Name: The Garden of Eve
ISBN: 9780152066147

K. L. Going

Eve gave up her belief in stories and magic after her mother's death, but a mysterious birthday present takes her and a boy who claims to be a ghost on a strange journey, to where their supposedly cursed town flourishes.

The Garden of Eve

Lynn Braden

After her mother's death from cancer, Evie and her father move to Beaumont, New York to start a new life. Evie misses her mother and the stories she used to tell. Her father doesn't believe in magic or stories and focuses on the hard work that it will take to bring back the local orchard, but everyone says that it is cursed and nothing will grow there. Soon Evie meets a boy in the cemetery next to their house who says that he is dead, and the name that he gives her backs up his story, but there are no such things as ghosts - at least that is what her father says. On Evie's birthday, a local woman gives her a seed that is supposed to be special, but will it revive the orchard or is the source of the curse?

The Garden of Eve is full of magic, but very little of it is explained. Parts of the story contradict each other as reality and illusion seem to be in direct conflict. The characters are not very well developed and the plot lacks information to make it believable. Many of the hooks from early in the book never get the payoff at the end that would make this story more interesting. However, the power of love and believing in each other are dynamic messages at the center of this story. Overall, The Garden of Eve is a unique book with strong themes.

Kelly L. Going

Eve gave up her belief in stories and magic after her mother's death, but a mysterious seed given her as an eleventh-birthday gift by someone she has never met takes her and a boy who claims to be a ghost on a strange journey, to where their supposedly cu