The Garden of Eve

by K.L. Going
240 pages

I enjoy middle grade books and try to read as many as I can (it is sometimes hard to keep up with all the great YA books out there). But The Garden of Eve intrigued me and I had read and enjoyed King of the Screwups by K.L. Going so I thought I would give it a try. I was disappointed. The story was a little to sweet and sappy for my taste and the plot (that I at first thought would be interesting) ended up fizzling out in the last 50 pages or so.

Ten year-old Evie was just lost her mother to cancer when her father decides to pick up everything and move them from friends and family in Michigan to a long dead apple orchard in a cursed town in New York. Evie wants nothing to do with this new place and misses the home she left behind.

Evie used to believe in all things magical, but not since her mother died. Then Evie receives a strange seed for her 11th birthday. The story is that the seed came from the Garden of Eden. Even though she has been warned not to, Evie and her new friend Alex plant the seed and before their very eyes a tree grows from the ground.

The seed leads the two friends into a strange place, but there will be many difficult decisions along the way.

I enjoyed The Garden of Eve for the first two thirds of the book, but the ending was such a let down. The characters wern't well developed and I just felt like whole chapters were missing. It was almost as if K.L. Going had a more elaborate ending and then her editor was like, cut it back 100 pages. The quick conclusion of the book didn't match the rest. I still like the author and look forward to reading Fat Kids Rule the World.

The verdict is: A good story for a child who has just lost a loved one, but one that could easily be skipped over.