Dark Eden (Dark Eden Series #1)

by Patrick Carman

Overview

Fifteen-year-old Will Besting is sent by his doctor to Fort Eden, an institution meant to help patients suffering from crippling phobias. Once there, Will and six other teenagers take turns in mysterious fear chambers and confront their worst nightmares—with the help of the group facilitator, Rainsford, an enigmatic guide. When the patients emerge from the chamber, they feel emboldened by the previous night's experiences. But each person soon discovers strange, unexplained aches and pains. . . . What is really happening to the seven teens trapped in this dark Eden?

Patrick Carman's Dark Eden is a provocative exploration of fear, betrayal, memory, and— ultimately—immortality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062061782
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	11/01/2011
Series:	Dark Eden Series , #1
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Lexile:	810L (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Patrick Carman is the New York Times bestselling author of over thirty books, including the acclaimed series the Land of Elyon and Floors and the teen superhero novel Thirteen Days to Midnight. A multimedia pioneer, Patrick authored The Black Circle, the fifth title in the 39 Clues series, and the Dark Eden, Skeleton Creek, Trackers, Fizzopolis, and Voyagers series. An enthusiastic reading advocate, Patrick has visited more than a thousand schools, developed village library projects in Central America, and created author outreach programs for communities. He lives in Walla Walla, Washington, with his family. You can visit him online at www.patrickcarman.com.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 7 Up—A spooky, psychological thriller. Will Besting, 15, is afraid. The fear that he feels is irrational, a byproduct of a traumatic event he experienced as a child that he can't fully remember. His therapist Dr. Stevens, seeing no other way to help him, refers him to a mysterious man named Rainsford, who works out of an old, abandoned army base. After arriving at Fort Eden with six other patients, Will makes a break for it and manages to sequester himself in an old, nearly abandoned bunker with a mysterious bomb shelter. From there, he is able to monitor what happens at the base using old surveillance equipment. He witnesses silently as the other patients begin their "cures" in earnest but can't shake the suspicion that something at the base is really wrong, just below the surface. Further complicating his hidden observations is Davis, a former graduate of Fort Eden who both encourages the other patients and begins to hunt for Will in earnest. Will serves as an outsider among outsiders, unwilling to be cured of his fears by the seemingly amoral Dr. Stevens and Rainsford. A crotchety old cook serves as both comic relief and as chief antagonist, with the suspenseful threat of her discovering Will right under her nose always looming. With seven different characters who have seven different fears, there is bound to be someone for readers to relate to in one way or another. While elements of this story may at first seem predictable, the supernatural twist at the end will leave teens with more questions than answers.—Ryan Donovan, New York Public Library

School Library Journal

Carman (the Skeleton Creek series) continues to play with the integration of print and digital media, crafting a competent but slow thriller about seven teens with serious phobias who have been sent to a last-ditch facility to help them conquer their fears. Rainsford, the man at the head of Fort Eden, uses painful, high-tech aversion therapy that works but leaves its subjects with debilitating side effects that he insists will wear off. Agoraphobic 15-year-old Will Besting takes an instant dislike to the place, hiding in the basement of an outbuilding where he discovers an electronic setup that allows him to watch the others’ treatments; it eventually becomes clear that something other than therapy is going on. Though teamed up with an elaborate interactive Web site and an iPhone app, Carman’s tale isn’t entirely successful in making things seem as bad as Will believes; when, in what is essentially an afterword, readers discover what’s behind the supposed therapy, it doesn’t have the impact that it might. Still, for younger teens, the book’s relatively low fear factor might be an advantage. Ages 12–up. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

A spooky, psychological thriller. With seven different characters who have seven different fears, there is bound to be someone for readers to relate to in one way or another...the supernatural twist at the end will leave teens with more questions than answers. — School Library Journal

“A compelling read that transposes the best aspects of classic horror storytelling onto a modern backwoods adventure reluctantly experienced by seven terrified teens.” — Los Angeles Times

“DARK EDEN is a fast-paced thrill ride.” — Los Angeles Times

“The added supernatural twist...maintains Fort Eden’s air of doom and gloom to the very end. — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

From the Publisher

The added supernatural twist...maintains Fort Eden’s air of doom and gloom to the very end.

Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

A compelling read that transposes the best aspects of classic horror storytelling onto a modern backwoods adventure reluctantly experienced by seven terrified teens.

|Los Angeles Times

A compelling read that transposes the best aspects of classic horror storytelling onto a modern backwoods adventure reluctantly experienced by seven terrified teens.

Los Angeles Times

The added supernatural twist...maintains Fort Eden’s air of doom and gloom to the very end.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

The added supernatural twist...maintains Fort Eden’s air of doom and gloom to the very end.

The Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books

The author of the Skeleton Creek and Trackers series continues to explore multiplatform narratives with this tale of phobia treatment gone awry. Two years of therapy have not helped 15-year-old Will Besting overcome his acute fear of crowds, and his parents are willing to try extreme measures. These include packing him off with six other phobic teens for treatment with pioneering therapist Rainsford at Fort Eden, a cluster of cold concrete buildings in the middle of a dark wood. Armed with only his homemade recording device and an MP3 player, Will investigates the brutal nature of Rainsford's cures. Carman's attempts to build a psychological thriller are hampered by both characters and climax. Will's observations of his fellow teens via monitor combine with his disregard for patient confidentiality to create an uncomfortable sensation of voyeurism, making it difficult to feel sympathy for him. The supposedly evil Rainsford, on the other hand, seems largely unthreatening until multiple epilogues provide insight into the motivation and process of the treatments. The other teens feel like color-coded numbers, there to advance the plot and devoid of personality beyond their phobias. A downloadable app will provide multimedia content on mobile devices; this is due in August 2011, some three months before the book's scheduled publication date. Carman's dedication to integrating digital content with print is admirable, but as a standalone book, this thriller doesn't thrill. (Mystery. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews