Eve of Destruction by Patrick Carman

This is the second book in the Dark Eden series by Patrick Carman.

My review of #1: Dark Eden.

It's been a year since Will left Fort Eden, minus his uncontrollable fear. Now him and the other 16 year olds are trying to live their lives as normal as possible.

Except that isn't happening very well. They may have been cured of their fears, but they got horrible side effects, such as falling asleep throughout the day, getting arthritis, becoming deaf, having dizzy spells, keep having consistent migraines, the ever present legs that fall asleep when one sits for too long, or white hair.

Things that normal 16 year olds would not have.

Out of the blue, Will gets an invite from his old doctor saying that Eve Goring wants all 6 of them to come visit one last time, as she is on her death bed about ready to die.

After much convincing, Will gets the others (Marisa, Kate, Conner, Ben and Alex) to go on the trip. The only one missing is Avery, who is with Rainsford transformed into Davis after the cure's results.

Only when they get there, things feel off. They can't find Mrs. Goring at first and when they do, she was acting a little odd.

Then she made Will become an outcast by announcing that Will has been keeping a secret from the other 5 the whole time they left Fort Eden. And that didn't bode well for them, especially Marisa since they have been dating this whole time.

Now, Goring is making them do another thing, because she's not really dying. She just wanted them to come do a task that she couldn't do herself.

Get vials of their blood that have their fear.

The reason the 6 of them do it? Because once they get all 7 of the vials, they can cure their side effects.

So now they are all positioned in another game created by Fort Eden in order to be a small pawn in a big game where they don't know all of the rules. But they will be faced with challenges that will test them mentally and physically to get what they all desire.

Will they be able to get all 7 of the vials? How can they get all 7, though, if Avery is still with Davis? And is Goring just pulling their strings about a cure, trying to get what she wants, or is there a chance that things can finally go back to normal for the 6 of them? Read Eve of Destruction by Patrick Carman to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
It's been awhile since I read the first novel in this series, but when I started reading this book, I fell right back into the story and was able to keep up with the characters, which I was very happy about.

I think Carman did a great job continuing the tale for the 7 teens who were cured in the first book. It wasn't a repeat of the first book and this time the teens had to literally fight their way through some creepy and scary things to get the cure they were all wanting.

Will was again stuck as the monitor of the group, watching in a locked room, only this time it wasn't because of his fear.

But I really liked how, at the end, he risked his own safety to help everyone else find the cure and get out of the predicament they were in.

Overall, it was a good sequel. It wasn't my favorite novel that I've ever read but I'm glad I was able to come back and visit these characters again.

I also felt like there was a lot of character development from the first book, which I'm glad because they were sad characters in the first novel. Now they were less worried about what they were petrified of and more determined to become the whole person they could be once they got the cure.

For anyone who read the first novel, this is a must read to find out what happens to all of the characters. For others, I would recommend this series to anyone wanting a thriller and survival story that will make them look upon their own fears to see if they are as petrified as the 7 teens in this book.

Glad I continued the story!