like some YA novels are doing now, but it does touch on issues that young adults are facing, like social acceptance, facing life’s challenges, and making choices that seem to have no right answer. All in all, I’m asking that the author please write a continuation of this story! So you know I liked it!

Below is my rating of Eden by Keary Taylor. These are reflective strictly of my opinion on the novels I’ve read and are not necessarily reflective of the other staff members at MVF.

Plot – 8
Character Development – 7.5
Grammar and Punctuation – 8
Paranormal Element – N/A
Prose – 8

Total Score – 7.9

Total is derived from the average of all 5 scores.