Name: Eden West
ISBN: 9780763674182

Pete Hautman

Coming of age in an insular cult, 17-year-old Jacob anticipates the Apocalypse he has been told is imminent while struggling with his faith alongside his new friends from the outside world. By the National Book Award-winning author of Godless. Simultaneous eBook.

Eden West

Amanda Kordeliski

I am not sure how this book is garnering so many stars. I can only see handing this book to someone who complains of insomnia and needs to be put to sleep. The pacing is brutally slow, and the plot is weak. I found the premise of the cult to be ludicrous. 

Spoiler Alert*****************
Really? All these people follow this guy because he has found a new tree of life and it's a crabapple tree?? No one recognizes this or are they just that astoundingly stupid? I am never sold on the charisma of the leader to get people to follow him into the Montana wilderness because of a crab apple tree. The language of the cult is off-putting and while I understand it was to written that way to make them sound different from people from the outside world, it is clunky and tiresome. There are threads of plot that are started and never finished. Why is the cult leader a bigot with issues about Native Americans? 

If the senator returns the campaign bribe, why isn't anything done with the accusations the new teen alleges? As soon as the "visitors" leave, the plot line is abandoned. The wolf plot makes little sense and creepy Uncle Carl is ridiculous at best. 

This book crams vague plotlines from half a dozen made for tv movies about joining a cult and stuffs them into the most boring cult book possible. I do not see teens enjoying this book at all.