Dark Eden by Patrick Carman

I am not a fan of the werewolf-vampire-fairy subgenre of YA Lit.  In fact, if I know there are werewolves, vampires, or fairies in the story, I likely won't even start it.  With a title like Dark Eden, you figure one of those is probably going to appear.  That being said, there was no mention of them on the back cover, just a hint about a supernatural ending.  It was actually the front cover that caught my eye.  If I didn't know any better, I'd swear the young couple were young versions of my husband and I: tanned girl with dark brown eyes and super long almost black hair; fair skinned blonde guy with icy blue eyes.  We were 20 and 18 when we met.  Seriously, it's kinda freaky.

Eden refers to an abandoned military fort, but of course the name is symbolic, as in Garden of.  Where things end and begin, right?  Will is a psychiatric mess, being home-schooled because of anxiety.  His doctor has just about given up on him.  She proposes sending him on a week long retreat in the company of six other "cases" (kids of the same age with other psych issues, namely irrational fears) to her mentor.  Dr. Stevens convinces Will's parents and before he knows it, a van drops him and the other six teens at the old fort, now a country hideaway for her reclusive mentor Dr. Rainsford and the handywoman Mrs. Goring.  I liked the play on the classic horror movie handyman in turning her into a ferocious plunger wielding bad cook with a foul mouth!

But Will isn't about to play along with the doctors' mind games.  On the road from where the van drops them to the door, he takes off into the woods.  Later he will make himself a basecamp in the fort's bunker.  Little does he know, he's walking right into a trap.

This novel was a quick read, just a morning in the sunshine, but it did make me jump a few times with some creepy plot twists.  There is, in fact, a supernatural "ending", but it really paves the way for the sequel  Eve of Destruction.    

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