The Eden Test
The eden test came when I was trolling on Libby for new books and it happened to be available.
Its stated to be a mystery novel, and starts with the discovery of 2 bodies, and then the long flashbacks begin. The book then properly begins with a couple who are trying out a retreat to try to save their marriage. The husband, Craig, is a shallow serial cheater, and the wife, Daisy, is someone with a mystery past. They end up at a podunk town in upstate new york where they try to save their marriage by being cut off from most of civilization and having to work out their issues with the help of a question a day from the Edenic Foundation, an organization who tries to save relationships.
The rest of the books talk about their efforts to work out their marriage and you end up with 2 characters you really don’t like. Craig because of who he is, and Daisy because she’s condescending and manipulative as heck. The premise of the 7 day trip of one question a day starts off interesting, but the questions starts becoming a bit silly.
Craig as a character ruins the book mostly because of how unbelievable he is. He’s purported to be a writer, but his grasp of language, facts, history and anything relevant to writers is so bad that it just ruins the whole story. It’d been better if they made Craig an IT person instead. Someone who doesn’t know antagonyms and janus words definitely would not make it as a writer in any news room that I know of. His character development track is also insanely….quick.
Daisy is also a little bit unbelievable. She’s a rock star actress, trying to hide any trace of her for fear of a stalker and controlling ex. The explanation given about why she has to run around and hide for the rest of her life seems ridiculous to me, although the worthlessness of restraining orders are quite accurate. Still, there are way easier ways of achieving what she wants without having to throw her entire life away.
All in all, the book is not bad as a thriller, but the premises that it takes to get to the point is so ridiculous that i had a hard time proceeding to the slightly more enjoyable parts of the book.
Cannot recommend. read only if you’re stuck with this as the only option among other bad or worse options.