Eden's Root (edition 2012)

Originally reviewed on A Reader of Fictions.

Eden's Root is unique amongst my Dystopian August reviews, in that it is the only indie title included in the bunch. I don't review too many independent titles, because of the possibility of author wrath, the often-terrible editing, and the fact that they're a bit more difficult to acquire (assuming you don't get one for review). When Rachel offered me a review copy of Eden's Root, though, I was happy to oblige, since she approached me very politely and with knowledge of me as a reviewer. Plus, it didn't hurt that I'd seen some positive reviews of her book already.

First, I feel the need to address the editing, which is generally my biggest concern when it comes to indie books. Eden's Root obviously received editing. There were occasional problems, but definitely nothing worse than I've seen in some big six titles. Both the writing and the editing passed muster with me. My only issues in that regard were some bizarre time jumps and the awkwardness of the parents being referred to both by their names and by mother and father in the third person narration.

The post-apocalyptic future of Eden's Root depicts a society stricken by famine. All of the genetic modifications to food and pesticides and chemicals have lead to global crop failure, as well as a significant upswing in diseases. Oddly enough, I've been slowly working through The Windup Girl, which has a very similar premise, although in a very different setting and group of characters. Futures like this are frighteningly possible.

Fisher wrote in the third person, following three perspectives: Fi, Sean and Asher. The bulk of the book follows Fi, though, even up to perhaps 75%. Given advance warning of the impending crisis by her scientist father, Fi throws herself into preparing for what comes. She learns to fight, to shoot and to hunt for food, both of the animal and vegetable variety. Fisher manages to convincingly make Fi sound like young teen she is (13 at the outset and 16 by the end), while also selling her as a very powerful, mature force.

Fi steps up to the plate and leads her family on a trek through the wilderness, heading for Eden, a community that supposedly could save them. She faces tough decisions along the way, especially since there's no telling if the community will let her family in. Despite the knowledge that more people could lower their odds of being accepted to Eden, Fi, a caring, family-oriented person, builds up a sizable group, a true Family. Though she planned not to, she just could not abandon the neighboring family, the Skillmans, such close friends to her family. As they travel, they add more people to the group.

Sean Skillman, Fi's best friend since infancy, has a huge crush on her. Enter romantic difficulties. Fi loves him deeply, but she cannot see him as more than a brother, and feels incredibly uncomfortable when he tries to broach the possibility of more. Further down the road, they meet up with Asher, four years her senior, and a love triangle is born, though not one that should make anyone throw their hands up and walk away in frustration. Fi's honesty and love for her Family keeps the situation from straying into melodrama.

However, the ending was so incredibly cheesy. I just need to mention it, even though I can't say why. I thought maybe that was going to happen and then it did. Otherwise, Eden's Root was a strong, people-focused post-apocalyptic story. I recommend it most to younger readers, as Fisher's story is not as dark as most and much less violent. ( )

I enjoy Fi as a character. She is real. She has fears and struggles. There are so many gloomy moments for Fi, I just feel for her. She is just so young, and it just feel like her childhood is stolen from her. I just want to hold her. Haha, one more thing I love about her is that she loves to braid!

Sean and Fi are super cute together. I can't explain it, they are just cute. Yeah, the following pictures made me feel the same way, the "cuteness".

And HELLO! NO LOVE TRIANGLES!! WIN! JACKPOT!
Kiara seems super adorable. It totally reminded me of my friend from Italy, Chiara. I mean their names are even alike. Maggie seems like such a sweet mother. She reminds me of Edward and Alphonse's mother, Tricia.

The story started off fast pace! Man, oh man, was it suspenseful! But as the book got a little more in, the pace I found become too fast and unrealistic. For example, when Mike, Fi's dad was telling 13 year old I how to prepare for the world's end, I think it happened way too fast. Sure, I don't want Fi feeling emotional and taking up 50 pages with her feelings, but I mean make it practical and reasonable. Fi is simply going to order stuff online, sent it to her dad's friend and practice how to survive? Um...Fi is 13. I don't think she can pull it off. But when I read on, I found it actually somewhat cute (yeah I am weird) that Fi can be so smart and determined. She lies and steals like a boss! She prepared for everything.

I love the science in the book. And I love how this book tackles the "Global Warming" part of the dystopian theme. The plot just scares me. What if the food I am eating now is like that in the book? Our future can definitely be heading into what Eden's Root is. Altered food is everywhere. I mean lab grown beef is an actual thing. This book definitely made me think. *puts down spoon*

Overall this book was great. Not the OMG-I-SHALL-FANGIRL-OVER-THIS-BOOK-FOR-10-YEARS type of books but it was good.

See review with pictures: http://firestarbooks.blogspot.ca/2012/07/review-edens-root-by-rachel-fisher.html ( )

booknook — Young Adult book reviews

Eden's Root is a great example of a realistic dystopian book! I'm not a scientist, so I don't really know how accurate or realistic the science in the book is, but the scary thing is that I can see this happening. I believed it. Eden's Root is basically about crop deaths—due to food modifications or engineering plants or pesticides, etc.—and those deaths leading to a global food shortage, and eventually global starvation. This book will make you think, it will make you scared, and it will make you realize that there is a lesson to be learned here and that all actions have consequences.

Eden's Root also talks a lot about humanity. It was fascinating to see how the world changed during a global crisis. My favourite part was New York City! Basically the city became deserted, leaving only a few gangs. The gang environment was absolutely terrifying! ..but also quite cool to read about. I envisioned like.. a Batman kind of scenario. You know, in Batman Begins when Gotham gets closed off and all the crazy imprisoned people are roaming free and terrorizing the streets at night. But this time, there's no Batman to protect everybody... Although, there is Asher. And he is sexy and has an awesome sword. But there are some truly devastating and scary scenes that will terrify you or almost make you want to cry. There's a lot of loss, violence, desperation, and death.

I found the main character, Fi, to be extremely likable! She is truly a kickass girl. She's only a young teenager but she carries the world on her shoulders and deals with this crisis extremely well. She trains for it, and then leads her family through it, promising them a brighter future. Although she is only 13 in the book (and ages a few years throughout the story), she often seemed much older. It really shows how much children can "grow up" more quickly in times of crisis. There's not as much time to have a true childhood. People harden and have to adapt to handle the difficulties they face.

I only really had two issues with the book, both of which happen in the first half. I felt like the first half of the book had some awkward pacing. Basically the author would spend ages going over a lot of detail for one small event, then jump forward a few weeks and zoom in again, then jump forward a few months and zoom in again. Sometimes it was just hard to keep track of how much time had actually passed. I actually didn't mind all the extensive detail (but it seems like that did bother some people), I just found the pacing to be weird.

My second issue is that I felt like we never saw much about the crisis before it happened. We get a lot of details about the starvation period (when Fi and her family are traveling and encountering violence or abandoned cities, etc.), but we never see much about news leading up to the food shortage. I mean surely there had to have been a lot of news announcements leading up to the point before soldiers were deployed to keep everyone in line, but we barely saw any of that. It's almost like people woke up one morning and the president was like, "We suddenly have no food left." I would have liked to feel like I saw the events coming from a "news" perspective.

A romance does develop in Eden's Root and I loved it! It honestly took me a while to warm up to it because there's kind of a scary age gap (15 and 19). My initial impression was something like, "Eeeehh, this is a bit weird," and characters actually acknowledge that in the book (which is good — at least they didn't act like it was normal). But I guess you have to really understand that Fi really ages beyond her years. Really, relationships are about sharing a similar level of maturity, which is why 15 and 19 is kind of weird, but 30 and 34 isn't. Age is ultimately just a number. I think it's more important to be in a similar stage of life and/or have a similar level of maturity, and Fi and Asher definitely share that. Fi might be 15 but she acts like a leader and I often found myself imagining her to be closer to 18 based on her behaviour.

My favourite part of the book was definitely the second half. The first half is good, but the second half will completely draw you in and keep you totally hooked. The author Rachel also sets a fabulous stage for the second book! I sense that there are some very exciting things to come! ( )

I’ve read a lot of Dystopians but Eden’s Root has to be one of the hardest I’ve read to date purely because of how very gritty and real this book is. Unlike many Dystopians where you get a vague idea that at some point in the past something went horribly wrong leading to a completely different way of life and governing body, in Eden’s Root you are there from the beginning experiencing with the characters in a breaking and changing world. The main character Fi by the tender age of 14 has already experienced some traumatizing life events including the death of her brother and father to cancers and also the knowledge that her mother is soon to join them. The rise of cancers is attributed to all the modifications science has done over the decades to our food sources leading to the eventual loss of all new planatation in 2033 when Fi must help her family find the Eden complex in order to survive. I have personally seen both my own mother and my father in law sucumb to cancer way before there time and this book hits frightenly close to home.

The actual world building was very well done, you really felt you were there and part of the chaos after the government involved the military and started to ration the food. The only problem I had was that the actual story was just too long and could have done with some editing, especially in the early parts with Fi’s preparation and training. This is a long book and it took me quite a while to get through the first third of the novel and I think this is one of the story’s biggest faults.

The characters are beautifully done. Fi is a great heroine even if she is only 13 at the start of the novel. While at first I found it a bit hard to believe that she was incharge of her “family” including the adults after awhile I really did accept it, at the end of the day some people really are born leaders and Fi is one of these. Now she really grows in this story partly because of her training and partly because of the changing world around her forcing her to tackle some real moral issues. While I could imagine that some people would be irritated with her thoughts and reactions to events I thought that they rang quite true because at the end of the day regardless of how the world changes having to be involved in death, rape, pillage and all those other awful chaos activities would not be easy.

Sean irritated me a little bit, he was a bit too passive agressive for my tastes but I really liked the character of Asher. Some reviews I’ve read has put both these guys in a love triangle with Fi but I never really saw any romantic connection between her and Sean. But then Asher carries a sword around and is totally awesome so perhaps I was a little judgemental :) The family itself was nicely done if a little bit too lucky when it came to adding new members that just magically had skills the group could use. I also wonder if it was realistic how well their rules and meetings would actually work in this situation – I think I would find it very hard to always take direction from a teenager personally and I’m not entirely sure if there wouldn’t be more tension in reality.

Overall even though it took me awhile to get into this story I really loved it and I think that anyone who enjoys Dystopians/Post Apocalyptic stories should add this to their to-read list – it’s a fascinating read! ( )

Fi Kelly is a normal 13-year-old girl, thinking about and doing things that you would expect any 13-year old to do, that is until her father becomes ill with cancer and her world turns upside down. Fi's father confesses a secret to her that relates to his work, Fi and her family's future, and the future of the world, the consequences of which are coming, quicker than anyone imagined. Unbeknownst to Fi, her mother is sick also, and her father tells her it is up to her to prepare and save the family. Little did Fi know, but her father could see that strength in her that she would later come to find in herself, and then use to protect her family. With her father's help, she prepares herself for what lies ahead, physically, mentally, and emotionally. When disaster strikes, at 14 years old, Fi becomes the leader of her family, a family that started out as three, and kept on growing. With the help of her best friend Sean, they embark on a journey in a world that has been ravaged by the negligence of its own inhabitants, facing famine, danger unimaginable, the elements, and the sickness. Fi rises up and becomes a great leader, guiding her family across country in search of their Eden. In the process she faces things and does things that she never thought possible, and she and the family that have come together form a bond like no other. She even manages to find love.

I am a huge dystopian fan, so I was intrigued by this book as soon as I read the synopsis. In this apocalyptic, science fiction novel, the world's food supply has been threatened, and they come to find out that the sicknesses many people have been plagued with have been caused by genetically altered food. This books is really kind of scary, because I can really see something like this happening. The plot and the story line are very imaginative, yet very realistic. Despite her age, Fi rose up and did what had to be done to take care of her family in their fight for survival. I loved watching her grow and mature, and evolve in to one kick-butt heroine. The saying dynamite comes in small packages may seem cliche, but it is absolutely true in the case of Fi Kelly. I know to some it may seem unrealistic to have a 14-year-old taking on the "weight of the world," but Fi Kelly is definitely not your typical 14 year old, and in the world they live in, you've seen more and experienced more at that age than most people do in a lifetime. There is a wide array of characters in the story as this group of people meld together into one family. Some have known each other for years, and others have just recently met, but the bond between them was unbreakable. I loved Fi's mother Maggie. I also loved the relationship that Sean and Fi had. She loved him dearly, he was her best friend, and like a brother to her, and though he felt something different for her, their friendship meant too much to let that get in the way. I really loved Asher, not only was he super hot, he was was a pretty bad-ass dude himself. I guess that is why he and Fi hit it off so well, they had so much in common. Their family unit consisted of both young and old, and those in between.

Eden's root was a very enjoyable and sometimes intense read. It had action, adventure, heartache, and suspense, with just the right amount of romance in the mix. Rachel Fisher has done an excellent job in creating a dystopian world that centers around realistic issues, and leaves you pondering on the "what if's" that could actually someday take place. If you are a dystopian fan, then Eden's root is one of those books you definitely don't want to miss, and I highly recommend it. I am looking forward to reading Seeds of War, the second book in the Eden's Root Trilogy to see where the story goes. ( )

One word. WOW! Amazing and indescribable, Eden's Root is the perfect match for me!

Why? Well for one the main character Fi. This character is groomed from the very beginning with dark secrets. She fashions herself with learning the arts like hunting, fighting, and skills in survival. I like that Fi was just a normal girl about to go through something big. She is prepared for it and comes out totally rocking at being a fighter. She does not only fight for herself, but for her family as well. There are part s where everything she is taught is so explosive you can;t help but yell," You Go Girl!" and giggle with excitement.

The plot line of this book scares me. Because I have only read a few articles with theories on this, its just scary that this can really happen. With statistics rising in many diseases, I can't help but wonder if it is something that we are consuming that is making us ill. So many foods have been altered and testing on. This is why I stay clear away from fast food and would much rather cook my own meal. *Shudders* In any case, this plot line is an issue that has been raised time and again, yet no one listens.

The love interest in it is sweet and wonderful. I like that Fi finds someone who is just like her in many ways. There is no love triangle, (Thank GOD) but just a young girl fighting for survival and finding her match. I like how these two find each other. They certainly have a story to tell! If anything, the love interest endures so much the reader knows it's real love.

Eden's Root is a mind blowing story. Explosive from start to finish, the grooming and growth of Fi will rock your world. I don't think I ever read anything like this before. Eden's Root is epic masterpiece that will never grow old. Brilliant and stunning, Eden's Root rocks! ( )

MY REVIEW
I'll start with the cover, the female with the lovely red curls on the front is Fi Kelly, a strong young girl who has to grow up quickly s she soon becomes responsible for not only her own survival but that of her mother and sister too. The cover also depicts the dry cracked earth of a dying planet and the nourished flourishing planet. I love the cover as it really does fit the book well. Also (I know this book is only on kindle) but this book has the type of cover you would pick up in a store and want to know more about the story belonging to it.
I loved this book. I would describe it as a dystopian/post apocalyptic novel but it also has sci-fi, fantasy and futuristc elements too. I have read quite a few books of this genre and I would put this book up there with the best of them!
So a little about the book now, The year is 2033 and plants and food sources have continued to be genetically modified and cross bred so much that they hardly resemble what they used to be. the problem is they have been altered so much that lots of the nutritional value of them has been lost. People are dying of a "sickness", sure the doctors and scientist may come up with different cancers or different names for the "sickness" but the result is the same people get ill, they get weaker and weaker until they die. Is anyone doing anything about this? Fi is told by her dying father about the truth of the "sickness" and the forthcoming collapse of the world as we know it. He helps her as much as he can to be prepared for what will happen. He also gives her hope. The hope of taking her family to a place called Eden. To get to Eden, if she can even find it Fi with have to do many things she thought she wouldn't or couldn't do. To say Fi is tested to her limits is an understatement she is tested above and beyond any normal limits a youngster her age should have to face. This novel is the story of Fi, her mum Maggie and sister Kiara, and the extended family (her neighbours) who she decides to take along with her, John, Lucy, Sean, Rachel and Zoe.
Fi and her band of followers meet many along the way, good people who join them, good people who continue on their own and also bad, bad, people too.
The book is simply but really well written, it flows really well as you follow Fi as the leader of her Family. There are many issues dealt with in the book, for example death, but it I dealt with in a really compassionate way. I loved the concept of the book, the ideas behind Eden and Disapora (it will make sense when you read the book!) The details in Eden are brilliant!
One thing that confused me a little was the way how Fi constantly called her mum Maggie, but that is kind of explained later when a newcomer asks Fi the very question I had been asking Why do you call your mum Maggie? I think Rachel Fisher writes really well, you go through the trials and tribulations with Fi and the "Family". The ending of the book is done in such a way it makes you want to pick BK 2 up straight away to continue reading all about what happens next. You really want to read more about the "Family" and where they are staying, and you want to know how relationships and the world around the characters will evolve.
So did I enjoy the book? YES Would I read Bk 2? YES please asap! Would I read more books by Rachel Fisher? Yes I adored her descriptions and writing! and Finally Would I recommend? YES to all dystopian lovers, all who love a good book!
This book reminded me a little of The Great Collapse by Jeff Horton , Heir To Power by Michele Poague and the adult dytopian Aftertime by Sophie Littlefield.

Available at Amazon ( )

I love dystopian/apocalyptic stories. This book is long but packs quite a punch. It is an amazing story. Well worth the read.

The characters are incredible. The main character, Fi, is a young girl who grows up in a hurry. She has to prepare for the upcoming disaster. This books takes us through a few years of her incredible life. She is a multi dimensional character. She becomes perfect in just about anything she does- this is the one problem I had with the book. I didn't want to see her fail, but no one is that good.

She lives in a future which may represent our own, food becomes disease infested. She learns how to live in a dangerous time.

If you like sci fi or dystopians, you are certain to love this book! ( )

The first thing that I noticed about the story was that it's a pretty big read. I read this on my kindle and there were no page numbers but there were 7191 locations that is above the normal teen reads I get that average between 3000-5300 locations.
It starts out describing the world and explaining the main plot of what the story is going to be, the reader gets to see right away that Fi, the main character who is 13 in the beginning of the novel is going to have to grow up fast. She is smart and takes everything her father tells her to heart. She begins preparations for the time when she is going to have to leave town with her little sister when the time comes. There is a lot of stealing and lying and storage of necessities by her over the next couple of months. As well as learning how to fight, hunt, and some plant knowledge for food reasons. She eventually decides that she cannot leave her family and friends and decides that she just cannot leave them without some idea of what's going on. Plus the neighbor boy Sean has noticed she is missing school and that something is going on.
There were some parts of the book where they cannot travel because of the weather and settle down. The story slows and there is not a lot of things happening in those sections. We get to learn more about the individual characters and scout for more food and supplies in the abandoned towns.
This story contains a lot of characters. We start off with around 14 people traveling in the group (the plan was just supposed to be three) so we have a lot of people to get to know and as they travel more people are brought into the story. Not all of them play the major role in the story, but there were a couple places I found the amount of characters hard to remember and especially their ages and which ones were sick or not and what skills they had to provide for the group.
The story eventually starts to involve a little bit of a romance and a lot of complications that the family must get through to find their way to safety.
I was offered a copy of this for review, but when I checked online to see that it was selling for $2 for the ebook I was surprised, especially because of the length of the book. I think it is 100% worth that and more. That is a very good deal for this story.
My favorite character is Sean. I admired him, his actions and how supportive he was of Fi. Fi is a very strong leader and it really shows in this story that she had to grow up very fast in a short amount of time. I was torn at times that some of the adults in the group did not insist that she did not go out to scavenge herself because she knew where they were going and could not risk her getting hurt. But she always held her own and kicked ass when she needed to.
I think the main story behind the story is how the world treats our food supply.
With all the cross breeding of plants and use of chemicals in our foods, if not watched carefully could cause global damage, and in this story to the extent of global famine.
4 Stars ( )