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Science Fiction & Fantasy. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML: Tackling faith, doubt, and transformation, National Book Award winner Pete Hautman explores a boy's unraveling allegiance to an insular cult. Twelve square miles of paradise, surrounded by an eight-foot-high chain-link fence: this is Nodd, the land of the Grace. It is all seventeen-year-old Jacob knows. Beyond the fence lies the World, a wicked, terrible place, doomed to destruction. When the Archangel Zerachiel descends from Heaven, only the Grace will be spared the horrors of the Apocalypse. But something is rotten in paradise. A wolf invades Nodd, slaughtering the Grace's sheep. A new boy arrives from outside, and his scorn and disdain threaten to tarnish Jacob's contentment. Then, while patrolling the borders of Nodd, Jacob meets Lynna, a girl from the adjoining ranch, who tempts him to sample the forbidden Worldly pleasures that lie beyond the fence. Jacob's faith, his devotion, and his grip on reality are tested as his feelings for Lynna blossom into something greater and the End Days grow ever closer. Eden West is the story of two worlds, two hearts, the power of faith, and the resilience of the human spirit..… (more)
User reviews
I enjoyed the simplicity of the language and Jacob’s point of view the most. Hautman also did an excellent job bringing the characters to life and showing their progression. The storyline was a bit predictable, but I enjoyed it all the same.
I feel like the religious commune/cult is becoming more of a trend in Young Adult Literature. I’m looking forward to seeing what else will be published this year.
I have to start by admitting that this book was not quite what I expected after reading the summary. I’m not really sure why, because the book delivers on everything the summary promises, but somehow I anticipated something a little more otherworldly and dystopian.
Seventeen-year old Brother Jacob is a member of the Grace living in Nodd, a compound sandwiched between the “godless” Fort Landreau Indian Reservation and the Rocking K Ranch in Minnesota. The Grace believe that the world is nothing more than breeding grounds for sin and temptation, and thus they have fenced off their 12-square miles of Paradise in an attempt to protect themselves against evil and create the second Garden of Eden. All Worldly materials and ideals are rejected in order to keep their souls pure for the coming of the Ark and the archangel Zerachiel. The result creates an image much like Benedictine monks in Amish Country.
For Jacob, who has lived in Nodd for as long as he can remember, the lifestyle of faith and hard work are all that he knows and come to him as easy as breath, and he confidently and contentedly awaits the End Days. However, a particularly harsh winter presents the Brothers and Sisters with their toughest tests of faith yet, and their numbers begin to dwindle.
Jacob finds himself tempted by the Worldly innovations of the blonde cowgirl on the neighboring ranch. (It’s the innovations, I swear. Okay, it’s a little bit her body, too, but hey, she’s pretty.)
A ne’er-do-well boy arrives with his mother and pregnant sister, claiming to be converts. After all, what else would a vagrant pack of devout converts look like?
Local law enforcement informs the Grace that they will be touring the facilities, and returns an envelope that looks curiously to be full of cash. It’s totally legit.
The foodstuffs are diminishing, the Grace are becoming as irritable as the crab tree they worship, and the pot crops have come in exceptionally and disappointingly acrid.
And of course, an allegorical wolf begins slaughtering the sheep. Naturally.
The most shocking and contentious blows to the Faith, however, seem to be coming from within Gracehome itself. Could the lauded prophet and leader of Nodd, Father Grace himself, be at the root of the suffering of his own flock? Does this plot ever have a different arc?
All jabs and gibes aside, I really truly enjoyed this book. The language is simple and flows easily. The characters are for the most part individual and memorable – a particular feat on a compound with dozens upon dozens of identically outfitted cult members. The plot DID have a few twists and “Oh no he DI’NT!” moments, but the brunt of the greatness of this novel is not in its plot; rather, I found the most enjoyable parts to be its characters and their developments, and I continuously found them drawing me to pick the book back up every time I put it down. I’ve gotta give mad props to Hautman for turning out yet another YA novel completely grounded and lacking in clichéd teenage drama. This one has definitely earned a place on my “Reread on a Rainy Day” shelf.
****
Eden West follows the journey Jacob takes in this seventeenth year of his life - physical, mental - as he arrives at his eighteenth year, when he is of age. I was impressed with Jacob's maturity, ability to think for himself, which is an unusual quality given to cult members in other stories.
I liked the story but I wanted more, everything that happens is on a continuum with no emotional ups and downs to pull the reader in. Even when Jacob is face to face with a lone wolf who has already decimated part of their sheep herd, there is no page turning - heart pounding - emotional wrench to give the reader a reason to deeply care.
Almost as soon as I started reading this book, I was hooked. I had just finished reading Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer and there seemed to be so many similarities between fundamentalist Mormons and the Grace.
Library copy