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!

Dark Eden by Patrick Carman

This is the first novel in the Dark Eden series by Patrick Carman. 

15-year-old Will Besting has an uncontrollable fear that his doctor, Dr. Stevens, could not cure in over 2 years. To try and help Will, Dr. Stevens sends Will and 6 other teenagers (all of which are 15) to Fort Eden and a doctor named Rainsford.

When the group of teenagers start walking to Fort Eden, though, Will gets a terrible feeling about the place and decides to stay on his own.

After finding shelter in a different building, Will uncovers a bomb shelter which holds monitor screens recording certain rooms where the other 6 teenagers reside.

Will is not the only one with an unexplained fear. Each of the teenagers (Connor, Kate, Avery, Marisa, Alex, and Ben) have their own fears that they are going to try to be cured from.

Ben was the first to get cured, and Will watched the whole procedure. After watching each teenager get cured, Will decided that he didn't want to get cured - he wanted to get out of Fort Eden as quickly as possible.

Before Will could do that, though, Marisa went to get cured. Will wanted to stop her because he developed a crush on her, but he was too late.

Just when Will was going to leave, he found himself in his own room to become cured. Rainsford had to make special circumstances with Will because of his unique fear.

The thing about being cured, though? None of the patients could remember what had happened. They just knew that they were cured and didn't question it.

Except Will. He remembered everything. And when he was presented by more disturbing information, Will had to decide on what to do with that information.

Did everyone make it out okay from Fort Eden? Or is there something bigger going on than the 7 teenagers getting cured? Read Dark Eden to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
This was a very interesting novel. I liked the premises before I read the book - a group of teenagers going away to be cured from their all-consuming fear.

I also liked that this was narrated by a teen guy - Will. I said at the beginning of 2012 that I wanted to read more guy narrations (which I haven't done a very good job of) so this was a great novel to read!

There was a lot of mystery in this book as to what Fort Eden was all about, what each of the 7 teenagers fears were, and how each teenager were being cured from their fear.

With Will, the reader didn't find out his fear until the middle of the book, so while he seemed like a normal boy, the reader was still reminded that there was something off about him.

He had great survival instincts, though. He brought necessary items in case he went off on his own and he is a very smart boy - only 15 and was taking freshmen college classes.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel! It was definitely something different for me and not my usual type of YA book, but I was lost into the mystery and suspense of this adventure.

There is a second novel, Eve of Destruction, which is now available and continues the story of the 7 teenagers.

I would recommend this novel to any teens, no matter the gender. I think it will appeal to both guys and girls because of the narration and the mysterious story that will capture the attention of any reader wanting a good mystery.