Eden Green by Fiona van Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This one is a rather quick and furious read, starting in the middle of some hardcore action, fighting monsters, and then a twist that sends our MC Eden Green down the rabbit hole of altered body and the more subtle horror of altered identity that only gets worse when held up as a mirror against her best friend Ron and the man who names himself Tedrin, both of whom are just as infected as she.

Things are very much centered on Eden's PoV and her relationship with her best friend and the nearly psychopathic patient zero that has infected the two of them... but infected with what? Aliens? Alternate dimension nanotech? Cthulhu-ish monstrosities sending them down an entirely bloody and horror-strewn path in the wilderness with their guns and their individual dawning horrors that they're becoming the monsters?

Nothing is that clear, and we have to rely only on Eden's narration of events. It's really interesting to see how things devolve, and Eden's voice is only one of more delightful aspects of the book. It strikes a very nice balance between bloody action with spiders and needles and rapid healing and on the fly body cloning and the psychological horror of being very aware of everything that's happening to her or that could be happening to her, changing the very makeup of her soul.

This is quite fun and a delight to read. It's also a pretty damn easy and straightforward read, too. I hedged a bit with trying to classify it. The topics are pure horror, psychological horror, and great SF elements, but here's the thing: the relationship stuff and Eden's voice is very close to the category of New Adult, or an older YA category. I can't quite push this one as a standard adult horror. It just has the YA feel to it.

But no worries! There's plenty to enjoy if you need a great Halloween fix. :)

Thanks to the author for an ARC!

View all my reviews