Saturday, February 18, 2012

Revealing Eden (Save the Pearls 1) by Victoria Foyt


Published: Jan 10th, 2012
Publisher: Sand Dollar Press
Pages: 321
ecopy: Courtesy of Netgalley and publisher
Summary: Goodreads


Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she's cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%? In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she'll be safe. Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land. Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity's last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her "adopted aunt" Emily Dickinson.

This has been a very hard review to write.  I enjoyed Revealing Eden, but I'm not entirely sure that I understood it!  I've been trying to come up with a description for it and the best I can do is a futuristic, dystopian Beauty and the Beast.  The world has obviously suffered some kind of event, but I don't remember any kind of explanation as to why it is too hot for anyone other than dark-skinned coals to go outside.  Perhaps that's because my reading of this book was a little disjointed.  I couldn't seem to find the time to sit down for any great length of time, and kept reading in 10 minute chunks.

Eden seems to be a little conflicted and she keeps talking about not being understood and no-one seeing the 'real' Eden, but I'm not sure I ever saw the real her either.  She is a victim of deceit, which I can't go into without giving spoilers, her life is ruled by the fact that she needs to find a 'mate' before her 18th birthday, but she seemed to be suffering from tunnel vision in this respect.  Ignoring the light- skinned pearls and focusing on the coals.  Wouldn't it be better to find any mate, rather than no mate at all. Eden's father is a very clever geneticist and he is working on a 'cure' for humanity - by turning them into beasts?   Confusing.  Ronson Bramford - well he both fascinated and infuriated me.  In some respects he was a controlling ass and in others an intriguing genius. I was definitely conflicted about him.

There is fair bit of tension throughout the book and I did enjoy Ms Foyt's writing style . I didn't once consider not finishing the book, but I have a lot of questions.  What I'd really like to do is sit down and talk to someone else who has read this and see what they think - which in the end is a good thing, right.  Any book that can generate discussion has succeeded.  Will I read the sequel - probably yes, because I just don't know where Ms Foyt plans on going and I'm curious. I'd really like to know what others thought of this one.

Check out the website here http://www.savethepearls.com/ and the youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/savethepearls



Due to the changes with Google Follower, we are now asking all new followers to use Linky Follower in the right hand column of our page. Google Follower Connect will be discontinued at the end of February. Thanks!

2 comments:

  1. Since I am not a big dystopian fan at the best of times, I'll be passing this one up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PS - Tag, you're BOTH it! I tagged you. See here for the rules: http://letsbookit.blogspot.com/2012/02/i-was-tagged-by-book-girl-of-mur-y.html
    Questions:
    What's your favourite holiday?
    What gave you nightmares as a kid?
    Which book character's life would you like to steal for your own?
    Who's your favorite artist?
    Coffee or Tea? (or something else all together)
    What's your pet peeve?
    What is your idea of comfort food?
    You are stranded on a desert isle - what one thing is with you?
    Sweet snacks or salty?
    When you were a child, what was your favorite piece of playground equipment?
    What's your favorite smell?

    ReplyDelete